Archive: November 2013

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Levity is the Killer App for Business Storytelling

Notice I said “levity,” not “funny” which is a much higher bar. Still, it often takes guts as much as creativity to bring levity to a brand’s storytelling. And if you can tap into a recent happenstance, you’ve got the makings for a story to reach the masses. I’ve come to call this “improv marketing” …more

Fiction That Cultivates Your Business Storytelling Chops

Some of the best storytellers on the planet are novelists. Past posts have borrowed from novelists. This one comes at the genre from a different angle. I asked five communicators from varied worlds to share their favorite novel for advancing storytelling acuity from a business context. The end result is a mix of reading deserving …more

If You Love Books, You’ll Love This Bookstore

I enjoy leaving the realm of business communications once in a while for the purity of storytelling. It doesn’t get more pure than the “Bookshop Santa Cruz.” Every time I step into the store a sense of discovery washes over me (and under me). After spending the better part of a Saturday afternoon at the …more

Out-of-office Email as a Platform for Storytelling

There’s been much discussion including in this forum on the importance of storytelling techniques in social media. Yet, the opportunity is bigger than just social media,. So many online interactions lend themselves to storytelling and ultimately fortifying the brand, even those that fall under the “mundane” category. In fact, you could make an argument that …more

Stop Misrepresenting Storytelling!

Judging from the comment in my post, “Can Storytelling Differentiate a PR Agency,” and an email that arrived shortly after (more on this in a minute), I appear to have gotten the attention of the National Storytelling Network. They’re not pleased with me. In my defense, I have come clean on numerous occasions making the …more

Can Storytelling Differentiate a PR Agency?

Every PR agency touts its storytelling prowess. When everyone gravitates toward the same shiny objective, it tends to lose meaning. You can start to get a feel for how this plays out through a simple Factiva (massive database of publications) search on the number of stories that contain the word “storytelling” going back 10 years. …more

New Leadership Takes the Reins of our Asia Pacific Operation

When we opened our first overseas office in Singapore in 1996, we didn’t have a business plan. We didn’t even have a spreadsheet with properly crunched numbers. What we did have was a strength of conviction – think “all in” playing poker – that this part of the world would equal or even exceed the …more

HAlloween Olympics Takes Center Stage at #SiliconValley Office

The official Olympics motto reads, “Faster – Higher – Stronger.” Yesterday’s HAlloween Olympics took a few liberties with these words. OK, it might have been more than a few liberties. Here’s what I mean … This event tested the mouth-eye coordination of the athletes. First one to snag the hanging donut and ingest it won. …more