Let Your People Tell Your Business Story – Why?

Storytelling is the act of using narratives to engage your audience or make something clearer to them. It sometimes incorporates the use of pictures and videos to illustrate the message of the speaker better. 

For many businesses today, storytelling has become an essential way for them to deliver their business message. Research has shown that messages delivered as stories are 22 times more memorable than just facts. Hence, companies are focusing on telling the brand story from the employees’ perspective.

Unlike other types of business storytelling, allowing employees to craft their stories is not about drafting a detailed message. Instead, it focuses on attracting people to your brand through personalized stories that can only be gotten when you allow your employees to share their honest experiences and views.

Before we help you understand why you should let your employee tell your business story, let us give you insights on how to help your employee tell the best business stories:

Employee storytelling – Here are the best practices in 2020

• Make your brand purpose clear: Helping your employees understand what your brand stands for is the first step to empowering them to tell its story. To do this, align them with the organizational goals by letting them understand your company’s values.
• Help your employees express themselves: Create a safe space for your employees to tell their stories. Asking specific questions about the team, their co-workers, and the part they play in the team is a sure way to help them express themselves.
• Empower them to tell the stories: Your employees know more about the particular aspect of their job than the marketing department. Make employee storytelling an essential part of your company’s culture by regularly asking for feedback and enhancing internal communication with a private social network. 
• Have a strategy: Build a plan for the employee stories you want to tell by formulating a strategy to tie it with your company’s marketing plan. Ensure the stories employees tell is in line with the company’s objectives.

Share your employee story: An organization means of sharing their employee story will determine the number of people it would reach. Use the proper channel (e.g., social media) and suitable medium (e.g., video) to share your employee stories.

Why should employees tell the company’s stories? 

1. It would be the most honest and trusted story ever told about the company

   Letting your employees share their experiences, backgrounds, and viewpoints will produce the most honest and trusted story your company can ever tell about its brand. This is because employees will be able to share their unfiltered views without a marketing spin, which then creates a compelling story that resonates well with the audience.If a company has said the same story, the audience may not relate to it. According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, people trust others who are like themselves than trust companies or their executives. Therefore, giving a voice to their employees will likely make a company’s message more authentic and genuine

2. Show leadership’s commitment to creating a culture of listening and transparency
   Allowing your employees to tell your story proves you value their input and contribution to your organization’s growth. It shows that your company’s leadership is committed to creating a culture of listening and transparency. By empowering them to tell their workplace stories, you will get to understand your employees’ opinions about your company’s actions and decisions. It would show you pay attention to their complaints, suggestions, and feedback.
3. Empower the pride of each employee toward the company they are working for
   According to a survey, 73% of employees are proud of their organization. These employees are satisfied with their workplace, committed to their organization, and likely to stay for a long time. Most importantly, employees who are proud of their organization are always willing to talk about their company’s brand.Therefore, empowering your employees to tell your story is one of the best ways to showcase their pride in your organization. By giving your employees the freedom to discuss what they are most proud of when working for you, they will be able to draw attention to the many critical values to your business brand. This will be more inspiring than anything than a company’s marketing team can do as it will be informative, emotional, and relatable.

Final thoughts

Letting your employees tell your business story humanizes your business brand. In a way, it bridges the gap between an organization and the public, making your brand more relatable. When done right, employee advocacy will also show that your business cares about its employees. Finally, it showcases the values your organization holds dear.