A friend of mine messaged me the other day; his company had been profiled on Forbes and he wanted to share it, but wanted to do it without sounding too “look at how amazing I am.”
(He also admitted it was likely that he was overthinking it).
Easy I said – just lead with a narration.
I gave him a few ideas:
“I never thought this would happen.”
“Anyone who said you shouldn’t be excited is crazy – I get so geeked out about this stuff.”
“I have finally given my Jewish mom what she truly desires: to brag about her son.”
“I’m only sharing this so when Facebook reminds me in a year about this post, I’ll remember how little I’ve done/look how far we’ve come.”
“Man Forbes’ standards have gone down hard.”
“Shit, have we peaked already?”
All in the span of 60s.
The lesson here is straightforward:
Utilizing a narrative lede helps you set the scene and talk about anything.
Build a narrative
Sharing the Forbes article would be perceived as too self-obsessed (at least, that was his logic). By using storytelling to introduce something, you can set the frame. You set the looking glass that someone sees through when reading what you’re writing.
If you’ve heard of framing, that’s exactly what you’re doing – framing how a user reads what you’re about to share.
And when I say share, I don’t mean links. I mean anything you output into the world – an idea, a link, a sales pitch, etc. And to level it up, make the narrative personal to you.
The beauty is that it doesn’t have to be grand. It doesn’t have to be heartfelt. Often times, taking the piss out of something and mocking the standard practice (“Our hard work is being recognized, thank you, yes I am amazing”) is a great way to get people on your side.
You’ll see that most things I share – my thoughts, my ideas, my beliefs, my articles… I just don’t go *bam enjoy*. I almost always give some insight into what I was thinking… so when you come across what I’m sharing, you can understand my thought process.
Best of all, it creates a personal connection between you and the person reading it.
Don’t just share something. Create a narrative that ties into what you are sharing to ensure people are in the most receptive mood possible.
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