Facebook_(login,_signup_page)I’m pleased to welcome Public Words writer Sarah Morgan as a guest blogger for this posting.

 

How many Facebook movies have you watched this week?

They’re probably all over your news feed–the delightful LookBack videos your friends are all sharing with the hashtag #FacebookIs10. And they’re a great example of how to make your message shareable by making it all about your audience.

As a speaker or an author, you’re the face of your brand. This can be daunting at times. Especially when you first start out, you may find yourself thinking, Why would anyone want to listen to me?

The answer is, they won’t. Your audience doesn’t know you. They don’t want to hear about you and how revolutionary your idea is.

What they want is to hear about themselves. They want to hear about the problems they’re facing, and how your idea is going to change their lives.

If Facebook had produced a glossy movie about what the past 10 years have been like for the staff of Facebook, would you and your friends have shared it? Probably not.

Facebook made its audience the star of the LookBack video. And now it’s all over your newsfeed. The message that Facebook is a great place to share the stories of our lives is still there, but it’s there in a way that makes it feel personal, and that makes it shareable.

How can you make your audience the hero of your story? How can you make your message feel personal to them?

(image: wikipedia.org)