Don't Sell It, Storytell It

Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today.

-Robert McKee Brown

My whole family was sitting down, about to eat Thanksgiving dinner. Yet it was one of the most stressful moments in my career, and it wasn't from the stress of getting together with extended family.

You see, I was bidding in an auction for storytellit.com that was about to expire- literally, the auction end date and time was Thanksgiving Day, at 4:30 PM. My company had developed an app to help small businesses tell stories across the social web, and I had spent the previous month trying to secure a domain name on the web for it.

We originally had called the app Storyteller, but when I called the owner of Storyteller.com, they told me it wasn't for sale (even though it wasn't being used either). Thinking, "Everything's for sale, at one price or another," I had said to the owner on the phone, "What if I hypothetically offered $100 million for the domain?"

"Not for sale," he replied, and hung up the phone on me. So, Storyteller, my app would not be called.

Next, I went to the owners of Storytell.com, a lovely older couple who told us we could buy their domain for $100 thousand. A huge bargain for sure over $100 million, but for a startup, it still was a price I didn't want to pay.

So, we next turned to storytellit.com, where an auction was taking place for the domain name. Excited, I put in a bid of $12, only to be outbid for $17. I didn't want to start a bidding war, so instead I resolved to bid for and win the domain right at the end of the auction.

The only problem was that the end of the auction was literally the same time as the start to my Thanksgiving dinner. I couldn't leave something this important to anyone else, so at 4:15 PM this past Thanksgiving Day, I sat in front of a computer while 10 feet away, 20 family members began to sit down to dinner.

I thought we had the winning bid, at $22, until one minute before the end of the auction- BOOM - someone else bid $27. That bid also apparently extended the auction for 5 minutes. "No problem," I thought. I proceeded to bid against this other person, while my turkey proceeded to get cold.

Bids of $32, $50, $100 and $150 were immediately answered, and I was beginning to wonder whether we'd ever have a domain name for our new app. My family was also beginning to wonder if I'd ever join them at the dinner table.

Then, magically, my bid went unanswered. For 165 US dollars, we became the proud owners of storytellit.com. And my family even left some turkey and stuffing for me.

Nobody likes to be sold to, but everybody likes a good story. Storytelling persuades, storytelling compels, and storytelling conveys emotion to people in a way that nothing else can.

Storytelling is a much better communications tool than selling.

Storytelling sells products, services and ideas better than selling!

If you don't believe in the power and popularity of storytelling, look no further than Hollywood, Bollywood and the movie industry. Movie makers are the best storytellers of them all.

But in today's online world, you don't have to be a Hollywood producer to tell a story. You can be a salesperson, sharing an ebook on LinkedIn. You can be a blogger, sharing your story on Tumblr or Medium. You can be a dentist, sharing a photo of a smiling patient on Facebook. You can be a jewelry store owner, sharing a picture of an engagement ring that a customer just bought on Twitter.

Every small business owner and professional can use social media to tell stories, rather than to sell.

When you sell, you turn people off, you bring up people's defenses, and you annoy people.

When you story tell, you get people excited and interested, you arouse people's emotions, and you engage people.

We developed storytellit to help people tell their stories on the social web. We developed storytellit to make social media fun and easy for every small business owner and business professional on the planet.

It's totally free, and always will be, so I don't really have to work hard to sell it to you.

Then again, even if our new social media tool weren't free, I wouldn't try to sell it.

I'd just storytellit.

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Now it's your turn. What stories do you tell to bring your company, product, or ideas alive? How do you storytellit on the social web? I'd love to hear your thoughts and questions, in the Comments section below! And please consider sharing this post with your network on LinkedIn.

Dave Kerpen is the founder and CEO of Likeable Local. He is also the co-founder and Chairman of Likeable Media, and the New York Times-bestselling author of Likeable Social Media and Likeable Business, and the new collection, Likeable Leadership. To read more from Dave on LinkedIn, please click the FOLLOW button above or below.

Want to learn about how to grow your business using social media in 2 minutes? Click here.

Sudhir Bhatt

Content writer, creative content writing work, author, content planner

2y

Dave , what happenend to storytellit.com. I get an error message while I click on it. I was keen on using it for my book selling on social media?

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Murugavenkatesh Karunanithi

Accomplished Delivery & Growth Leader In Digital IT Business| Building High Performance Teams| Level 5 Leadership Practitioner

9y

Good one..

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Anthony Andre

Seasoned leader. Driving Growth. AI | Programmatic | SaaS

9y

Everything is a story. And nothing ever sells without one (or two or three).

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Brenda Smith-Lunam

Transitioning Works - Helping people find a home in their retirement years tailored to meet their needs.

9y

I love to tell stories as a means of expression, of providing a forum for deeper understanding or for comparison between various life experiences. Many can be read on my public Facebook page, My Fan Page, or on my Blog on the Website. It is truly a satisfying method of expression. Thanks so much for sharing Dave and 'Bravo' for developing 'Storytellit".

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