Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it” – Hannah Arendt

I’ve been working with brands for 15+ years.   Over that time, I have crafted my fair share of “traditional” stories for my clients and their brands.   As the strategies came to reflect a greater social influence, I’ve recognized growing trends in how story themes have had to evolve from corporate traditions, towards a more human minded perspective.    I’ve summarized the seven most prominent themes as follows...

Storytelling can be complex and the information about storytelling, well, overwhelming. The good news, is that you can start either way — from the future (with a vision story) or the past (with an origin story). In this article I want to show you simple ways that you can dive right into telling your story (without fretting or worrying so much if you’re getting it right).

In a recent client workshop in New York City we unpacked this process, sharing some of my favorite ways to lead off any purposeful story. I shared six kick-off phrases that ANYONE can use to start a story in a way that’s compelling, uplifting, and inspiring. I like to think of it as Mad-Libs for transformational storytelling!

The Story Literally Spills Out Of You, When You Use One Of These 6 Kick-Off Phrases.

These 6 strategies are something we cover in great depth in our StoryU Online course Undeniable Story. Today, I want to share with you a few of them that are really important in setting the context and frame for your marketing, storytelling, and leadership efforts....

...Great stories are interesting. They take you away from where you are into a head space that taps imagination and visualization. Complex ideas can be quickly conveyed though stories. Otherwise distracted audiences are kept at attention with stories. The interestingness of stories helps create a competitive advantage for those telling them by providing information in a way that connects on both intellectual and emotional levels.

No matter what business situation or geographic location you find yourself in, you simply cannot go wrong having a great (and relevant) story to tell. With each content object you create, always answer the question: What’s the story in this message?...

As far as consumers are concerned, multichannel shopping is old news. And many find mobile screens too small -- and retailers’ m-commerce sites too clunky. They prefer to navigate e-commerce on their own rather than put up with less-than-ideal offerings from their favorite stores, according to a new survey from PwC U.S. Retail & Consumer practice.

The report, based on responses from 15,000 online shoppers around the world, concludes that retailers need to move beyond omnichannel thinking to meet consumers’ broadening expectations. And it notes that while shoppers are increasingly open to m-commerce, they’re also disenchanted. Some 37% of shoppers in the U.S. say security fears prevent them from shopping by phone, 33% say their screens are too small, and 32% say they don’t own smartphones. Many retailers would be better served by ditching m-commerce platforms, the report says, and focusing on what people do want....