If you’ve been in the online marketing space for a while, you may have heard the phrase “facts tell; stories sell”.
You may also have been encouraged by well meaning coaches to “share your story” to better connect with your ideal clients and, ultimately, sell your products or services.
The problem with this advice is that it can create more questions than answers
Like:
How much of my story should I tell?
Can I be authentic and relatable without oversharing?
Who even wants to hear my story, let alone publish it on their media platform, anyway?!
If you’ve been asking one (or more) of those questions, this post is for you! Here’s what you need to know:
#1 There’s a difference between Marketing and Sharing
The aim of PR is to market something and for this to result in your target audience taking action - for example, following you, buying from you or attending your event. The way to achieve this is to be very clear about the takeaway that you want your audience to have from your content before you create it. Once you know this, you can then think of a relevant story from your life that is appropriate to share and that will simplify the concepts you may be trying to convey. In other words, thinking about sharing your story is like putting the cart before the horse. Sharing a story from your personal life should be a segue to the main focus of your content rather than the dominant factor in your content. It should also not confuse your audience about what you’re actually asking them to do but be clear, straight to the point and easy to act on.
#2 You can be authentic while maintaining your privacy
While sharing parts of yourself can be good, in creating a relationship with your audience, it’s not the main strategy to get people to do what you want. PR success is not guaranteed just because you share intimate details about yourself. It is usually something else, of much more substance, like the quality of your product or your bubbly personality. With that in mind, know that you are enough and don’t get sucked into the vortex of oversharing to your own detriment. Which brings me to my next point…
#3 Only share what you're comfortable with
The amazing yet scary thing about the internet is that once it’s out there, it’s there forever. Even if a creator has removed a specific piece of content from their platform, it’s most likely already been saved by a viewer before they got to it. Knowing this, the idea of sharing anything about your life should always be carefully considered before doing so. You can do this by:
Identifying what you want to achieve with your content
Choosing a story that you are genuinely comfortable with
so that your audience can better relate to you and you can achieve your goals of getting more visible, attracting your dream clients and getting paid what you want.
Want to know more about how you can get more media attention — and never have a “vulnerability hangover”? Consider joining me on the 27th-31st July 2023 for Media Magic (a 5 day *(4 night) retreat in Tulum, Mexico).
I’ll be showing you how to get more PR (can you say Forbes?!) and how to consistently pitch yourself to the media without sharing all your deepest, darkest secrets.
Applications open in March.