You can’t do the telling without the story
Storytelling happens long before the first word is written or spoken. Business storytellers prepare. If done well, your communications team has the ability to tailor that story for the nuances of their preferred media. If done poorly (or more likely not at all), those same team members are left to their own devices and interpretations. Sound familiar?
Enterprises rarely have the luxury of being able to tell their stories uninterrupted. Media doesn’t work that way. So, they must orchestrate ways to trigger a story in their customers’ minds. By carefully matching the right story elements with the limitations of the telling medium, business storytellers create context for customers to piece-together their own stories.
But you can’t trigger a story until you’ve developed it first.
Story preparation fuels the telling engine. When your communications team understands the entire story, each member can then tell it within the context of their preferred medium. Advertising can work within the restrictions of the online banner, column-inch, or 30-second spot. PR can write a press release. Marketing can comply with the corporate branding policies of the product detail page. And the social team can work within 140 characters (Twitter), square images (Instagram), or six second videos (Vine).
Put story prep at the center of all enterprise communications efforts. Develop the story; give it to your team; and get out of the way.
Photo credit: Library of Congress