Have you ever felt like you're just another faceless brand in the social media crowd? Join us, Terrah and Audrey from TJ Creative Agency, as we cut through the fluff of social media marketing and get real about storytelling—the kind that sticks. Tired of chasing trends and buzzwords, we tackle the challenge of humanizing brands and fostering genuine connections. We'll let you in on the secret sauce to turning everyday moments into content that not only resonates but also educates your audience without overwhelming them. Plus, we're dishing on Speechify, the AI voice tech that's revolutionizing brand consistency—one voiceover at a time.
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Have you ever felt like you're just another faceless brand in the social media crowd? Join us, Terrah and Audrey from TJ Creative Agency, as we cut through the fluff of social media marketing and get real about storytelling—the kind that sticks. Tired of chasing trends and buzzwords, we tackle the challenge of humanizing brands and fostering genuine connections. We'll let you in on the secret sauce to turning everyday moments into content that not only resonates but also educates your audience without overwhelming them. Plus, we're dishing on Speechify, the AI voice tech that's revolutionizing brand consistency—one voiceover at a time.
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/socialsessionspodcast/
Follow us on Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tjcreativesagency
Sign up for our newsletter: https://view.flodesk.com/pages/638657201b84e9ea4164f529
Have you ever wondered what goes into your favorite brand's digital marketing strategy?
Speaker 2:I'm Tara, the founder of TJ Creative Agency and I'm Audrey, the creative marketing director of TJ Creative Agency. Whether you're an influencer, a business owner, a content creator or just an overall creative person, we'll teach you how to create the perfect social media strategy and build your brand online. All right, welcome back to social sessions. Everybody, just my brain just completely went blank, like I didn't even know what I was going to say Anyways, welcome back to social sessions.
Speaker 2:We're recording two episodes back to back. So if this is giving no energy, if this is giving, if you leave this episode saying I literally don't know what they're talking about, Well, now you know because we just recorded an episode. Okay, Anyways, we are going to be talking about storytelling in social media marketing specifically. Honestly, because I'm tired of people saying it and not really saying like how to do it. It seems so like vague and so broad and people are like just use storytelling and then you're like what the hell does that even mean?
Speaker 2:so yeah I like I just get so irritated when people say that it's. It's kind of like buzzy. Like I'm just tired of certain buzzwords in social media marketing and these gurus online telling you how to do it and then not explaining, or like telling you what you need to be doing, but telling you how to do it and then not explaining, or like telling you what you need to be doing but not explaining how to do that thing. So that's kind of what storytelling feels like to me right now. So we're going to be talking about that, but first Tara had a little update, a little tip for you guys on something that we've been using within the agency.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's something that we've been using. Well, we're new to it, but I thought I'd share it with you guys because I think it could and will be helpful in all of your strategies. And it's called Speechify and it is an AI voice replicating software that you actually like talk into and then you can take that voice and use it for different scripts or voiceovers. So we're using it for a real estate client to voiceover some of the house tours and things that he does.
Speaker 1:This is just going to eliminate a lot of like time for him, hopefully, and also I think it just opens up a little bit more opportunities to get his voice on camera I mean him in on camera, but not on camera Um and make that kind of you know, in ways of storytelling. Again, it's like hearing his your voice, over and over Um. So I think this is something that can be used and should be used. I think there's going to be a lot more of this type of software that's going to come into the industry. As far as digital marketing goes, and I think you know, first to market and try it and learn it and those things is only only going to help you in the longterm.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it's um, I think there's a few kinks, but honestly it sounds pretty similar to him it's pretty wild.
Speaker 1:Kelly did one the other day because you can like obviously use like celebrity voices too, which is creepy and scary and all of it is, but like at least know how to use it. Um, but she did one of donald trump and is. I almost sent it to you on the side because it may have said some things that are a little bit off the charts.
Speaker 2:Well, I was just watching the BFFs podcast the other day and they were talking about how Drake put out these diss tracks. This is not a pop culture podcast by any means, but you guys already know pop culture is the only kind of news I stay up to date on. So there's like the whole rap like diss tracks back and forth, right With like Kendrick and Drake. So Drake put out like an actual diss track but then on his Instagram put out like an audio whatever of him. But I think Tupac was on it and Snoop Dogg was on it, but Tupac was obviously like an AI situation. My point in bringing up the BFFs podcast is then Dave Portnoy was like you could just he goes. I could just write a diss track and have anybody rap it and they were like, yeah, and he goes. Oh, my god, I'm gonna make kanye do a diss track on kanye. And I was like you could like you could.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, that's what's crazy, it's getting wild, out there wild it really is. But you know what?
Speaker 2:again, just use it and try it and learn it, because that's the only way you're gonna stay ahead of it yeah, you might as well try it, especially like there's so many free variations of things out there that you might as well like, if you don't have to pay for it this particular one that we're talking about you do have to pay for, but there are a lot of like free variations of things that at least to just try it not necessarily put it out into the world, but like just to get a feel for it might be helpful. All right, now we're getting into storytelling. Like I said, I feel like people say this all the time and they're always like this is a great tactic, this is a great strategy. Use storytelling in your social media marketing, blah, blah, blah. But like, what the hell does that mean? Okay, so first of all, we will get into why you need to use storytelling, or why I shouldn't say need, but why you should use it, why it would be beneficial for you. It really helps to humanize your brand You've heard us say this a million times. It helps to foster any sort of emotional connection and can really drive engagement on your socials with your audience. And I think we've learned more than ever like people don't really like to be talked at and they aren't really super interested in being taught anything, and that's not to say they don't want to learn anything new. I just don't think people in general want you like talking at them, telling them this is how this works, because it's boring. It's boring and you lose people's attention.
Speaker 2:This is a funny example, but it's the same reason that when you're in school, they will have those math problems or whatever that are in a story, right, and they teach you different things. It's the same reason that Brain Pop. If anybody remembers Brain Pop videos from when they were in middle school, it was the robot in that kid that they would teach you. It was like a cartoon. But it's a way that they obviously do it for a reason with kids, right, because they can understand a story. They can understand where you're going with this. They can understand why you're trying to teach them. The same thing applies when you're an adult like you understand things better when there's like context around it and it's presented in an entertaining format.
Speaker 2:So I'm not saying, don't educate in your videos at all, but try and do it in a fun way.
Speaker 2:So, and even what I mean by that I'm kind of jumping ahead here, but if you want to educate, you can educate from a standpoint of like a personal story, right, instead of being like the best time to post on social media is this time.
Speaker 2:You can say I've been in social media for a long time and I've tried a bunch of different things and I've learned that these times have worked the best for me, and then kind of give you know your analytics and your credentials and whatever, but saying it in a way of a story of how you learned it and maybe why it works, versus just saying this is the best here. Yeah, here it is offering it to you. You just lose people that way and it feels a lot colder, it feels a lot less. There's just like not really any relationship there between you and your audience. And, as we've said, we've said this a million times but the importance of your community is way, way, way bigger than the importance of the number of followers that you have. Right, you heard Renee talk about it a few weeks ago the community is so much more important than just the number of followers, right? And so this is one way that you're really going to build that community, because you're going to be able to resonate with your audience.
Speaker 1:What do you think are some ways like? Again, if we're going back to like how to's, is there any like tricks of the trade that you think of, like when you're, when you're trying to find ways to tell the story, whether for yourself or for a client?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was about to jump into that. I think first, before you actually start to quote, unquote storytell, there's a few things you need to know first, one being you have to know your brand right. You have to know the brand values, the brand personality, what your mission statement is. Mostly because, as you start to like tell these stories, if you start to go all over the place and one day you're like super PG, you're super family friendly, and the next day you're not at all, and then the next day you're talking about business, and then the next day you're talking about how you like something completely different, you're going to start confusing people and you're going to start losing people. So you need to know your brand values, you need to know the brand personality and also, on top of that, you need to know who you're talking to. Those, I think, are the two biggest things you need to do before you start actually implementing storytelling and, honestly, I don't even know if you could implement storytelling if you didn't know these two things. So you need to know who your audience is and what I mean by that is more so, what are they interested in outside of your company? What are some of their pain points just in everyday life. What do they do for fun? Who are they? Right, because that's really going to allow you to tell a story. The same way, like you need to know who you're talking to. The same way that, like, if I was going to go tell a three year old like a story, I'm not going to tell them the same story that I would tell my girlfriends that I'm going out to dinner with right. You have to change the way that you talk and the things that you talk about, depending on who you're talking to. So those two things I think you have to know. I actually don't think you would be able to implement this as a strategy at all if you don't know those things. So, just getting that out of the way you need to know those things before you jump into actually telling the stories. Now, how to tell stories.
Speaker 2:Again, I think this can feel a little bit more daunting or a little bit more overwhelming when people hear storytelling, because it genuinely sounds like like when I would think of storytelling, I would think of like Tana Mongeau sitting in front of a camera being like story time and it's like a 20 minute long video of like the most insane thing you've ever heard. It doesn't have to be like that. It can. It can very well be like that, but it doesn't have to. It can take so many different formats that, but it doesn't have to. It can take so many different formats, right. So I think someone who does this really really well on a creator standpoint is Emma Chamberlain. She has a way of. I just saw a video Did you see the video of her like brushing her teeth the other day and talking about the dentist?
Speaker 1:No, I mean, she just posted.
Speaker 2:It yesterday and the I think yesterday or the day before and the engagement was insane. Like all of the comments are like oh my God, vlog. Emma is back, like blah, blah, blah. It's literally talking about how she used to not like that, or she used to like the dentist or not like the dentist, or whatever. And then she's talking about receding gum lines. I don't care about receding gum lines, but I'm still going to watch this.
Speaker 2:So she's talking about that as she's brushing her teeth and it just is like she's so good at captivating her audience in the way that, in the way that she cuts her video, she cuts it like in the middle of a sentence to start. She like doesn't introduce you to anything, she just like gets started. So, in terms of those types of like just talking in front of the camera, she's so good at that, right, she's so good at that. I think a lot of these influencers that talk for a living, like I think Brittany Broski tells a story really well. I think like obviously, tana Mongeau tells a story really well where they can kind of like paint a picture for you. So that's an obvious version of storytelling, right, that's like the most literal sense of storytelling, but I think really what it is is being able to take your audience on kind of like a journey right.
Speaker 2:Whether that's them envisioning themselves in, like, for example, we were just talking about this real estate client. For him it might be they can see themselves in a new house, like maybe that's footage of like a new family, like a first time family in their first time home, and the audience is in the same point of life, same phase of life and they're seeing themselves same thing, Like maybe they're about to have their first child or they, or that's where they want to see themselves in the future.
Speaker 2:That's a version of storytelling, right. They can see themselves in it. They can see what the future might hold out there. We've talked about the smile reveals a lot. That is like a five second story, but where you're able to understand. They used to be insecure about this. They got this fixed. Now they're happy. That's the plot, right. It doesn't have to be this big elaborate thing. It's just like kind of pointing out a pain point or something, a problem Pain point, just emotional, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just connection, human connection and finding those little human connections.
Speaker 2:For whatever reason, the um. This like random video has been stuck in my head forever. But it's for a canned cocktail, I believe, and it was like that. I don't even think the video included the cocktail at all. I think it was just a video of like a group of sorority girls going to Starbucks after being like hung over the night before. That's telling me a story Like I've done that so many times.
Speaker 2:Like I look, the girls are like either in their like shoes from the night before and like a like grungy outfit or whatever, like some variation of a morning after type of outfit. Just like waiting in line at a Starbucks. It was literally just like someone video. Obviously it was. It was like from the company themselves, right? So obviously it was like staged to some extent. Um, but that tells me a story Like, yeah, they went out, they had a good time, they're hung over, they're getting their coffee and they're getting like their like breakfast sandwich. That's the whole story. And I'm like, no, yeah, I've been there. Yeah, like I know what that. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Like I don't think storytelling needs to be this big, elaborate thing. It's just as long as someone can understand what's going on, understand the picture, like in those instances, it's very much like you're kind of thrown into the middle of the story and you have like kind of context clues from your own personal life of what happened before and what's going to happen later. Yep. So that actually kind of leads me to one of my biggest tips is to make your audience the protagonist of the story, which is why it's so important to understand who your audience is and to understand who it is that you're talking about, because once you understand that, you can understand how to put them like in the center of the story. They need to be able to view themselves in this story. They need to be able to relate to what is going on on camera.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's really so important. I think, even as like um, you were saying with, like the real estate thing, something I've been thinking of with um, that whole situation is, I would love you you've said it and I was like, see, I knew that was a good idea. I want to film somebody. That's like the day, just the process of the day you get your keys, and it could be like, yeah, a shot of you signing the them signing the papers, a shot of them like handing them the keys, a shot of them like walking up to the door for the first time and opening it and going inside and like this. It's a connection that I think is being missed, like a missed opportunity to connect with audience. The audience but you have, because those are the type of people that we're wanting to connect with Right, like, and that's when I write out the avatar for that client. That is what I'm, what I'm getting back, and so those are the types and it's really like the same.
Speaker 2:That works too in the way that reaction stuff does too Right, like a reaction tells a story, a reaction of anything. I kind of feel like that's why like unboxings work sometimes and I don't know things like that. Or like surprising. It's like surprising my friend I haven't seen in a long time, or whatever. Like there's a story there and you get to see someone's like obviously genuine, genuine reaction itself tells a story. 100.
Speaker 2:I also think now this is going to sound um, like opposite of what I just talked about on the last episode, or I don't even know if this was recorded, but I was talking about how I think produce content is doing really well. But I think authenticity helps a lot with storytelling and in terms of like vulnerability and sharing things that maybe feel a little bit scary, maybe feel a little bit like nervous to share. That's where a lot of people are going to connect and that's honestly why a lot of the videos like you hear people say this all the time they say the video that took me two minutes to make, that I just threw up, is the one that I got the most engagement on or got the most views. That's why, because it's so authentic because it's usually talking about something that you're like nobody would care to hear about this, but like it's. And because you think that like it's usually because no one else is talking about it. Right, you're like, who gives a shit about what I have to say about this topic?
Speaker 2:Because I've never heard anyone else talk about this, but that's why it relates so much, because the people that are watching that video have the exact same thought I have, but in a positive connotation. I've never heard anybody talk about this before. I felt the same way and never heard anybody voice what I feel. So that's kind of what I mean by the authenticity and the vulnerability, especially if you have not heard someone talk about something before or like and this can be product related, service related, to like if you maybe got into a certain industry for a certain reason and you haven't heard someone say that before. Like, share that.
Speaker 2:And that's actually my last point is to lean into your personal stories. Yes, there is a story around your brand. Yes, there is a story about your service, but don't shy away from your personal story either, because that's going to give your brand a lot of heart. And those might not be the videos that go viral. They might not be the videos that get a bunch of engagement or not even engagement a bunch of views, but it is going to help you connect a lot more in your audience. Understand you.
Speaker 2:So, like, for example, we, like I've said, we've worked with a lot of injectors and like estheticians, and if I just had an esthetician, go online and be like I started this because I could make a lot more money than I could in like regular nursing, I'd be like I mean, get your bag, but that's like not really doing anything for me.
Speaker 2:Versus if they went on there and they were like this helped me, like I started getting Botox or I started getting filler and like it really helped me and I've seen how it helps a lot of other people like whatever that might have more of an emotional tug on me and respect them and respect their credentials a little bit more, versus somebody who maybe like just got started and just like wanted a pay raise. You know and again I'm not saying there's anything wrong with the pay raise, but I'm just saying a lot of people, especially if you're a business owner, you started it not necessarily for the money, right, unless you were like handed an insane investment on the backend that you knew was going to blow up. Most people that started companies didn't necessarily start it thinking they were going to be rich in the first year.
Speaker 1:You know, there's usually some sort of emotional something that led you to get there. Yep, yesterday I had, um, uh, one of our clients do a boy. It was their five-year anniversary party and I had her um record and I was like, do you want me to ask questions Like what have you learned in the last five years, or would you rather just kind of like give a thank you but came off really genuine and I feel like laying that over some some video and stuff like that, like we're able to tell her story, um, and make that.
Speaker 2:I think it's going to be, I think it's going to do really well yeah, yeah, I think it's just like don't overlook your own story, don't overlook your employees stories. There's something there, there's a reason that they're there, there's a reason that you started that, everything like that. So, so don't overlook that. But I don't think, like I said, I think the biggest takeaway from this entire episode is that storytelling does not need to be this huge, elaborate thing. Can it be? Yes, but that's not the only way to tell a story, and I think honestly, like one way to really articulate this in a way that that might make a little bit more sense is like, if you go to like an art gallery I'm not an art person at all, I'm not a museum person but you hear people talk about all the time Like there's a, there's a story behind this image. You look at this image and it's a still right. That should be enough proof to you.
Speaker 2:In general, this is a still image that people can pull a story out of Right. So if, if people can do that, you can do the same thing in your photography. You can do the same thing in your video content. You can, especially in your video content. You have so much more leeway to tell a story in your video content. So it's just, it doesn't need to be this big production.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I always tell our clients, like some of the tips I give them, I mean I think it's really just, I think it develops really just. I think it develops over time like your style. I think people get so caught up in like the style of their story or how they're telling it, but just practicing, I think, is important. And practicing on stories is that's what it's there for almost. It's's almost there to like teach you, you know. So use it and use it throughout the day. That will help you develop your storytelling style, I guess.
Speaker 2:Absolutely All right. Well, that's what we've got on storytelling. I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. If you did, we would love it if you left a rating and a review on Apple or Spotify, wherever you're listening to this, and we'll talk to you guys next week.
Speaker 1:Talk later. Bye.