This document provides five tips for small businesses to sell their story using social media: 1. Know your story and share it across social media platforms in a way that adds value and context. 2. Share your story on multiple platforms by sprinkling bits across Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and more. Connect storytelling to sales goals and metrics. 3. Anticipate potential problems like business objectives, social media policies, copyright issues, and crisis management to address in stories. 4. Build an engaged community through surveys, questions, customer service, and interactions on social media.

1. How to
Sell Your Great American
Business Story
using these
Five Editing Tips
A Daybreak Lit mini-presentation
Coffee House Café Business Series
Nov. 13, 2012

2. “Story is about originality, not
duplication.”
Robert McKee, author of
Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of
Screenwriting

3. Always remember:
You are a publisher.

4. Do this…
1. Know your story
2. Share your story
3. Connect stories to sales
4. Anticipate story problems
5. Build community

5. 1. Know your story

6. Your story on social media
must add value, context and
a personal touch…
…because all business is
social.

7. Learn from your UPS driver.

9. And remember what happened to
Progressive Insurance.

10. From Mashable.com

11. 2. Share your story

12. According to Venturebeat.com:
• 90% of small businesses are on Facebook
• 70% are on Twitter
• 55% have blogs
• 43% spend six hours (or more) a week
blogging

13. However, small businesses are
leaving potential sales on the table.

14. Think LinkedIn. Think Pinterest.

15. 1. Tell stories on platforms in
tantalizing bits
Photo courtesy of Hersheys.com

16. 2. Sprinkle bits of one
story on your
blog, Facebook, Twitter,
YouTube, LinkedIn and
Pinterest pages.
Photo courtesy Hersheys.com

17. 3. Tell stories visually
FlPckr photo by gnuckx

18. Post what you saw during the
morning commute
Flickr Photo courtesy of Jan Tik

19. • Instagram
• YouTube
• Vimeo
• Ustream
• Flickr
• Facebook
• SlideShare

20. 4. Write Well. Write Clean.
If you can’t, get help.

21. 3. Connect your story to sales

22. Insights
• Business objectives • Competitors
• Likes • Market trends
• Followers • Customer service
• Comments complaints
• Social mentions • Re-tweets
• Timed posts • Social shares
• Email subscribers • Promotions

23. Essentials
• Social media
calendar
• Google
Analytics
• Landing
pages
• Calls to
Action

24. Content=ROI….
…if you monitor and sustain
the effort

26. 4. Anticipate story problems

27. • Business objectives
• Social media policy
• Crisis management
• Plagiarism
• Copyright

28. 5. Build community

29. • Surveys and polls
• Facebook questions
• Monitor interactions
• Prompt customer service

30. You CAN
create, share, measure and sell
Your Great American
Business Story

31. Don’t forget.
You are a publisher.

32. Thank you!
Judy Howard Ellis
Daybreak Lit
jhowardellis@daybreaklit.com
Follow me on Twitter
@JudyHowardEllis