How do you select the perfect medium for your story?

In Africa one of the uncanny truths is that word of mouth and radio still have mass appeal and have proven effective as channels. The newest entrant is WhatsApp. As you're busy packaging your content in studio, a sensational story will have made two trips round the world in WhatsApp groups. So analyzing your audience as AI and one of the contributors posited, is vital when considering a medium for content dissemination.

Selecting the perfect medium for your story involves understanding your audience's preferences, matching content type, and evaluating available resources. Consider written articles, videos, podcasts, or social media posts. Experiment with different mediums to find what resonates best and stay flexible to adapt. Keep it concise, clear, and aligned with your creative goals. Ultimately, choose the medium that effectively conveys your story's message while engaging your audience.

Absolutely, selecting the right medium for your story begins with understanding your purpose. Let's say you're sharing a personal story about overcoming challenges to launch a business. If your main goal is to educate aspiring entrepreneurs about the steps you took, a blog post with detailed explanations and tips might be ideal. Conversely, if you want to inspire others with your journey, a video interview featuring your story, struggles, and ultimate success could have a more profound impact. By aligning your story's purpose with the appropriate medium, you can effectively engage your audience and achieve your desired outcome.

Look, Plan, Do, and Relook are my basic principles in my communications planning. I look at the intended take-out and the facts at hand, plan how (Conveyance) it will get to my intended audience, put it together,then put it against the platforms, audience and timelines (Relook) .

The medium of your story is as important as the story itself. Why? Because every medium has a specific set of audiences. Just like that, every story has a specific type of audience. Sharing your story through the wrong medium = Wasting your story. That's why you need to choose your medium wisely. To choose the correct medium, answer these questions: - What's the story about? - What's the lesson you want to convey? - What's the most suitable format for your story? - How many words you'd need to convey the message? Once you know these answers, choosing the medium will be a no brainer.

Imagine this: You are a great storyteller. You weave words like magic and leave people spellbound. The aftertaste of your stories lingers in people's minds even after decades. But here's the catch: You are telling the stories to the wrong people. Do you think your story will work? No, right? That's why knowing your audience is the key to telling a story. Know your audience inside out. - Know their demographics (age, gender, location) - Know their psychographics (motivations, challenges, pain points) - Know their awareness levels. - Know how they like to consume their story (socials, podcasts, newspaper, news, TV/radio ad) When you know your audience well, you know where they hang out. Go where they hang out.

Let's say you're crafting a story about healthy lifestyle choices. If your target audience consists mainly of health-conscious millennials, a visually appealing Instagram post showcasing nutritious meals and workout routines could resonate well with them. Conversely, if you're addressing busy professionals interested in optimizing their routines, a podcast episode where you discuss time-saving strategies and self-care tips could be more fitting. By tailoring your medium to your audience's preferences and behaviors, you're more likely to capture their attention and deliver content in a way that aligns with their lifestyle.

Analyse, analyse, analyse, that's what I was told early on in my career. It's the foundation to understand how your audience consumes their content and what triggers a call to action for them. People evolve. How a certain demographic did something five years ago may not work efficiently now. For example, my 14 year old consumes content via TikTok, I wouldn't even contemplate using it! But in 10 years time? Who knows? But it'll definitely be something else. People grow up, their needs change and tech moves on. So never assume you know your audience without analysing them.

For this, I have one process I follow. When I started my writing journey I used to become the reader and the writer. But now I have this one-note section that mentions all that I need to know about my reader. I focus on one person not a group of people. As they say, "What feels the most personal is the most universal." I write as if I am talking to that specific person, with some struggles in life, they are failing here and there, they have black hair, they would like to do something more, and they feel they deserve more in life yada yada. Make a great customer profile. Imagine describing your friend from their physical to personality traits, and then write for them and only them.

Understanding the audience and their needs is very important in order to choose the best medium to convey your story. The choice of media should be made according to the features and interests of the audience so that the message is conveyed correctly and is effective.

Exactly, crafting the structure and delivery of your story is pivotal in choosing the right medium. Let's say you're narrating a story of a team's journey to success. If you want to capture the team's challenges, progress, and ultimate triumph, a video documentary format could effectively showcase the evolution through visuals, interviews, and narration. On the other hand, if your story focuses on sharing insights from industry experts about the team's strategies, a podcast interview series might be more suitable. This medium allows for in-depth conversations and detailed analysis, allowing your audience to dive deep into the subject matter.

Having worked extensively in video over the past few decades, I can say having to supply images can often be a burden. Stories are best told with empathy and are often more compelling and relatable using solely the voice of the subject. I like to remove myself from the process as much as possible, and let that subject's voice tell the story. If I need to guide it a bit, I can, but there's nothing like an actuality for truthful narrative. For my money, audio is the perfect medium - it offers enough sensory content with spoken words and natsot, but isn't distracted by needing the perfect visual elements to work.

Consider a story centered around a fictional character's decision-making process. If you want to explore different outcomes based on choices, an interactive presentation with clickable scenarios could be engaging. This approach allows your audience to actively participate in shaping the story's direction. So, if your story revolves around the history and cultural significance of a landmark, a blog post or article format could incorporate historical context, images, and descriptions to create a comprehensive narrative that informs and educates your audience effectively.

I've 80% email opening rate following this one format of writing. The best part of understanding the fundamentals of storytelling is that you can feed a lot of data, without making people sick. We all love some data but it would be effective if it's backed up with proof. What better proof than a story!?? Try to start all of your data posts with a bit of story, so that readers can digest the data. And even though the format just depends on the platform, my suggestion is to stick to a maximum of 3 lines. Give some white space and readers won't hate you.

To choose the best medium for your story, you must first identify the main elements of your story and then determine its structure and presentation. Then you need to check what capabilities and features each medium has and how it can best fit your story. Use images, sound, text, and interactions to enhance your story, and choose a medium that can best display these elements. According to the structure and content of your story, choose a medium that can show your creativity and skills well and convey your story to the audience in the best possible way.

Absolutely, evaluating your story's impact is crucial for continuous improvement. Consider a scenario where you're sharing a story about a fundraising campaign for a charitable cause. If your goal is to measure the engagement and reach, a social media post with relevant hashtags could offer insights into the number of likes, comments, and shares, reflecting the level of interaction and interest. Conversely, if you're aiming to track conversion and retention, a podcast episode discussing the campaign's progress and outcomes might be insightful. By monitoring the number of downloads, subscribers, and referrals generated from the podcast, you can gauge the effectiveness of your storytelling in driving actions.

To measure and evaluate the impact of your story, you can use some of the most common methods and analysis tools. This includes using key metrics and indicators that help you understand whether your story has achieved its goals or not. For example: To measure reach and engagement, you can consider metrics such as the number of views, likes, comments, and shares. To measure conversion and retention, you can examine the number of subscribers, downloads, and referrals. To measure satisfaction and loyalty, you can pay attention to ratings, reviews, and certifications. To collect and analyze feedback from audiences, you can use various tools such as surveys, direct audience feedback, statistical data analysis, and web analytics tools.

When you are new to storytelling and unsure of which format would resonate the best with the audience, you can curate same story in multiple formats. For example you can convert your blog into a carousel post, a podcast and even a video. You can then revisit the analytics to see which formats resonated the most with your audience. Just one thing to ensure is that you should track relevant metrics.

In the end, just remember to stay true to your promise. A storyteller's best gift is to be able to promise something and deliver it. If you have a headline claiming something, deliver it. You might attract readers with your headline, but in the end, your article would retain them. Don't go for one-time readers, write something truly beautiful and retain all the right readers. Headline will win trust, further article and the tone will keep it safe.

Good writing is always about truths. What truth is the story trying to unearth? Whose truth is it? Who needs to hear this truth the most? Answer these questions and the medium will reveal itself.

Be in the mediums where your audience is. Be there with content that speaks to their interests. Be there consistently. Be there in ways that surprise and engage them.

Although I love the 4 steps and some great answers, I would take a step back first before I apply any of these. Why? Because I need to understand what I’m offering, what are my skills, my value and who could benefit from them and why. Knowing what and why I offer my gifts, I then understand who can benefit from them. Thus, knowing my ideal audience that would see and benefit from what I offer. Then I can work backwards from the outcome I have in mind. Otherwise known as my desired outcome or CTA my Call to Action. Knowing my audience and where they hang out the helps me know the format of the social media platform I will find them and it helps determine the media type I use.

Once posted I monitor for interaction, such as comments, likes, connection requests and so forth. Helping me understand what works or doesn’t. Based on the above this is a great starting point to fine tune posts to gain the best results. ??