Changes at the Oregonian last month triggered gut-wrenching hoopla. Naturally, a slew of media watchers weighed in with my favorite headline compliments of the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR), “The Hamster Wheel is institutionalized at the Oregonian.” Ouch! On the surface, this might look like inside baseball, journalists bitching about the state of their profession. No …more
Who cares if Warren Buffett is still getting the hang of this Twitter thing? The man knows how to apply storytelling techniques to business communications (heard he’s a pretty good investor too). There’s no better example of Buffett’s storytelling acuity than his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders that came out over the weekend. The …more
What a surprise! Derek Jeter is not only a hall-of-fame shortstop who makes the time to help the elderly cross Fifth Avenue, the guy also knows how to write. When I say “knows how to write,” I don’t mean in the literary sense or with storytelling techniques. If my high school English teacher Mr. Harper, …more
After being chastised by the National Storytelling Network – “You, Mr. Hoffman, are no storyteller” – I’d like to start with a ground rule on nomenclature. When it comes to business communications, I consider storytelling to be shorthand for “storytelling techniques.” In other words, PR practitioners don’t have the luxury of 200 pages or 90 …more
There’s been much discussion including in this forum on the importance of storytelling techniques in social media. Yet, the opportunity is bigger than just social media,. So many online interactions lend themselves to storytelling and ultimately fortifying the brand, even those that fall under the “mundane” category. In fact, you could make an argument that …more
Judging from the comment in my post, “Can Storytelling Differentiate a PR Agency,” and an email that arrived shortly after (more on this in a minute), I appear to have gotten the attention of the National Storytelling Network. They’re not pleased with me. In my defense, I have come clean on numerous occasions making the …more
Every PR agency touts its storytelling prowess. When everyone gravitates toward the same shiny objective, it tends to lose meaning. You can start to get a feel for how this plays out through a simple Factiva (massive database of publications) search on the number of stories that contain the word “storytelling” going back 10 years. …more
After Hillary Clinton won the New Hampshire primary back in 2008, she stood at the podium and uttered the words, “I found my own voice.” “Voice” is tricky. It’s always there. Yet, it can be tougher to find than Waldo in bad lighting. And when you do find it, success is not guaranteed. (Just ask …more
After raking through 75 or so posts, I’ve captured what I consider to be my best storytelling posts (top 10) from the first half of the year. While some got the nod from sheer popularity (number of views), others rated high on my personal amusement scale. Here goes – What Really Happened Before the NRA’s …more
