Yapping ~ The Instagram storytelling trend small businesses should try

Apparently, talking to your phone now has a name.

Yapping.

And before you dismiss this as yet another Instagram term for something we’ve all been doing for years… there is actually something quite interesting behind it.

Yapping is essentially a more relaxed, conversational style of talking-to-camera Reel. Less polished presenter, more “I need to tell you what just happened…”

It should feel like a voice note you’d send to a friend. But, and this is the important bit, a good Yap isn’t just rambling.

The strongest ones tend to have a simple storytelling structure underneath them.

1. Start in the middle of the thought

Forget:

“Hi everyone, welcome back…”

“Today I’m going to talk about…”

“I thought I’d jump on here to…”

Instead, start with the bit you’d naturally lead with if you were telling a friend something interesting.

For example:

“I realised yesterday that I’ve been making this much harder than it needs to be.”

“A customer asked me something this week that completely changed how I explain what I do.”

“I nearly didn’t launch this because I was convinced nobody would buy it.”

You’re dropping people straight into the conversation.

A good test? If your first sentence could double as a polite greeting, you probably don’t need it.

2. Create a gap

This is where your Yap becomes a story, rather than simply information. Give us something that doesn’t quite add up yet.

You expected one thing to happen… and something else happened. You believed something… and discovered you were wrong. You tried something because you thought it would help… and it had the opposite effect.

For a small business, that could be:

“I thought customers weren’t buying because of the price. It turned out they simply didn’t understand what the product was for.”

Now there’s an unanswered question.

And unanswered questions make us want to keep listening.

3. Give us the epiphany

This is the “Ohhh…” moment.

Instead of:

“I realised I needed to understand my customers better.”

Tell us what actually made you realise it.

Perhaps:

“I looked back through the last month of posts and realised I hadn’t actually explained what I sell once.”

That sounds like an experience rather than generic advice. For makers and small businesses, these little realisations are gold because they’re based on things you’ve actually done.

4. Keep the lesson simple

Don't turn the ending into a TED Talk. Your lesson should ideally be something you discovered yourself and something you could almost lift out and use as a sentence on its own.

For example:

“I wasn’t struggling to sell it. I was struggling to explain it.”

Short, specific and human.

5. Finish where you started

A lovely storytelling trick is to connect your ending back to the opening.

If you started with:

“A customer asked me something yesterday that I haven’t stopped thinking about…”

You might finish with:

“Anyway, I think she was completely right, and now I’m curious whether you’ve noticed the same thing.”

It gives the story a sense of completion without resorting to:

“Anyway, that’s it. Give me a follow” which is likely to kill the mood.

So what could YOU Yap about?

If you’re a maker, creative or small business owner, you already have far more material than you probably realise.

Try talking about:

• something a customer said that made you think differently

• a mistake you made and what happened afterwards

• an assumption you had about your business that proved wrong

• something people consistently misunderstand about what you do

• a moment behind the scenes that customers don't normally see

• a product you nearly didn't make

• a decision you changed your mind about

• something you're finding difficult right now

• an unpopular opinion about your industry

• something you've learnt from doing your job hundreds of times
  

The key is to resist turning every idea into “3 tips for…”. Instead, tell us what actually happened.

An example for a maker

Instead of:

“Three tips for pricing handmade products.”

Try:

“I underpriced this product for nearly two years because I was terrified people wouldn't buy it. Then I increased the price… and sold more.”

Now we want to know why.

That’s your gap.

An example for a photographer

Instead of:

“Why natural wedding photographs are important.”

Try:

“The photograph this couple loved most was the one I nearly deleted.”

Much harder to scroll past.

An example for a shop owner

Instead of:

“How we choose products for our shop.”

Try:

“I ordered twelve of these thinking they'd sell out immediately. Six weeks later, eleven were still sitting there.”

Again: we want the rest of the story.

The voice-note test

This is perhaps my favourite test for Yapping. Before you post, ask:

Would I actually say this like this to a friend?

If your answer is no, loosen it up. You can still know where the story is going. You can have bullet points next to your phone. You can re-record it. The aim isn't to be completely unprepared.

It's to sound conversational rather than scripted.

Our verdict on Yapping?

I like it. Not because every small business suddenly needs to become a Yapper. But because it's another move towards something we talk about a lot at The Creative Duck: personality-led content.

Your customers can Google information. They can ask AI for tips.

What they can't easily replicate are your stories, your experience, your opinions, your mistakes, your humour and the peculiar little things you've learnt from actually doing what you do.

That’s the interesting stuff. So next time you find yourself telling a friend something about your business and they say:

“That's really interesting…”

Maybe don't just tell them.

Prop your phone up first.