Just Story It

"The use of storytelling in brand communication by P&G is spot on. They tell us their story of firsts to reinforce their market leadership..."

What a great example of a Founding Story by Proctor & Gamble. It's a 2:45 minute video that covers all the 'firsts' of this company.

For any organization that has a history over a chunk of time, you too can craft a similar story. It will definitely help the customer get to know you better, and build trust.

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

These days, we hear a lot about the fact that content marketers need to be storytellers. Here are tips on how to create powerful content marketing stories.

I've curated this great video before from Chipotle, but it deserves another look. Not only did the company win awards and 7 million views for the video, they also took it a step further and told the story behind making the video. Good for them! Back stories are very powerful. Here's the link to the back story video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFlbGwAW7rw&feature=relmfu 

And I really like how the author Manya Chylinski talks about the functions stories serve, and how biz or branding stories can have many of these same functions, but with a twist. Your stories are more than entertainment -- they are your authentic voice. You share them to build loyalty, trust, engage with customers, and grow your business.

The author's tips are solid -- but nothing really new. So go watch the video again for a refresher example on effective brand storytelling and the other video as a back-story example!

Thank you fellow curator Giuseppe Mauriello @pinomauriello for finding and sharing this with us!

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

Jim Signorelli outlines the 6 Cs of StoryBranding: a breakthrough approach to identify and develop a compelling brand story.

Once again author Jim Signorelli nails it as he helps us understand how to effectively use stories and story elements in branding.

Here he chats about the 6 C's of story branding and creating a StoryBrief:

1. Collect (the back story)
2. Characterize #1 (you)
3. Characterize #2 (prospect)
4. Connect
5. Confront
6. Complete

What I like about the article is how clearly Jim connects the dots for us all. He brings a template to us for the StoryBranding process that also assists us in our communications planning.

Read the article for the explaination of the steps and then get busy creating your own StoryBrief!

"Have you ever looked at your marketing materials and thought, “that’s not really me?” Been there. In fact, my (thankfully last) resume comes to mind. And, oddly, my mind wandered a bit, thinking how most marketing materials similarly fail to tell us what’s really unique about a brand."

Well, I am embarrassed to admit this, but the author of Story Works, Sharlene Sones, asked me to review her new e-book months ago -- and I am just now getting to it. My apologies Sharlene! But better late than never I guess.

I love this book. For several reasons:

Size & readabililty -- this book is constructed so you can easily flip through it. And it is laid out so it is easy to read and digest. Perfect! I can't tell you how many posts and e-books I ignore because the layout makes it too hard to read. And I wouldn't want to subject you to that either. Sharlene's book is a breeze to walk through.

Content -- Sharlene does a masterful job at guiding us through the business applications of story. She touches on everything from marketing/branding, unique proposition, sales, to leadership, culture, career development, and back. Whew! That's a lot of territory to cover. But she does it well.

Sharlene explains how story will make a difference in these areas -- and WHY it does. And she gives us tips for using story in several applications. As a bonus, there are lots of story quotes to add to your list, along with examples from companies to make her points.

What I particularly like is her focus on story as conversation -- and that story sharing is where the real leverage is in org story work.

I may quibble a bit on some of Sharlene's points -- are testimonials really stories? Depends on the definition you use. For me, not so much. But the bulk of Sharlene's material is so right on, I am not going to be so picky.

Sharlene also tackles 'engagement' as a topic and brings to light the story dynamics involved in that. I think there is still a lot to learn about storytelling and engagement in business, but this gives us a good start.

I wish there had been more focus on listening, too. Implied in Sharlene's book is how transformative stories can be in business. A lot of what she talks about is story at the transactional level -- even when story provides inspiration and meaning. For example -- when a business is really in the story groove, stories have the potential to change both the teller and listener. Story as transformation in business is the next frontier I think.

I could say more, but I'm running out of space. This book is inspirational and a good kick in the pants for bringing story into your core business activities. If you want a great e-book primer on business storytelling, this is it.

If you want to go deeper, dig into the books by Annette Simmons and Steve Denning.

You do have to buy this book. But you can also download a chapter for free. I have absolutely no affiliation with Sharlene other than we are colleagues and both went to grad school at the Univ. of Pennsylvania.

Happy reading!

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

As The LEGO Group celebrates its 80th Birthday, we take a look back at its history with this short animated film. Find out more here, http://www.facebook.com...

Here's some Friday Fun -- the animated story of LEGO! I wish more companies -- of any size -- would do something similar. 

I love LEGO and could still happily spend hours building things. Now I know the fascinating story behind it. Which makes me love those plastic bricks all the more.

This is a 15 minute video (minus the rolling credits at the end). It's a little long and it could have been told a bit better. I found the narration a bit slow and sing-songy. Sigh. So the execution could use some work.

But overlook that and it is still a great story!

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