Over the last few months a hot topic in the media has been business storytelling. Entrepreneur's How to Become Your Company's Storyteller is a good example. It explains the reason business stories are becoming so important:
"These days, corporate-weary consumers care more and more about buying locally, supporting independent businesses and owning products that are made sustainably and responsibly. They want to know the story of what they're buying, who is selling it and what causes it may support."
Another good story on small business storytelling is The Power of Storytelling for Businesses. It includes a small business storytelling guide.
Large corporations have embraced storytelling. According to the soon to be released book Lead with a Story:
"At Nike, all senior executives are designated "corporate storytellers." 3M banned bullet points years ago and replaced them with a process of writing "strategic narratives." Procter & Gamble hired Hollywood directors to teach its executives storytelling techniques."
The rise of storytelling is one of the reasons we choose "Being Human" as one of our top 10 small business trends for 2012.
Customers no longer want to do business with firms that are focused short-term, transactional, profit-oriented business relationships. Instead, customers that want to engage with firms that are authentic, honest, strive for "win-win" and treat them them as human beings.
With Big Data (also in our 2012 top trends list) becoming more common, so will storytelling. It's one of the tools that will be used to explain large and complex datasets.
Business stories are important aspect of having a business. As a customer, I myself want to know the story behind the business I am supporting, its struggles, hardship and success. I am really inspired with those business stories. Forgetting messaging is going to be a big challenge!
Posted by: Affordable Auto Insurance | February 10, 2012 at 07:54 AM
Business stories are important aspect of having a business. As a customer, I myself want to know the story behind the business I am supporting, its struggles, hardship and success. I am really inspired with those business stories.
Posted by: small business crm | February 03, 2012 at 01:47 AM
James: Thanks for the pointer to the video. Forgetting messaging is going to be a big challenge!
Posted by: Steve | February 02, 2012 at 08:40 AM
Hey Steve - first post to your blog which caught my attention. I had the good fortune to interview comic Tim Washer who created IBMs Art of the Sale videos. He had great advice which is to forget 'messaging'!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5BghAhnMOs
Posted by: James Kirk | February 02, 2012 at 07:11 AM