How To Create a Short Story Post that Gets Off-The-Charts Engagement

I love watching a good History Channel show on ancient aliens, the Great Pyramids, or the Pharaohs. I’m always intrigued by the archeologists who can read hieroglyphics and who have supposedly broken the code on pictures that tell stories. Before there were letters and words, there were pictures to tell stories and stories have been around as long as there has been human life.

We’ve all heard the power of a good story. A good story can inspire you, educate you, and move you to tears of joy or sorrow. Stories connect us. Stories bring out our imagination, our creativity, and our wonder. People love stories.

It’s no surprise that posts that tell stories are the most popular type of post you can make on LinkedIn. But many people I talk with struggle about what stories to share on LinkedIn. I’ve heard people who are concerned about sharing personal stories on LinkedIn because it’s “not the platform for that.”

My reply to that concern is… “who says so?”

Whose rule is that anyway?

My experience has been just the opposite AND, I’ve found a really great way to share a personal story with a business twist to make it relatable to the business audience on LinkedIn.

I call this style post a Short Story Post. I LOVE to coach my clients on how to create their own version of the Short Story Post and I’ve seen amazing results. There are two parts to it, 1) crafting the story 2) the technical piece.

Bob Phibbs aka: The Retail Doctor has over 300,000 followers on LinkedIn, yet his posts were getting mere hundreds of views until I showed him how to create a Short Story Post. Now, Bob is a sought-after speaker and he’s been telling stories his whole life. He needed the technical piece of the Short Story Post. Bob is also a fast-action guy, and he posted his first Short Story Post the same day I taught him the trick. Bob went from hundreds to thousands of reactions OVER NIGHT! Within 24 hours, Bob had over 8,000 views of his Short Story Post!!

Lisa Niser, the Tax Expert started her Short Story Posts with only 2,000 followers and within a few attempts was consistently getting 4,000-8,000 views on her posts. I love Lisa; she’s brilliant, but the topic of taxes isn’t the most exciting topic, yet Lisa gets thousands of people reading her Short Story Posts because they are chock full of valuable information and often, she tells stories that have nothing to do with taxes. Lisa somehow found herself in LinkedIn “jail” for a few days and when she got out, her followers were messaging her about where she had been! They were waiting for her value to hit their newsfeeds!

Estelle Winslett, Lawyer turned Image Consultant, is a new client of mine and she is ROCKIN it with her Short Story Posts. Not only are her views very high, but her comments are off the charts. She has so much activity on her LinkedIn posts, it’s amazing. Within a week between my meetings with her, she had THREE inbound leads contact her for discovery calls!

From Bob to Lisa to Estelle, every one of them is demonstrating the power of connecting with an audience through the art of a story.

You can do this too and it’s simple with some guidance. Let me share with you a two-part framework to develop your Short Story Posts. My favorite Short Story Post takes a personal story and turns it into a business lesson.

Follow these steps to write your Short Story Post and tag me in your post so I can see what you’ve developed.

Part 1: Craft Your Story

Step 1: Ask yourself this question: what is one thing that happened to me in the last week (doesn’t have to be earth-shattering, just whatever comes to mind)?

Step 2: Ask yourself: what was significant about that event?

Step 3: Ask yourself: what do I do in my business? ?Now this seems like a dumb question for you to ask yourself, but it’s not. It helps to create a link in your brain between what the event you just named and your business. This is the connection between the two things that allows you to take your personal story and mold it into a business lesson.

Step 4: Ask yourself: how do these things relate? (Here’s where you’ll make the connection!)

Step 5: Tell the rest of the story… what did you learn, discover, or uncover when you linked your personal story to your business?

Step 6: Ask the audience for their advice about the situation. This is a little more complex. I save this for the end so it’s easier to discover. Once you have written your story, then go back and think of a question you can ask the reader that would get them to engage in your post with their advice. I call this a Call to Engagement. It is very important to get comments on your post and not just views. This is where the engagement really catapults!

Part 2: The Technical Piece

1.????? Enter after every sentence or couple of sentences as long as they are short.

2.????? Start and end with the Call to Engagement Question.

3.????? Use about 1500 characters (that’s not a hard-fast rule, but a guideline)

4.????? Don’t put any links on this post (there are exceptions to this rule, but in general, best not to have links).

5.????? Add 3-5 hashtags. Please no more, this is not Instagram. You don’t want people to scroll on by because your post is nothing more than hashtag soup. That is not a story.

The Short Story Post has been a gamechanger for my clients. If you follow the simple formula, it will be easy for you to find content. You might even love this type of post you post one every day, like Lisa and Estelle (she does this most days). But, if you’re like me, you might just do this every now and then. Aim for once per month, that is a really great place to start!

It’s one of the four types of Power Posts I teach in my LinkedIn courses. If you’re interested in learning more about that, please message me and I’ll share what’s coming up. Or make sure you open the next few newsletters you get from me; I have some exciting training programs to share that are on the horizon.

Look forward to seeing more of your short stories!

Cheers,

Jennifer

p.s. remember to tag me on your Short Story Posts so I can see it! I’ll be happy to comment and help your Call to Engagement.

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About the Author

Think “force of nature," in the best possible way. A Revenue-Generating Machine and In-Demand Speaker, Jennifer Darling shows audiences how to raise their visibility, rise in leadership and rock their sales results!

With over 20 years’ experience in advertising sales and management for companies such as NBC, CBS, and Comcast, she knows what works to boost sales.

Jennifer's LinkedIn strategies garner 10s of thousands of views and helped her clients get $10,000, $25,000 and $100,000 deals without cold messages. Jennifer is the author of the wildly popular book, Increase Your Leads with LinkedIn: 52 Tips for Sales Success, Say Yes! Then Figure It Out, and Find Your Leadership Rhythm.

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