Business needs more storytelling evangelists.

They provide a counter balance to the “Corporate Drivel-ites.”

Even before picking up the book “Tell to Win,” I’m thinking that Peter Guber serving as the face for the storytelling movement is a good thing.

He’s got the street cred, having penned “The Four Truths of Storytelling” for Harvard Business Review in 2007 (more on this later).

Plus, no offense to Steve Denning, the high priest of institutional storytelling, but Peter Guber brings celebrity and a certain “je ne sais quoi” to the cause.

I mean, this is the guy who produced “Rain Man” and goosed Dustin Hoffman’s career.

Such a bias I took into reviewing his book.

As you would expect, Peter knows how to tell a story.

We learn that then presidential candidate Bill Clinton used the movie “High Noon” as a backdrop to tin cup for $90K to keep his campaign alive after losing the New Hampshire primary.

We learn Famous Amos liked the cookie business better than the agent business.

We learn Peter went on the movie set to tell Dean Martin to shape up only to have Frank Sinatra intervene with a “Who the hell are you?” before physically pushing him out the door.

Does the book teach business people how to apply storytelling in their jobs?

It’s a good starting point.

Before going further, keep in mind that Peter focuses on oral storytelling.

If you need to win someone over to your way of thinking, don’t get on the phone or send an e-mail or draft a 140-character plea on Twitter.

Get face-to-face with the person (or people).

Arianna Huffington, cofounder of The Huffington Post and now part of the AOL gang, affirms his belief:

“The more time we spend in front of screens, the more we crave human interaction. I believe the intimate in-person interactions where we tell stories to realize our ambitions, goals and dreams will only intensify as technology expands.”

With this as the backdrop, I found three takeaways that frame the book.

First, recognize that emotions play just as an important role as intellect in how people make decisions.

Stories - not facts, figures and spreadsheets - tap the heart.

This concept can be difficult to grasp for those coming from technical orientations who worship the tangible.

Two, the book explains the importance of personalizing your story with a hero.

There’s simplicity in the definition of a hero that comes from basketball coach and executive Pat Riley:

“In every story there’s one person who can make the difference. That’s your hero.”

And three, storytelling offers a means to show vulnerability, a quality for building trust.

According to Keith Ferrazzi, author of “Never Eat Alone” and one of Guber’s resources:

“Vulnerability is one of the most underappreciated assets in business today. Everyone has something in common with every other person. And you don’t find those similarities if you don’t open up and expose your interests and concerns, allowing others to do likewise.”

Putting the double negative aside, it’s an excellent point.

For those who favor their geek side, the book tackles the cognitive part of storytelling as well.

I especially liked the line from Jerome Bruner, a cognitive psychologist:

“Narrative emerges from violations to expectations.”

Peter’s buddy and neuroscientist Dan Siegel explains:

“You have expectations in your head; I have expectations in my head. We sit down to breakfast. I tell you, ‘I got up this morning, I went to the bathroom and picked up my toothbrush and put toothpaste on it, blah, blah, blah.’ Our expectations are totally in sync. There’s no violation of them. It’s boring. It’s not memorable.”

Allow me to simplify the equation.

Violation = Attention.

There were a couple parts in the book that didn’t work for me.

The inconsistency in one particular story rubbed me the wrong way. Peter’s quest to film in the waters of Havana Harbor hit a standstill until Fidel Castro set eyes on Miss Universe, Shawn Weatherly.

I’ll let Peter pick up the story in the book from here:

“But then he [Fidel] noticed something else. Shawn was holding a tooth as big as her hand, which had come from a 250-foot prehistoric great shark called a megalodon. This creature was some ten times larger than any shark living today, and its tooth clearly interested the president, so Shawn handed it to him. I seized on this serendipity to reset my story into a tale of the megalodon.”

Yet, the same story in Peter’s essay for Harvard Business Review depicts the tooth handover differently:

“As I spoke, I watched Castro toy with the equipment and listen with growing interest to the story of Havana harbor’s past. Finally, breaking the bureaucrat’s rule, I presented the Cuban leader with a giant tooth (seven inches long, five inches wide) from a megalodon, a prehistoric shark that had once prowled Havana’s waters.”

Also, I could have done without the pop psychology lesson; i.e., Larry King stayed at CNN because Ted Turner knew King put loyalty above money due to his father’s premature death which King interpreted as disloyalty.

Still, these aren’t major flaws.

All in all, I liked the book as well as the idea of Mr. Guber bringing greater attention to the storytelling movement.

As long as the reader doesn’t expect “Tell To Win” to be a magic wand transforming one into part Steve Jobs, part Ken Burns, we’re good.

I’m pleased that two of our account professionals in our Tokyo office, Sayaka Kitamura and Haruna Kawamoto, have contributed today’s guest post on a topic dear to my heart, the importance of tailoring stories to a given market. 

I give Sayaka and Haruna credit for making the intellectual argument for investing in local content. 

Here’s what they’re too polite to say - 

U.S. companies often parachute into Japan armed with content developed at the HQ and instructions to push out this information in the Japanese market. While the HQ content can and should be leveraged, effective storytelling calls for cultivating the Japanese dimension. 

Their post on these Sony camera videos delivers a good example on localized storytelling.  

Thanks to the Internet, virtually every company has the potential to sell its products or services on a global basis. 

Sitting in Tokyo, we’ve supported a number of U.S. companies in building their brands in Japan. 

Often, these companies start with the premise that the same content used in the U.S. can be leveraged to tell their story in Japan. 

It doesn’t work that way. 

The qualities that have the most relevance to Americans aren’t necessarily the ones that will resonate with Japanese buyers. 

And vice versa; what has meaning in Japan might not have meaning in the U.S. 

We came across two videos for the same Sony NEX camera - one video designed for the U.S. market and the other earmarked for Japan - that illustrate the differences that come from localizing a product story. 

Check out the videos. 

U.S. Video: 
 

Japanese Video:

It’s revealing to break down these differences by area 

Narrative

• U.S.: No narration
• Japan: Rich narration over the length of the video, providing a full explanation of the camera’s functions 

Visual

• U.S: Goes straight to the camera, allowing viewers to understand immediately what the video clip is all about, then moves into people shots
• Japan: Starts with an imaginary object then shows technical pictures on how the camera actually works 

Music

• U.S.: What we would call “bouncy” or “upbeat”
• Japan: Soothing 

Length

• U.S.: 2 minutes, 59 seconds
• Japan: 6 minutes, 58 seconds

Target Audience

• U.S.: Early 20s
• Japan: Anyone

Message

•  U.S.: You’ll have fun with this camera while capturing your life’s precious moments
• Japan: The quality of the digital single-lens camera has relevance for everyone

Culture Differences

We would be remiss if we didn’t touch on the underlying cultural differences that likely guided how these two videos were put together.

Historically, Japan is known as a country with one of the top ratios of saving against income. Consumers tend to be frugal anyway, and the economic recessions since 2000 have put more pressure on Japanese households to save.

Plus, Japanese people tend to be detail-oriented and typically want as much information as possible before they make a purchasing decision.

We don’t pretend to be experts on U.S. culture, but it seems fair to say that emotions play an important role in how individuals purchase goods such as consumer electronics. At least that appears to be Sony’s belief, since the video is designed to touch the heart more than the mind.

The only somewhat technical element in the U.S. video is the section that shows the camera features the capability to shoot seven frames per second (which, by the way, also appears in the Japanese version).

The respective education systems in the two markets also play a factor in the video. 

Japanese consumers are used to listening to narration. 

As students, the Japanese classroom puts an emphasis on listening to teachers. Thus, Japanese consumers are used to listening to explanations (narration in this case) and appreciate receiving information this way. 

On the other hand, the American classroom emphasizes discussion. Individuals only view narration as one piece of information to help them imagine and understand what the product is about. 

We’re not saying that narration is never effective in the U.S. 

But the typical American isn’t going to watch a seven-minute video with narration about a camera. 

Yet, the Japanese consumer will listen to the seven minutes of narration because he or she needs this depth of understanding about the product before a purchasing decision is made. 

Back to the Big Picture 

The point is, there’s a limit to the content that can be leveraged from a company’s home country in building its brand in new markets. 

While the Sony example reflects the consumer space, the same can be said for B2B companies. 

It really comes down to relevance. 

You want your stories in a given market to be as relevant as possible to the target audience. 

That’s why it’s worth the front-end effort to tailor the communications in such a fashion.

This should have been the title for my session on corporate blogging at SoCon11 on Saturday.

That’s the greatest frustration for bloggers.

Forget getting people to care and engage.

The question on everyone’s mind:

How do I simply attract a meaningful audience?

Here’s the deck that framed the SoCon11 session on blogging.

The words “Content Is Not King” triggered an audible gasp from session participants.

Once folks refilled their lungs, we had a good discussion on what it means to create “compelling content” that stands out from the noise.

One final point that I think is fresh -

Check out the following screen scrapes from two of EMC’s blogs.

Whoever is leading EMC’s blogging charge gets it.

Chuck’s Blog:

Chuck’s Blog reflects the standard corporate ID.

Natalie’s Corner:

But rather than force Natalie Corridan Gregg to conform to the corporate “look and feel” guidelines, her blog enjoys appropriate design latitude for the topic of work-life balance.

Yet, Natalie’s blog is still highlighted on the EMC community page (hangs off its own URL as opposed to the EMC domain).

Very smart.

It’s a perfect example of how technical companies can show their humanity.

P.S. A colleague who works at EMC shared with me that part of the company’s “secret sauce” lies in decentralizing blogging in the spirit of authenticity. While it’s been a team effort, Jamie Pappas has been instrumental in forging the company’s Web 2.0 mentality.

Bloggers can face what appears to be conflicting objectives.

They want to tell fresh stories.

At the same time, they can feel like a slave to the SEO master in the quest to bring in more readers through search engines.

My three cents -

Keep it simple.

No one expects you to be an SEO guru. Who wants to travel all the way to Mt. Sinai anyway?

If you write compelling content that fits under your blog’s macro topic, the relevance between content and keywords occurs naturally. That’s what resonates with search engines.

From my experience, the critical component lies in choosing the right keywords.

What are the phrases broad enough to tap a decent sized pool of potential readers but narrow enough that you have a fighting chance to show up high in the search listings?

I went through this experience myself last summer after realizing that search was contributing little to the audience.

I decided to focus on the primary phrase, “storytelling techniques.”

It wasn’t realistic that I could attach my blog to big terms like “storytelling” or “storyteller,” nor did these words capture what the blog is about (relevance).

Check out the top 10 keywords that brought folks to Ishmael’s Corner during the first half of 2010:

Now look at the top 10 keywords from Q4 2010:

In a relatively short period of time, the phrase “storytelling techniques” not only drove a sizable number of readers to the blog but the “right” readers (people interested in storytelling within a business context).

Side note: The traffic from “steve jobs son” comes from a content quirk. Needless to say, these folks end up sorely disappointed when they land on the blog. At least the phrase “lauren bacall” no longer shows up in the top 10 (talk about major disappointment).

I’m not saying to leave your content completely to chance.

After I write a given post, I go back through the content and look for places where I can insert my keywords within the natural flow of the narrative. I also look for places where I might hyperlink keywords to the outside world or within the blog (like the hyperlink above that goes to a relevant post on applying storytelling to corporate blogging).

Again, it’s a simple approach.

Certainly, there’s vast complexity to applying SEO to any online property.

But you can align your content with your keywords and not sacrifice the storytelling that underlies that content.

I’m looking forward to discussing this topic and others in my corporate blogging session at SoCon11 tomorrow.

Nothing like a little social media to prep for Super Bowl Sunday. 

I’m referring to the “About” section of a blog.

Think about this for a moment.

What type of visitor is going to click for more information about your company’s blog?

Right.

First-time visitors.

This is the property’s big moment to make a positive first impression.

Yet, most company blogs simply push out the company line.

There’s no warmth, much less storytelling.

Rather than bash the guilty, I want to highlight an example (was going to say “terrific example,” but there was Mr. McCall Smith whispering in my ear) of a company that gets this piece right, Southwest Airlines.

The About section for Southwest’s blog kicks off with storytelling techniques at their best:

Southwest’s Cofounders got together in 1967 to discuss their idea for a new airline that would bring the Freedom to Fly to America, and when Rollin King finished sketching out the idea on a cocktail napkin, Herb Kelleher told him, “Rollin, you’re crazy. Let’s do it!”

How can you not like a company with a business model that fits on a cocktail napkin? Might be a Texas thing since Compaq had similar cocktail-napkin roots; albeit, without the same staying power.

Certainly, Southwest’s quasi-wacky culture provides more latitude than, say, a software company specializing in business rules management.

But the idea of being conversational and showing your humanity has relevance to all companies.

Next, Southwest articulates the reason for the blog:

Our goal with the new Nuts About Southwest remains to give our visitors the opportunity to take a look inside Southwest Airlines and to interact with us.

They want you to get to know Southwest, the first step toward trusting the airline with your business.

The close reiterates the interact-with-us message.

Even the disclaimer is used to reaffirm Southwest’s customer-centric mentality.

Even though Nuts About Southwest is moderated, we pledge to present opposing viewpoints as we have done since our blog first went “live” several years ago, and we will strive to keep posts interesting, diverse, and multi-sided.

In preparation for my session on corporate blogging at SoCon11, I captured several About sections that run the gambit from the good, the bad and the unattractive.

I plan to package these in a post down the road.

In the meantime, if you’ve come across a blog’s About section that caused a strong reaction in either direction, I’d welcome hearing about it.