I spoke at the American Chamber of Commerce in Beijing on storytelling a couple weeks ago. The talk triggered interest from a Chinese publication which asked me two questions via e-mail: How does storytelling impact today’s traditional media as well as social media? How does storytelling benefit business executives and their respective companies? …more
Oprah is a good storyteller who’s even better at facilitating a story. More than any single element, Oprah has turned tapping into the emotional reservoir of her viewing audience into an art form. That’s why when Oprah came forward on Friday and proclaimed Amazon’s Kindle (e-reader) as life-changing people paid attention. In fact, Oprah’s revelation created more noise in the blogosphere …more
I’ve been thinking about the headline of the Scoble post I addressed last week: “What do the freaking tech bloggers want?” Specifically, does the periodic cuss word (or derivative) enhance storytelling or at the very least command attention? I think the power of a cuss word can come from the element of surprise. If Martha Stewart drops …more
With the fervor surrounding the Beijing Olympics close to its apex, any story tied to China gains some extra juice. That’s why you see announcements like the one by IODA (the Independent Online Distribution Alliance) launching the largest digital music store in China timed to lead into the Olympics opening ceremonies on August 8. Timing aside, IODA paints the classic contrarian story with …more
My last post lamented the lack of quality video earmarked for a B2B audience. Which isn’t to say business videos are a complete wasteland. There’s an eclectic blog called Valley Zen – promotes itself as the intersection of Zen and technology; I thought that was Nolan Bushnell’s dream with Chuck E. Cheese’s – that showcases …more
