Here's how you can enhance your storytelling abilities using social media platforms.

As a writer for Indigenous communities, knowing my audiences is probably one of the most important skills I can continue to build. The content you create must not only add value for your audience, but must be culturally relevant, sensitive and appropriate. This is just one example of why knowing your audience can help you engage with them on a higher level.

As a journalist, I’ve discovered that high-quality visuals can elevate storytelling on social media. In my recent environmental report, I included a striking image of a draught in Iraq, and infographics on pollution statistics. The post saw triple the engagement, sparked conversations, and inspired community action. ?? Choose High-Quality Visuals Integrate Visuals with Your Narrative Maintain Visual Consistency Visuals aren't just decoration—they’re essential for compelling, engaging stories.

The biggest advantages of social media are the immediacy, and how interactive it is. It offers the unique ability to directly interact with your most plugged in audience members, essentially real-time. Many of the most successful storytellers and authors today are leveraging an active social media presence to help promote their work, and to build and maintain an audience.

One of my strengths as a journalist is constancy in my voice and tone in an effort to help build trust and familiarity with my audience. One of the things I am working on is being consistent with my personal image and branding across all posts. I believe I understand my audience and they are telling me they want to see and hear positive stories to counteract the negativity of the "If it bleeds it leads" mindset of television news broadcasts... Hard news is necessary, yet folks with so many options for how they get their news are shying away from traditional broadcasts. I am seeking to further establish a strong storytelling presence and to reach as many folks as I can with the lighter side of the news.

Not only should you consider a consistent voice, but a unique one as well. With so much content available online at all times, you really need to be able to stand out as someone worth paying attention to. Don't fall into the trap of chasing the style of other successful storytellers in an effort to catch some of their audience - you'll always be in their shadow. Find your unique way of storytelling and let your audience grow organically.

Once you've built an active audience, use your social media metrics to pay attention to what they're most engaged with. However, keep in mind that they also want to hear *your* story, the way you intended it - not something changed midstream to cater more to what they want. While you definitely shouldn't be afraid to lean more into the stuff they're most interested in, you should try to avoid the trap of pandering. Pandering is a surefire way to start alienating new audience members, and disappointing existing ones.

It can be hard to keep perspective sometimes, and its easy to get discouraged when you aren't seeing a lot of audience engagement. Especially when social media is so overwhelmed with other content. So here's something to remember: to be successful, you don't have to be everyone's favorite storyteller, you just have to be *someone's* favorite storyteller. Find your niche.

Using social media platforms to enhance storytelling is a powerful tool for journalists. Leveraging the features of different platforms can help capture the attention of audiences and tell compelling stories in a more engaging way. Thanks for shedding light on this important aspect of modern journalism!

The beautiful thing about social media is that it’s a place where everyone who has a content creation skill can test, learn, and thrive. Copywriting. Photography. Video. Graphic design. These are all incredibly valuable skills that you can add to your repertoire — and they all bring their own unique storytelling opportunities to the most popular platforms.