How do you connect deeply with blog readers and gain their trust? Through stories.
There are six types of stories you need to know about yourself, and two of them you need to be telling your blog readers, clients and prospects if you want to gain their trust.
I’m reviewing Annette Simmons book The Story Factor, Inspiration, Influence, and Persuasion through the Art of Storytelling. These are the six types of stories that are really important for your to know about yourself, if you want to influence others:
- “Who am I” stories
- “Why am I here?” stories
- “The Vision” story
- “Teaching” stories
- “Values-in-action” stories
- “I know what you’re thinking” stories
The first two are essential to establishing your brand, your mission, and your core values. It should be obvious why this is so important, but let me spell it out.
What better way than to tell you a story about myself, right? Don’t worry, I’m far too old in years to tell you my complete story of “who” I am, and I’m not sure you’d be interested in the full story anyway.
In order for you to believe me, in order for me to build trust with you that I have credibility and expertise in Writing on the Web, here’s an abbreviated version of why I write this blog.
In 2004 I had been working online for 5 years, doing okay, but not really. I was completely baffled by html coding and working on the web was a lot more complicated than it is today.
I got an email from Debbie Weil that said something to the effect that every business should have a blog, and any idiot could get a blog published in about an hour. I took the challenge, half-way expecting to prove her wrong.
My first blog was born on my birthday, Sept. 4, 2004. I will soon celebrate my 6th year blogging. What I discovered along the way is that any idiot, and even smart professionals, can get a blog up and running in little time with little skills.
The real challenge is in making it an efficient marketing tool. That first blog launched a side career for me as The Blog Squad, and for a few years there I did a lot of blog teaching.
It’s not about having a blog, or blogging. It’s about publishing content on the web that gets you found, gets you known, and get clients for your business. It’s about smart content marketing. It’s about how any smart professional, without many technical skills, can leverage the Internet.
Today I do a lot of ghost blogging and web writing for smart professionals who would rather outsource their online marketing tasks and concentrate on their business and their clients.
Although Web tools have become easier, and everybody can learn how to run a WordPress blog or website, most professionals I know are too busy earning money and don’t spend enough time creating content that works for online marketing. And then there are all the social media sites to connect with as well – that’s a lot of details to take care of.
If you’re one of those smart professionals, then take a look at this page where I describe my blog and web writing services. If you have already created content, I can turn it into blog posts, articles, ebooks and make it work for growing your business.
Most professionals and most businesses don’t get close to telling their true story. Even what I’ve shared with you here doesn’t touch on the emotional truth, that I was so excited by being able to write on the web without going through tech people.
I was so excited because I immediately saw results and people from all over the world started connecting with me because of what I was blogging about. It was like waking up after 5 years of struggling with the Internet and finding that a new world of possibilities lay before me.
I can’t wait for that to happen to other people. Sure, I want to continue making money with my services and I want more clients. But more than that, I sincerely want you to be in control of your online marketing and get great results. You can do it, I did it, and I know you can too.
Give me a call or email me, and we can discuss ways of outsourcing your content marketing so that you get great results with the Web.
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