Superman is a bad seller

3 min read
18 December 2018

Or why you do not need to seem perfect if you sell something on social media.

Especially, if you do it via storytelling. Storytelling is a marketing tool to engage media capability for transferring information and delivering ideas via telling stories, to be short — special selling stories.

If you worry that your publications have little reach, you have to delete negative comments too often, and nobody sends you private messages to learn the price, check if you are not a victim of your own superman style. We will advise you what you should draw your attention to:

Glossy magazine style

People are already fed up with it, they are not fools, and can feel you are faking. Do not underappreciate your audience, all those “Wow, look how brilliant I am! Buy my product if you want to be the same!” can be easily read between the lines. Is there anyone who likes to think permanently how miserable his lifestyle is compared to yours? Show that your house is a mess too and you are like everybody else –and the stream of compassionate buyers will be just a matter of time.

And do not forget to mess up your hair. Even very tradition-oriented women magazines are trying to use Photoshop less. We live in the era of body positivity, that is why stop sucking in your stomach and pretending that you were born like this: elegant, smart and wearing shiny shoes.

Do not be a Bruce Willis cardboard cutout

Do not behave like a cardboard cutout which is put near the bank to advertise it. Move and smile, fool around in front of your camera. Make selfies right in the morning. Change and develop yourself together with your audience watching their feedback and interests. Replace perfect photo poses and angles by unexpected Lives and dynamic Stories, and you will be surprised by the sincere feedback which such posts get.

Stop teaching

If you write posts like “I am going to teach you how to live”, do not be surprised with getting so few likes. People have enough of being taught, do not educate, “kick” or nag them. They know what to do. They are grown-ups.

Instead of it, study and surprise together with them. Ask about their experience, seek their advice, share your own findings even if you think it is too late to do it.

Do not show off

Do not put yourself above your followers: it annoys everyone and will lead you to getting unfollow notifications without fail. Try to laugh at yourself instead of making another post like “I’ve earned a million/done 500 squats/written 101 books without the slightest effort.” “Perfect” accounts people explore are virtual, but the stress they may experience at this is quite real. Do not hurt your potential customers: it is better to confess that you are the same as they are.

Show the backside of your profession, let them know that you get tired and sometimes want to quit everything, but you won’t give up.

?

To start changing yourself, try to improve your feed right now, do not put it off for too long. Together with common posts publish real stories about stupid mistakes, rises and falls, obvious things you learned in your 30s. To be short, take your imaginary superman to have a massage or Turkish bath, he is already so tired to portray a hero and the savior of all humankind. Let him have his rest and be a real person and then, refreshed, use storytelling again.

And let the sales be with you!