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Storytelling
December 2006 | Volume 4 Issue 12
These days, corporations are employing the power of stories to help tie employees more closely to their brand, to convey meaning to their customers and to define themselves against the competition. This issue takes a look at practical tips for cultivating narratives about your organization and using them to your advantage.
Natasha Spring
Executive Editor |
Features
CRAFTING A STORY
by Lori L. Silverman
When I review internal publications, company or product endorsements, case studies demonstrating customer successes and other print and online communications that purport to convey stories, I find they're often missing crucial story characteristics. They tend to be descriptive of situations instead of relaying actual stories about what occurred. So, what is a story, what is its basic structure and what considerations go into crafting it?
STORY SCRAPBOOKS
by Terrence Gargiulo
Thank heavens for big sisters—especially mine. I was over at Franca's house sipping hot chocolate and catching up on life. While we spoke, she was assembling another one of her family scrapbook masterpieces. We started talking about her work—she is an international marketing and publication relations consultant. As we discussed the internal communication challenges one of her clients was facing, I had a flash of brilliance. What if we helped the client put together a story scrapbook and then used it to facilitate conversations around the organization?
TELLING STORIES
by Lori L. Silverman
Staff meetings. Project presentations. Company events. Industry conferences. Community gatherings. Training sessions. The list of places to tell stories is as endless as your imagination. Do you need to be a great storyteller to effectively use stories? Absolutely not. However, you can heighten success by preparing how you will communicate your stories and taking into account some tips when you're actually sharing them.
CORPORATE HISTORIES
by Heidi Tyline King
Every company has a story to tell, a story about people and passion, about vision and hard work. A corporate history tells these stories—but it is also a sophisticated marketing tool that presents your message and history in a professional, concise format. These historical "portfolios" are designed to attract and impress prospective customers and stockholders, and to create loyalty and a feeling of camaraderie among past and present employees.
Columns
Create a Great Group
by Suzanne Salvo
From the casual employee meeting to the formal board of directors shot, group photos present their own particular set of problems. The more faces that are added, the more difficult it gets to achieve perfect lighting, focus, poses and expressions all in one frame. Making two people look flawless is nearly twice as hard as making one look great; three is three times as difficult, etc.
Mirror, Mirror
by Eric Bergman
A few months ago, I read with interest an article that indicated that executives are influenced more by the court of public opinion as a catalyst for making positive behavior changes than they are by even a court of law.
So what contribution do we make to this discussion, as public relations and media relations practitioners? Do we shove our heads in the sand and say, "It's not up to us to influence the ethical behavior of our internal and external clients"?
Case Studies
Communication in the NEws
Related Resources
Related Resources provides additional articles and resources for understanding this month's topic of storytelling. You can also find some of these links alongside each corresponding feature article for quick reference. Links include:
- "Happy Tales: The CEO as storyteller," by Bronwyn Fryer
- "The 10 Truths of Branded Storytelling," by Alain Thys
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