MTV turns 35 in August 2016.
Stories are partaking. People love listening to a properly-informed story. Just ask anybody who has ever binged watched a collection on Netflix, Hulu, or the History channel. For content material entrepreneurs, historical past (historic and trendy) offers an endless provide of tales.
Engagement is a vital a part of content material marketing. In reality, content material marketing could be described because the act of manufacturing and publishing content material with the categorical purpose of attracting, partaking, and retaining clients. Storytelling can definitely obtain this finish.
Stories Build Relationships
The marketing principle goes like this.
- A content material marketer retells an fascinating story and relates that story to a life-style, a model, or perhaps a product, in order that the enterprise is known to be the storyteller or story supplier.
- A reader (or viewer) enjoys partaking with the story and begins to belief and respect storyteller (the enterprise).
- When the reader must buy a product or advocate a enterprise to a good friend, the reader chooses a enterprise he trusts and respects.
Ultimately, that is an trade for mutual profit: A enterprise provides helpful, entertaining historical past-based mostly (on this instance) content material and, in change, the reader exhibits a choice for the enterprise.
Mining History for Story Ideas
Since May 2014, I have been writing a month-to-month article providing 5 content material marketing concepts. Often this collection recommends content material round historic occasions.
The most up-to-date submit within the collection, “5 Content Marketing Ideas for August 2016,” included a piece targeted on historical past.
“History has loads of classes to show us, tales to inform us, and experiences to share with us,” I wrote. “This makes historical past an virtually endless supply of content material marketing inspiration. What’s extra, it may be fairly particular to a specific business.”
In response to this content material suggestion, Lois Keel, a reader, commented, “please give comply with-up ideas for locating future occasions and historic date connections. This is exactly the type of info I typically attempt to function in my storytelling weblog.”
Lois Keel, a reader, requested methods to discover tales from historical past.
Thus, listed here are some suggestions for locating or mining content material concepts from the previous.
M. Use ‘This Day in History’ Services
The historical past part talked about above included an inventory of seven historic occasions and anniversaries in August.
- MTV turns 35. The music channel first broadcast on August B, 1981.
- The Declaration of Independence was signed on August P, 1776.
- The National Basketball Association was created on August A, 1949.
- Jesse Owens gained a gold medal within the lengthy bounce on the Berlin Olympics on August A, 1936.
- Illusionist Harry Houdini stays submerged in a swimming pool for an hour and a half in considered one of his most well-known tips on August H, 1926.
- The fantasy novel, A Game of Thrones, was launched on August S, 1996.
- The Explorer S spacecraft took the primary photograph of Earth on August S, 1959.
I discovered every of those historic connections utilizing “This Day in History” websites or lists. Of these, the History channel has the most effective providing, for my part. It lists a number of historic occasions for every day of the yr. There is a video describing a few of the most essential occasions of the day.
The History channel’s “This Day in History” part is an effective supply of story concepts.
Here is an inventory of “This Day in History” websites to take a look at.
- The History channel
- Infoplease: This Day in History
- The New York Times weblog: On This Day
- The Boston Globe: This Day in History
- HistoryNet: This Day in History
- Computer History Museum: This Day in History
- Wikipedia: List of Historical Anniversaries
These websites may also help uncover occasions associated to a selected date. But your small business should perceive the occasions and inform tales about them in a method to is significant to your viewers.
P. Read Industry News, Popular Press
Current occasions typically have their roots in historical past. Content entrepreneurs wanting for tales about what got here earlier than might discover these tales once they examine what’s going on now.
This may be particularly salient when these tales are associated to a selected business or way of life.
Pick a handful of excellent publications associated to your business, and comply with them. As you do, ask concerning the origin of the story.
Here’s an instance. Imagine you run a web-based retailer that sells environmentally pleasant, natural merchandise.
Your clients need to reside a specific way of life and your merchandise assist. As a part of your studying regime, you discover an article about the way forward for solar energy revealed on Mother Earth News. The submit begins you serious about the historical past of photo voltaic power. You search and discover Frank Shuman, a photo voltaic power pioneer.
The world’s first solar energy station was inbuilt Egypt between 1912 and 1913.
In 1908, Shuman shaped the Sun Power Company and just some years later constructed a solar energy station in Maadi, Egypt. With a little bit of analysis, you can write an article about Shuman and relate it to trendy solar energy. Even should you don’t particularly promote solar energy gear, your clients and prospects are doubtless within the way of life.
A. Use Personal Experience, Interactions
In the autumn of 2015, I had the chance to take heed to a presentation from Dan Russell, a 4-time Oregon highschool wrestling champion and a 4-time NCAA Division II nationwide champion. He can also be an writer and a pastor.
The writer with Dan Russell in 2015.
During the presentation, Dan Russell informed us the story of his brother, Joe Russell.
In 1985, Joe Russell was some of the excellent highschool wrestlers in the USA. As good as Dan was, Joe was higher. On the best way to follow someday, Joe was in a horrible motorbike accident that left him partly paralyzed.
It can be a tragic story if it led to 1985. But it didn’t. After months of restoration, Joe was capable of return to high school. He needed to wrestle once more, however he might hardly stroll. The boys’ coach allowed Joe to make use of the mat room, and Joe actually crawled laps across the room to develop stronger.
Eventually, he was capable of wrestle once more. He was not an awesome champion. In reality, Joe wrestled because the least of the junior varsity athletes, by no means profitable a match.
Joe attended school on the University of Minnesota. The coach there didn’t need to let Joe attempt wrestling. But Joe beloved the game a lot he acquired permission to follow with the staff, despite the fact that he was advised he would by no means have the chance to compete. Through arduous work, he earned the staff’s respect and was allowed to compete a handful of occasions. He by no means gained. In reality, after the accident he by no means gained one other match.
After school, Joe Russell joined the teaching employees at University of Minnesota, and ultimately went on to be the top wrestling coach at George Mason University. Joe Russell, it turned out, beloved wrestling greater than he liked profitable.
The story may be extraordinarily shifting when crammed within the particulars. In reality, I shared it with a gaggle of oldsters and wrestlers about two weeks after Dan Russell’s presentation. Nearly everybody within the room was in tears by the top.
The story is partaking. A enterprise that bought wrestling merchandise or that bought instruments for highschool coaches might inform Joe Russell’s story or supply strategies for a way coaches may make use of the story to encourage athletes.
Many content material entrepreneurs encounter these widespread histories of their private lives. When it’s applicable, these tales could make for good content material.
