How to craft viral stories for Linkedin

How to craft viral stories for Linkedin

Read time: 3min

Welcome to the Tuesday's Narrative Nerd, the weekly(ish) newsletter where I provide actionable ideas to help you become a magnetic storyteller and speaker.


Has this ever happened to you?

You spend hours crafting the perfect post. You look at it and think, "Wow, beautiful. This will get tons of engagement."

You post it and wait enthusiastically for the likes to come in.

24 hours later...

2 likes: 1 by your mum and another 1 by a coworker.

"WTF!"

It hurts, right 😂?

The first few posts that I put out there, nada. Crickets. It was very painful.

But don't worry... In today's issue you’ll learn the 4 steps on how to craft stories that generate tons of engagement on Linkedin (but also on other social media platforms).


Step 1: Spike curiosity

According to Andrew J Keller, Creative Director at Facebook, the average person scrolls through 300 feet (91 meter) of mobile content every day. That’s a lot of scrolling. While we scroll through a lot of content, we stop for very little. Our brain is like, “boring, boring, boring”. Until something makes us stop.


What makes us stop?

An enticing first sentence. Something unexpected, something that goes against popular belief (e.g., controversial opinion), or something that drops the reader immediately into the action.

Examples:

  • “4 years ago I had 2,000 connections here. Today I have 300,000+ friends here on LinkedIn.”
  • “I just gave my first TEDx talk...and completely botched it 🤦 ♂️”
  • “Last Q4, me and one of my reps lost a $245,000 deal.”


Step 2: Share story

Go into your actual story. You don’t need an overly complicated story structure.A simple 3-step story structure will do the job:

  1. Context: Where and when does the story take place? Who is the main character and what does he /she want?
  2. Challenge: What challenge does the main character face?
  3. Resolution: How does the character overcome the challenge (actions, reactions, decisions) and what is the result?


Step 3: Share lessons learned

Once you’ve shared your story, let the reader know what they can learn from your experience. What lesson do you want them to take away?I’m a big fan of just having one take-away for every story. You can use the simple phrase “What I learned from that experience is …” to frame your lessons learned.

The emphasis here is to focus on one take-away. Give your readers ten take-aways and they won’t remember a single one, but give them one take-away, and they’ll remember it.


Step 4: Call to action

The most common call-to-action on social media is to invite your readers to participate in the conversation (Call-to-Conversation).

Why does it matter?

The moment someone likes or comments on your post, your post will be shown to the network of that person. In addition, the algorithm recognizes that your post is “hot stuff”, pushing it to more people.

So, how can you ask your network to engage? By asking them about their experience.


Examples:

  • “What’s your #1 tip to increase productivity at work?”
  • “What about you? What trait do you find most important in any seller?”
  • “What’s your favorite CRM tool?”

For that to work, you want to make sure to ask questions that the reader can respond to easily. Don’t make it too deep (“What’s the secret to a fulfilled life?”) or too vague (e.g. “What about you?”). Use simple questions so people don’t have to think too hard about an answer.


That’s it. I hope these 4 steps help you bring your Linkedin game to the next level!

Action item: Craft a story (even it's a tiny one) and share it on Linkedin. Don't try to craft the perfect story, but just get it out there. With practice you'll get more effective at writing them. Make sure to tag me once you've published your story so that I can check out and share it with my network.


Happy Storytelling!

Philipp


P.S. Ready to unleash the storyteller within you? Here are 3 ways to transform your storytelling skills:

  1. Power of StorySelling course starts on June 28. Check it out now and claim your 33% early bird discount
  2. Get your copy of the #1 best seller The StorySelling Method
  3. Watch hours of free content on how to become a better storyteller on my youtube channel

PP.S. Know someone who'd benefit from these tips? Feel free to share the newsletter with them or have them sign-up here. I love that!

Kuanze Ma

Build, Invest and Hire in Web3 & AI

1y

Awesome tips, Philipp.

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Uzzal Mazumder

IT Consultant/Head of IT at Frannan International Ltd. (UK), Funded by: Global Affairs Canada (GAC)

1y

Find especially the hook in the beginning mega important in Linkedin stories.

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Reply

Thanks!

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Ivonne Ribeiro

Brand Strategist Fast-Tracking Entrepreneurial Dreams 🟠 Branding, Strategies, and Processes to Unlock Success 🟠 Dream it. Brand it. Make it. 🟠 iBrandStrategist.com

1y

Great tips Philipp!

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