Storytellers are people with unique and special abilities to trigger different emotions in their audience, you recognize them for that because they can make you laugh or cry just as easily.
Great storytellers were not made in one day, it is not easy to catch people’s attention or make them feel what you would like from the beginning, you must work very hard before to train, practice again and again and again until you improve and perfect your art, the art of being a great storyteller.
Here you can read more about Storytelling and its use in digital marketing. Now I share 5 secrets of great storytellers to bring your stories to life.
5 secrets of great storytellers
- Tell unique stories or just give them a different twist: it is important that you are authentic and look for original stories to tell, so your audience will feel that you respect it and you made an effort to do it very well.
An example of this is Ira Glass, who for more than 20 years has managed to have his audience hooked on his radio show This American life, his secret is to strive with his team, to look for that sensational story, shape it, and test it until ready, producing it is much easier and takes less time.
- Ask questions to keep the audience alert and interested: create a connection with your audience through questions, the human is curious by nature.
Michelle Park Lazette has improved this narrative technique in her years as a journalist, today she is the successful lead writer for the Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank. Her secret? Connect her audience with questions that place them as a leading part of her story.
- Take your audience to a conclusion: the famous storyteller Melanie Deziel, an investigative journalist, gives us her secret to keeping readers hooked on it, she says “it is not our job to tell the public what to think or how to feel or what to do, but to paint an image ”.
- Concentrate on the action, but make it important: Of course, it matters the form of the events, telling the story, its characters, the action is important. No matter where you start, the important thing is that you catch your audience at that beginning, transmitting what is really important in that story.
Ann Gynn shows us her secret, choosing where to start the story is risky, can lead to success or failure, that’s why, next to the headline, content is everything, because it determines whether or not to read the article.
- Do not leave your audience hanging, watch your sequence of events: the idea is not to create a degree of frustration in the readers, to extend and extend facts without reflection, it is not recommended.
The great Ira Glass shares another of his secrets, “if your story does not have the sequence to satisfy the curiosity of the audience, then take a moment of reflection to satisfy it.”
Being a storyteller implies commitment and work to guarantee the success of any brand, keeping the audience interested requires a great investment of time and innovation, constant updating, and love for what is done.