You can’t make this stuff up. Raking through my storytelling and PR posts, I’ve curated a list of seven “life is stranger than fiction” moments. 1. Media Squeeze — and Watermelon Explosion — Described by the NY Times Presents an Opportunity for PR BuzzFeed proved what everyone has always believed in theory. If you stretch …more
Breaking the Top 10 storytelling posts for 2016 into two parts, I published the first part last week. Here’s the second part, again reflecting the varied facets that make up today’s communications in the business world. In spite of the massive changes in our industry, media relations and PR storytelling still matter, an apt way …more
If there were ever a year that proved life is better than fiction, it was 2016. As always, subjectivity rules my curation of the best posts of the year. In fact, the most popular post of the year, “Fresh Take on Influence in the Tech Industry” — thank you, Kara Swisher, for that one tweet …more
Spending time in Singapore at the start of the month to celebrate our 20-year anniversary of operating in Asia included a few interviews with journalists. Here’s the unfiltered version of a Q&A that touches on topics ranging from the future of communications to our differentiation. Q. Happy 20th Anniversary on your operation in Asia! Can …more
Staying true to form during the last presidential debate, Donald Trump inferred that all smart business people find loopholes to avoid paying federal taxes, including Warren Buffett. I tried to come up with a plausible explanation for why Trump thought his comment on Buffett would go unchallenged. Then, the obvious hit me. He doesn’t care. It’s his words …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
On a charitable day, I would characterize most company videos as dreadful. Consider what happens when you go to an event, meet a new person and that person launches into a soliloquy of “me, me and in case you missed it, here’s more about me.” Right. You walk away. Why would a company video be …more
I’ve been thinking about The Wall Street Journal article, “Why Good Storytellers Are Happier in Life and Love.” The story cites new research from the Journal of Personal Relationships — when my wife says I subscribe to everything, I now have a credible retort — that shows women find men who are good storytellers more …more
Showing one’s humanity is a sure-fire way to bring a storytelling dimension to communications. Yet, most executives do the exact opposite. They make a conscious effort to hide their humanity. Why? To paraphrase Rudyard Kipling, we’re told early in our careers that business is business, personal is personal, and never the twain shall meet. It’s a …more
