Everyone knows headlines rule. The ceaseless bombardment of information has turned the headline into eye candy. Write a good one, and readers stop to give the body copy a chance. If not, the readers’ attention never breaks stride and they’re on to other things in a nanosecond. Perhaps no media property has perfected the art …more
Andrew Mason’s resignation letter last week reflected the best of storytelling in business communications. With this in mind, I tried to track down Mr. Mason to take us behind the curtain in how the letter came about. Unfortunately, he proved elusive. If Mason had agreed to an interview, I suspect the exchange would have gone …more
Dare I say, storytelling has become downright trendy in business communications. “Narrative” has officially entered the PR vernacular. Yet, just because words like “protagonist,” “story arc” and yes, “narrative,” get bandied about doesn’t guarantee storytelling has displaced corporate speak. The SlideShare deck, “The Return of Storytelling vs. Corporate Speak,” shares some of the science and …more
In honor of Valentine’s Day, here’s a story that proves once again that life is better than fiction. Having been married for 20+ years, I never experienced the “anguish” of dealing with social media withdrawls from a romance gone south. Apparently, it’s not easy. NPR recently ran the story, “When Social Media and Romance Mix, …more
I am a big fan of The New York Times Dining section. Donut drama. Importing Mom instead of the pasta. Hunting for “treasures” in restaurant laundry. And the list goes on. The NYT Dining journalists know how to shape story lines beyond the – “chef showed restraint, allowing the flavor of the fresh [fill in …more
I attended a family reunion in Vegas last month. The town offers a Petri dish of brute-force branding. It’s all about who can shout the loudest, radiate the brightest lights and hire the most human sandwich boards. That’s why the simplicity of this billboard away from the Strip caught my attention Let’s break it down …more
Many people believe that with the advent of email, the quality of writing started to decline. The same people see social media only exacerbating the situation (no LOL from me). I’m not here to debate the issue. Instead, let’s turn the tables and see if today’s language can put a fresh spin on writing. I’ve …more
During my investigation of novelists and their personal biographies, I stumbled across a clever use of owned media by Team Grisham. Every publisher sends out copies of a new novel to various media in hopes of garnering positive reviews. The marketing team behind John Grisham’s latest novel, “The Litigators,” went one step further. They created …more
I’ve been waiting three years to break out this pie chart. That’s when we created the curriculum for our storytelling workshop. In the early stages of the workshop, we discuss the sheer noise level in the market. I like to pick a random day and aggregate the number of news releases distributed on the various wire …more
