8 Movie Tips for Your Presentation. The Ultimate Guide to Startup Marketing. The Science Behind Storytelling — and Why It Matters. As presenters we want people to pay attention, be engaged and remember the message. The key to doing that? Science now says it involves storytelling: Stories stimulate emotions, which may be the key to better learning, attention, memory and decision making. When we listen to stories, more of the brain lights up, according to Annie Murphy Paul, author of “Brilliant: The New Science of Smart.”
Stories cause your neurons to fire the same way they would if you were doing the actual action talked about. For example, if you were listening to someone talk about kicking a ball, the motor part of the brain that would help you kick a ball in real life lights up. Here’s the science: Two parts of the brain – Broca’s and Wernicke’s area – automatically light up when listening to a presentation. But just because you’re lighting up a few gray cells doesn’t mean you, the presenter, are getting through. Back to the story. Most presenters trip over this one, and present a topic list of their content. It’s in these stitches | Mary Trigiani. What a nice evening: the good fortune to visit the wellspring of the great Anne Lamott’s perspective. Funny and profound.
As drawn in a lively conversation by the wonderful Fran Moreland Johns, who does a bit of remarkable writing herself. Anne has a new book: Stitches: A Handbook on Meaning, Hope and Repair. The theme resounds on so many levels, not the least of which is the sewing. Two generations of our family made a living stitching. In Big Stone Gap, where I grew up, quilters create stitched wonders. And in another bit of serendipity, Anne’s editor at Riverhead Books is none other than Jake Morrissey, friend of Adriana Trigiani and the family and a major writing talent himself. As it says on this gem’s cover flap, “It’s in these stitches that the quilt of life begins, and embedded in them are strength, warmth, humor and humanity Like this: Like Loading...
Five Ways to Develop a Cross-Channel Brand Story. Stories have always been vehicles via which we communicate and perceive truth. But more than ever before, stories are taking center stage in the consumer marketplace, enabling brands to forge meaningful, lasting connections with generations of customers. One of the key challenges for today's marketers is the creation and delivery of cross-channel brand stories.
Consumers no longer access content via a single channel. They use a range of personal technologies to connect with the brands and retailers that are important to them—and they expect to be "wowed" every time, regardless of the channel they use to access the brand. So, for growth-minded retailers and consumer brands, omni-channel success hinges on the ability to deliver cross-channel brand stories that are engaging, memorable, and consistent. The Art and Science of Cross-Channel Brand Stories Deployment strategy is only one aspect of effective cross-channel brand storytelling.
Five Tips for Cross-Channel Brand Storytelling 1. 2. 3. Telling stories: five successful marketing examples. Research shows that stories, anecdotes and metaphors are more memorable than data. At Searchlove last week, business consultant and author Danny Scheinmann discussed why stories work, the hidden structures behind them and how they can help your business to communicate effectively. The ladder A simple device to remember how to tell an effective story is to think of a ladder. In fact you don’t even need to think of a ladder, there’s one right here… At the top of the ladder are abstract ideas: love, ambition, hope, happiness.
At the bottom of the ladder are concrete examples: physical evidence of the above abstractions. Businesses often get stuck in the middle of the ladder, blurting out pat phrases like 'good customer service' and 'work smarter, not harder' that sound like a mixture of practical and aspirational without really being either. The best communication goes up and down the ladder, backing up aspirational slogans, with concrete examples. Significant Objects Dove The risk worked. The Art of the Simple Blurb | Robert Laing. Every week or so, I get asked by a startup founder to make an intro to an investor. Normally these startups are pre-funding, so the founders are inexperienced about talking about their company. So their descriptions of their companies suck, which makes it really hard to make an intro even if they’re working on something interesting.
This advice is mainly for founders looking for investor intros, but probably works for any kind of business development. First things firstMark Suster has great advice in general on the ins and outs of making intros. If you’re requesting an intro from someone, read his posts first: If there’s one takeaway from Mark, it should be this: People who make intros learn to be very careful who they intro, because their reputation can be negatively affected by too many or too poor quality intros. Your blurbIf you’re asking for an intro, provide a simple blurb about your company. The blurb should be 3-4 sentences. ExcitementTractionCredibility Signifiers Like this: How to Write Brand Stories that Build Emotional Connections.
Good Companies Are Storytellers. Great Companies Are Storydoers - Ty Montague. By Ty Montague | 1:00 PM July 16, 2013 Discussions about story and storytelling are pretty fashionable in marketing circles. I have ambivalent feelings about this. On the one hand, as a lifelong advocate for the power of story in business, I find this very encouraging. For all companies, having a story and knowing that story are crucial steps to achieving success. On the other hand, I’m worried that too many marketers think that telling their story through advertising is enough. In fact, those that think this way do so at their own risk because there is a new kind of company on the rise that uses story in a more powerful way — and they run more efficient and profitable businesses as a result. In my new book, True Story: How to Combine Story and Action to Transform Your Business, I call these new companies storydoing companies because they advance their narrative through action, not communication.
So how do you know a storydoing company when you see one? …and share price: Good Companies Are Storytellers. Great Companies Are Storydoers - Ty Montague. Three Priorities for the Digital CMO - Debi Kleiman. By Debi Kleiman | 1:00 PM July 18, 2013 The principal role of a CMO has always been to be a great storyteller. Once upon a time, this meant waxing eloquently about the brand’s promise, giving people a hero to cheer for and something to relate to and believe in. And the process of storytelling used to be fairly simple: create an ad, place it in a magazine, newspaper or on the radio or TV, and you were done. Today, we live in an entirely different world — one in which brand narratives are often co-opted, molded and even created by consumers. This means the journey now taken by brands and consumers together is filled with many more twists and turns. It spans the web, social networks and mobile devices, a dazzling array of digital means to access information, make decisions, buy products and then share purchases, opinions and ideas about brands.
Each of these stops along the journey is a point of light in the digital mosaic that creates a brand narrative built on billions of interactions. 1. 10 of the World's Best Storytellers [SlideShare] Since before blogs were created, people have told stories. Shocking. I know. But long predating the clickity-clacking of our keyboards were generations of people finding creative ways to communicate meaning with one another -- to try to bring understanding to a complicated human experience. We painted on cave walls, carved pictures into trees, sorted images out of rocks, sang songs, danced, told stories ... the best of those stories being passed down from generation to generation. Storytelling is a cornerstone of human existence, and it's what enables successful people to communicate and connect with anyone -- and I mean anyone -- to this day.
What exactly makes a great storyteller? 1) Walt Disney Whether watching one of his dozens of films or strolling through his beyond-belief theme parks, Walt Disney transcends age groups with his knack for creating a grandiose experience that completely immerses people in his stories. 2) Sheryl Sandberg 3) Leymah Gbowee 4) Richard Branson 7) Nate Silver. 5 Secrets to Use Storytelling for Brand Marketing Success. Mayhem is Coming - Allstate (Photo credit: roberthuffstutter) Brand storytelling isn’t a new concept, but with the explosive growth of social media and content marketing, the opportunities to tell stories as part of direct and indirect brand marketing initiatives have become a strategic priority.
Marketers have been telling brand stories for years through advertising, in-person brand experiences, and so on, but the art of writing those brand stories as effective pieces of online content is a challenge that few are trained to do. That’s because the best brand storytellers understand the critical elements of fiction writing, which are skills that few marketers have been formally trained to do. Today’s strongest marketing team will have room for new roles like the data architect and the brand creative content director. Following are five secrets that brand storytellers understand and use to intrigue, engage, and connect emotionally with consumers. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
The Power of Story for Content Marketing Strategy | socialtribe. May 31st, 2013 by Tatiana Natzke I’ve been a longtime fan of Nancy Duarte’s work. For those who aren’t familiar with her, she’s the CEO of Duarte Design , as well as an author and graphic designer. She’s most well known for her revolutionary approach to the way presentations are created – the most famous example is her work on Al Gore’s In Inconvenient Truth. Now, what’s so exciting about presentations, and how on earth could designing slide decks turn someone into one of the most influential women in Silicon Valley?
She’s written a couple of highly-acclaimed books, as well as delivered one of the most widely watched TEDx talks of all time, but I stumbled upon a great short video where she discusses the most basic tenets of how to tell a story. Transformation “The powerful thing about story is that it demonstrates transformation, and humans are hard wired to enjoy transformation. How to Get New Content Hires Up to Speed. It’s a fabulous time to be a content creator! As companies worldwide increasingly turn to creating content to generate leads and revenue, creating enough content has become a priority for most brands.
Great news for content creators, right? Right, until their first month on the job, and every piece of content is rejected, or worse -- gets published and falls flat. What happened? Well, usually what happens is no one invested time in getting their new content creator up to speed. One (or many) having the power to spread your messages with the single click of a button means each new piece of content can uphold -- or destroy -- your brand’s public image, not to mention unravel all the progress you've made with content 'til this point. Provide Buyer Persona Worksheets The strongest writers are only as effective as their knowledge of their audience. And many, many more things.
(Note: If you haven't developed buyer personas yet, here's a free template you can use to get you started.) Five Tips to Emotionally Connect Readers to Your Writing. Many bloggers produce content that is overflowing with great ideas, exciting potential, and great advice, but they don't know how to emotionally connect with readers, hold their attention, and get readers sucked into their blog posts and articles. Here, I want to give you five easy tactics you can use to instantly transform any blog post from an ordinary piece of content into an empathetic work of art. This article covers three main topics: 1. How to make your posts stand out 2. How to get readers sucked into whatever you write 3.
How to get readers to feel connected with you and your blog So, with that, let's get started. 1. If you've ever stopped to look around at what holds our attention today, you'd conclude three things do: music, television, and books. And what do all three have in common? They stimulate our emotions. If you look up the definition of "interesting" (as defined on dictionary.com), you'll find: "Arousing a feeling of interest. " That's what I'm going to get into now. 2. Why? Pixar's 22 rules of storytelling. These rules were originally tweeted by Emma Coats , Pixar's story artist. Number nine on the list—when you're stuck, make a list of what wouldn't happen next—is a great one and can apply to writers in all genres. 1. You admire a character for trying more than for their successes. 2. Keep in mind what's interesting to you as an audience, not what's fun to do as a writer.
They can be very different. 3. 4. 5. 6 . 7 . 8. 9 . 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. Is Content the New Currency? Between the endless Euro drama and the Bitcoin brouhaha, currency has been much in the news of late. Most people would probably name the US Dollar as the dominant currency in this day and age. While that may be true in one sense, is today’s preeminent currency even still money? Does money allow for a brand to buy trust? Or is it one’s digital footprint? What about social media profiles or properties? Perhaps the dominant currency today is, as smartly noted by Hugh MacLeod, social objects —or as many of us all call it, social content.
The dominance of the web and the human behavior spawned from it as a result has turned social content into a new, increasingly important, currency. We are now entrenched fully in the era of the sharing economy . The era of “Like/Follow/Fan” is fading into twilight. Sharing content helps us connect. Five Reasons Content Is the New Currency: Content has meaning beyond the data it contains. 5 Pillars For Brand Storytelling Success. Brand storytelling isn’t a new concept, but with the explosive growth of social media and content marketing, the opportunities to tell stories as part of direct and indirect brand marketing initiatives have become a strategic priority.
Marketers have been telling brand stories for years through advertising, in-person brand experiences, and so on, but the art of writing those brand stories as effective pieces of online content is a challenge that few are trained to do. That’s because the best brand storytellers understand the critical elements of fiction writing, which are skills that few marketers have been formally trained to do. Today’s strongest marketing team will have room for new roles like the data architect and the brand creative content director.
Following are five pillars that brand storytellers understand and use to intrigue, engage, and connect emotionally with consumers. These pillars include a mix of branding fundamentals and fiction writing basics. 1. Speak truthfully. 2. Rosa Margherita, Francis’ “theologian” grandmother. Visualize Your Success and It Will Come! 5 Secrets to Use Storytelling for Brand Marketing Success. Remembering the Challenger, and One of History’s Greatest Speeches. How I Did It: Leslie Blodgett of Bare Escentuals. Brands Must Master The Art Of Storytelling. Brand Storytelling: Connecting On The Values Level. How to tell your company's story infodoodles from ann handley of ma... 5 Story Mistakes Even Good Writers Make. Social Storytelling for Business: 3 Easy Steps to Better Convey Your Message.