The Value of Story-telling
Story-telling is at the core of what we do in Public Relations. When we are tasked with internal relations or change management activities, the power of storytelling becomes even more relevant, more personal, and intentionally, more influential. This week, Guest Blogger, Alethea Tu'itahi from Cloud Executive Services (Australia), shares her thoughts on converting lessons learnt into stories to influence other's behaviour.
Have you ever noticed
that we remember stories (especially fables) more easily than facts and
figures?
The power of words
weaved together with vibrant characters and relatable situations ensure that as
a reader it connects to our heart and therefore our mind.
Its not just some random
piece of text that is soon forgotten after it has been read. It’s a lesson that
we:
cry over,
smile over
laugh over,
and learn from.
It’s this very memorable
element of stories that I encourage my clients to tap into when creating
written content particularly around teaching somebody something.
AND the best place to
use it is when you want to vent.
When you are angry and
passionate we can easily go on a venting rampage online trying to correct what
has been misunderstood. Sometimes though our fury can make us get off track. The
fury of….
Someone receiving bad
advice,
Some random person
having a (negative) vocal misconception about how your industry works
Or just even clients
expecting you to give them the magic bullet (we know it just doesn’t work that
way 😉 )
BUT if you take a moment
to pause and think about how you can use this opportunity to educate and
transform it into a story, a fable of sort’s people will see the correct answer on their own! When the penny drops they
are more likely to remember AND take action on their newfound knowledge. Not
only that they will want to follow you and connect with you more (and
eventually BUY from you) because you become ever more attractive than your fury
fuelled competitor.
Just like the hare and
the tortoise racing – we learn a lesson about how to approach a goal and know
that being the fastest doesn’t always equal being the winner. So how does one
go about converting a lesson (be it an anger fuelled one or just a great lesson
in general) into a story?
Well try and write your
lesson as if you were having a conversation with a friend.
Design and describe a
protagonist and get to the main point fast.
Remember this isn’t a
mills & boon piece that someone is going to curl up on a couch and read –
we want to draw people in BUT we have to respect that most people don’t have
lots of time so lets make sure they absorb your amazing wisdom.
Short stories that have
penny-dropping endings with relatable characters (preferably that look exactly
like your target customer) are very powerful!
Want to see what this
would look like for one of your own existing blog posts? Book yourself in here and I will get one of my amazing writers to convert your
magic into a story for you!
To
connect with Alethea, please add her company on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CloudExecutiveServices/
Also,
feel free to check out Alethea’s website at: http://www.cloudxs.com.au/
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