The concept of “storytelling” has been trending in the communications industry for years. Virtually every communications consultancy touts its storytelling expertise short of saying: “Hey mister, step into our tent and see how storytelling can change your life.” There’s just one not-so-little detail that no one talks about. When it comes to business communications, storytelling …more
Particularly in Silicon Valley where most executives started their careers on the engineering side. Coming from a technical orientation, they tend to think of anecdotes as inconsequential and yes, a bit fluffy. Yet, the science suggests that PR should be sourcing anecdotal content as part of media outreach. We leaned on a couple interns to …more
The concept of “storytelling” has been trending in the communications industry for years. Virtually every communications consultancy touts its storytelling expertise short of saying: “Hey mister, step into our tent and see how storytelling can change your life.” There’s just one not-so-little detail that no one talks about. When it comes to business communications, storytelling …more
The public relations function typically constructs media pitches based on the story that the company wants to tell. These stories tend to be pristine narratives — the sun is shining; birds are chirping — that dull the senses. That largely explains why 95%+ of pitches to the business media fail. Instead, we should be thinking …more
Journalists get anecdotes. PR not so much. A few years back, we analyzed three months’ worth of tech stories in The Economist breaking down the content type by category. It turned out that 17 percent of the articles were anecdotal. . We consistently find that the anecdotal content in business publications ranges from 15 to …more
Does PR Get Storytelling? As one way to answer the question, we randomly selected 50 news releases and applied three tests to them. Test #1 We analyzed the use of adjectives and adverbs, often a shortcut to genuine storytelling. If you say you’re great, no one believes you. . On the other hand, sharing a …more
A corporate feature in a mainstream publication is the PR equivalent of a home run. No question, PR is constantly swinging for the fences. Unfortunately, the success rate for PR is more Duane Kuiper (below) than Babe Ruth. Obviously, a number of variables come into play in determining whether a journalist and the bosses green …more
I am a fan of the anecdote, one of the most underutilized storytelling techniques in business communications. Executives often perceive anecdotes as fluff and put the kibosh on such content before it sees the light of the day. Which explains why if you were to audit the content generated by PR (in-house + agency), you …more
The difference between classic storytelling and applying storytelling techniques to business communications often comes down to this— Storytelling in business does not require a full narrative. Just one wrinkle can be enough to elevate a story. Take a look at the story below on a new coffee maker in Bloomberg BusinessWeek: Do you have any idea …more
