Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Most writers neglect the power of a story to captivate their audience immediately ...

This is a quick article with several key messages. But the one that strikes me is that when crafting a story, the most interesting beginning that gets reader's hooked, is often found in the middle of the story.

So true! And I love the example he uses to demonstrate this tip.

Beginnings and endings of stories are always hard for those new to storytelling. Even veteran storytellers could benefit from the author's tip here.

Think about your stories -- do they need an upgrade by exploring their middles and finding a more compelling opening?

This review was written by Karen Dietz for her curated content on business storytelling at www.scoop.it/t/just-story-it ;

[An inspiring example of storytelling by Sean D'Souza]

Right answers to wrong questions virtually guarantee failure. Innovators betting on "out of the box" thinking or "faster, better, cheaper" innovation paradigms for success all too frequently find themselves — and their customers — disappointed.

Hey folks -- this is a pivotal article about biz storytelling. Why??

Because it addresses the most neglected aspect of effective business storytelling -- the story about the future that you and your customers/clients are creating together.

What I love about this article is its twist -- the level of biz storytelling these days is mostly focused on how to authentically share stories about your products/services, people, or founding to capture the hearts and minds of propsects and build loyal customers. That is OK as far as it goes.

But there could be more. Way more.

Instead of asking, "What do our customers want [and how do I share a story about that]?" how about asking, "What do our customers want to become [and what is the story I can share about that]?" What a fundamentally different -- and better -- question!

Org story advice for crafting 'Future Stories' is typically "Write a newspaper article about your company 5 years from now & the awards you are receivng" or some such version of that. Not bad. But there could be more -- way more.

When we start asking ourselves the questions posed in this article, whole new worlds start opening up. 'Future stories' are really about the future we are creating together with our customers/clients -- it is the call to be part of something bigger than ourselves.

Go read this article -- quickly! You will be glad you did because it will get you to fundamentally shift how you think about and share about your business, and the stories you tell about it.

And if you need a really great example of a company doing this, then check out this latest Nike video. 

http://www.cbssports.com/olympics/blog/eye-on-olympics/19654085/video-nikes-new-olympics-ad-greatness-is-for-all-of-us ;

And if you want to review a written form of this, then check out my Manifesto on my website. The Manifesto is still a work in progress, but you will get the idea. http://www.juststoryit.com/FutureStory ;

Enjoy this short article -- its insights, questions, and a different kind of conversation we can have about business storytelling.

This review was written by Karen Dietz for her curated content on business storytelling at www.scoop.it/t/just-story-it ;

As we saw last time, your startup becomes a hero by making your customers and clients the main hero. And rather than starting with trying to sell our ultimate products or services, we attract and mentor our prospects with content first.

If you are going to use the hero model in your biz storytelling, then you are going to want to read this article (I say that because there are other story models available).

I really like the examples and videos this author uses to illustrate his points -- they are very powerful. 

And I think the chart is brilliant. He also explains the structure for creating a hero story -- and focuses on the hero being your CUSTOMER, not you.

That is sometimes hard to get your head wrapped around, which is another reason why I like the examples & videos he chose. You will really experience the difference.

So go grab these insights and happy storytelling!

This review was written by Karen Dietz for her curated content on business storytelling at www.scoop.it/t/just-story-it

So we have all heard time and time again, "to attract links you need to build great content". But very few actually talk about what good content looks like. That's because good content can come in many different forms.

Here's an article by Joe Hall that very clearly explains why content on a website gets ignored. And they are all story principles!

Keep this list handy and make sure when you are creating content -- any kind of content whether it be a blog post or a brochure -- that you include a well written title, has a unique voice, contrast, a focused key message, etc.

Read the article for more!

This review was written by Karen Dietz for her curated content on business storytelling at www.scoop.it/t/just-story-it ;

Every use of your website is a conversation started by a site visitor. Think about it: why do people come to your site or app?

If you read my review and article on this same page ("Forget About Content Management...") about moving away from content management systems to developing audience development systems, then this article explains more about how to do that. Yeah!

I really like the specific examples and concrete steps laid out in this post. It all makes sense to me!

Once again, while never mentioning storytelling per se, the article is all about using stories and story elements to generate conversations and engagement with customers/prospects. Like: converse with personal prounouns, invoke action using verbs, and write visually. Sounds like storytelling to me.

So go grab this article and its tips so you can continue developing audiences and engagement to build business success.

Review written by Karen Dietz for her curated content on business storytelling at www.scoop.it/t/just-story-it ;