You’ve been told you need to use storytelling on social media. But nobody has ever quite explained what that actually means in practice.
Does it mean sharing your family holidays? Writing long, emotional posts about your ‘journey’? Being vulnerable in ways that make you cringe the morning after?
Not quite. And the good news is it’s a lot more accessible – and a lot less exposed – than most founders fear.
There are two distinct types of storytelling that work on social media. Used together, I believe they are the most powerful combination available to a founder-led business. Used separately, or not at all, they leave your content feeling either impersonal or incomplete.
Let me break them down.
TYPE 1: YOUR FOUNDER STORY
Your founder story is the big picture narrative of who you are and why you built your business. It includes your journey, your values, your decisions, your experiences – everything that makes you the exact person doing what you do.
This is not your CV. It is the human story behind your business, told in a way that makes the right person think: this is exactly who I want to work with.
Your founder story includes things like:
- Why you started your business (the real reason, not the polished elevator pitch)
- What you walked away from or gave up to build it
- The experiences and challenges that shape how you work
- What you believe about your industry that others might not
- The values that underpin everything you do
For many founders, this story already exists – it just hasn’t been told yet. Or it was shared once, in a pinned introductory post, and never touched again.
Why your founder story matters for social media growth
In 2026, the social media landscape has fundamentally shifted. UK marketers are now focusing on storytelling and optimising content for social search, and the brands that are winning are the ones built on human connection rather than polished production. Which is quite a shift from the guidance of years gone by, where marketing was expected to be much ‘slicker’.
Your founder story is your greatest differentiator in a crowded market. Your biggest advantage.
There are likely dozens of people offering a similar service to yours. There is only one person who has lived your specific combination of experiences, made your specific decisions, and brings your specific perspective to the work.
That is your competitive advantage. Your founder story is how you communicate it.
How to use your founder story in your content
Your founder story is not a one-time post. It is something you return to, re-tell, and build on over time – approaching it from different angles, at different depths, for different purposes. You’ll share it differently, depending on the format or the platform.
You might share a specific moment that shaped your approach to your work. You might revisit a decision that felt terrifying at the time. You might talk about why you left corporate life, or why you started over, or why you believe so strongly in the thing you are building.
Each of these is a different chapter of the same story. And each time you tell one, you give your audience another reason to trust you.
TYPE 2: YOUR EVERYDAY STORIES
If your founder story is the novel, your everyday stories are the short chapters that keep people reading week after week.
These are the small, seemingly ordinary moments from your working life that – when shared in the right way – create the kind of connection that turns a follower into a client.
Everyday stories include things like:
- A question a client asked you this week (and what it made you realise)
- A small win you nearly didn’t share with anyone
- A challenge that didn’t go to plan – and what it taught you
- A behind-the-scenes moment from your working day
- Something you read or noticed that connected to your work in an unexpected way
- A conversation that stuck with you
These are the raw, unpolished moments that make your audience feel like they know you. Not because you have invited them into your living room – but because you have let them see the real, thinking, working, imperfect human behind your business.
Why everyday stories are so powerful
Sprout Social’s data shows that when consumers feel connected to a brand, 76% would buy from that brand over a competitor and 57% would spend more with them.
Connection does not come from tips and advice alone. It comes from moments of genuine recognition – the kind that happen when someone reads your post and thinks: yes, that’s exactly how I feel too.
Everyday stories create those moments. They are the content that gets saved, shared and replied to. They are the posts that prompt someone to slide into your DMs and say: I’ve been following you for a while. I think I’m ready to work together.
How to find your everyday stories
The most common thing I hear from founders is: I don’t have anything interesting to say.
It is almost never true.
What is actually happening is that they are looking for something impressive – a dramatic moment, a major achievement, a perfectly formed insight. And in doing so, they are walking straight past the small, specific moments that their audience would find genuinely useful or relatable.
Try asking yourself these three questions at the end of every working week:
- What happened this week that reminded me why I do this work?
- What did a client say or ask that made me think differently about something?
- What went wrong – and what did I learn from it?
Get a notepad and jot them down every week.
The answers are your everyday stories. They are already there. You just need a way of recognising them.
The more you practise, the easier this task becomes.
HOW THE TWO TYPES OF STORYTELLING WORK TOGETHER
Your founder story builds the foundation of trust. It tells people who you are, why you do what you do, and why your perspective is worth listening to.
Your everyday stories maintain and deepen that trust, week after week. They show that the person behind the business is consistent — still learning, still working, still showing up in the way they said they would.
One without the other creates an incomplete picture.
A founder who only shares their big story can feel impressive but distant – someone to admire rather than connect with. A founder who only shares everyday moments can feel warm and relatable but slightly unanchored – without the bigger narrative to give those moments meaning.
Together, they create something much more powerful: a social media presence that feels both trustworthy and human. Strategic and personal. Expert and approachable.
That is the combination that builds an audience of people who are genuinely excited to work with you.
A FINAL NOTE ON STORYTELLING AND OVERSHARING
One of the biggest objections founders have to storytelling on social media is the fear of oversharing. And it is completely understandable.
But this is the important distinction: storytelling on social media does not mean sharing your personal life. It means sharing the human moments from your professional one.
Your client conversations, your working process, your moments of doubt and discovery, your values in action – none of these require you to share anything you feel uncomfortable with. The most effective social media storytelling is rarely the most personal. It is the most specific.
A vague post about the importance of confidence is easy to scroll past. A specific post about the moment you nearly didn’t go to that networking event – and what happened when you plucked up the courage and walked through the door – is much harder to ignore.
If you have read this and thought I know I should be doing this, I just don’t know where to start – that is exactly the problem I help founders solve.
At Telling Tales Media, I work with small business owners and founders to build social media strategies around their story – so that everything they post feels purposeful, personal and connected to the business results they are trying to achieve.
If you would like to find out how that could work for your business, you can explore my services here or get in touch directly.
And if you are not quite ready for that yet, start with the four questions above. Write down your answers. Pick one. Post it this week.
Your people are already out there, waiting to hear from you.
