The Best Storytelling and ...

MENU

The countdown continues.

On Monday, I published the first half of the best posts of 2017.

The rest of the list follows.

 


 

6. Trump’s Job Description for Press Secretary: Make Communications Great Again

Given President Trump’s penchant for throwing Sean Spicer under the bus during his tenure as press secretary, I took the liberty of tapping my vast network of contacts in D.C. From this covert intelligence gathering, I pieced together President Trump’s first draft of a job description to replace Master Spicer.

 

7. Avoiding the Unkindly Cut in Business Writing

 

Illustration - Dear Who Moved My Story.

The road to persuasive writing is fraught with peril.

This post takes a look at seven principles that guide our storytelling workshops as well as our own writing for clients.

 

8. President Trump Plans to Replace the Statue of Liberty

 

Statue of Trump Statue of Liberty illustration The Hoffman Agency.

My personal favorite for the year — what starts as parody blurs into reality as the President targets the Statue of Liberty as a symbol of what’s wrong with America.

Why the hell do we want to let in immigrants who are tired or poor? We should be doing just the opposite. If we’re going to let in any immigrants, let’s let in the ones who are energetic and rich. That’s how we create jobs. I know some extremely wealthy Venezuelans — no, they don’t have as much money as me, but believe me these people have money — and they would love to live in America. Many already have condos in Miami.

 

9. And the Most Trusted News Source Is …

The “fake news” mantra continues to whip the masses into a frenzy and prompts the question, what publications people do trust? The University of Missouri set out to answer that question based on a survey of over 8,000 consumers. The sobering results form the basis for this post.

 

10. Breaking Down the Failure of Thought Leadership

 

.

Virtually every PR effort has the thought leadership religion.
There’s just one not-so-little problem.

Most companies implement what amounts to “thought followship.” They simply repeat perspectives that have already been expressed or offer up vanilla points of view. Even worse, some will dress up self-promotion as thought leadership.

 

11. Deconstructing 50 Random News Releases

In preparation for a talk at the Mumbrella conference in Singapore, I set out to answer the question, Does PR get storytelling? With this in mind, we analyzed the use of adjectives and adverbs, anecdotal content and quotes. The results reveal why news releases trigger scorn from journalists. Worse, communication professionals seem to be in denial.

 


 

This post brings the curtain down on 2017.

At the risk of sounding like Southwest flight attendant — “We know you have choices for an airline and appreciate you choosing us” — I do recognize that one of your most precious possessions is time.

Whether you’re a first-time reader or have bookmarked the blog, thanks for stopping by.

I wish everyone a healthy and fun 2018.

 


Leave a Reply