May 20, 2014 Beth Monaghan
Reporting is not storytelling. Successful PR campaigns rest on great stories, not just great facts.
Dictionary.com defines “reporting” this way: an account or statement describing in detail an event, situation, or the like, usually as the result of observation, inquiry, etc.
The most important part of that definition is the phrase “usually as a result of observation.” It implies the presence of context, insight. Facts are important because they validate the story. Yet on their own, they lack context. When companies look to make their stories public, the facts can distract them from the stories that make those facts interesting. It is the difference between beginning the discussion with WHY versus WHAT. What you do is simply the proof of how you think.
To break through the clutter and distracted attention we’re all clamoring for amid today’s connected age of mobile, social, digital, and its associated busyness, we need a compelling story.
As I blazed through Greg McKeown’s book, Essentialism, it reminded me of the roots of a compelling story. McKeown asserts that the most successful people say no to 90 percent of the opportunities in front of them, in favor of the 10 percent that help them achieve their personal and professional goals. Amen! (And by the way, if you have not read Essentialism, I recommend buying it today and reading it tomorrow.)
Great storytelling requires a willingness and ability to dig until we find the 10 percent that will ring through the noise – the proverbial signal. McKeown recounted a story about the writer Nora Ephron (of “Sleepless in Seattle” fame). During a high school journalism class her teacher explained the concept of a lead – who, what, why, where and when. For PR people, these are the makings of our press releases.
Ephron’s teacher gave her these facts: “Kenneth L. Peters, the principal of Beverly Hills High School, announced today that the entire high school faculty will travel to Sacramento next Thursday for a colloquium in new teaching methods. Among the speakers will be anthropologist Margaret Mead, college President Dr. Robert Maynard Hutchins,” etc.
Ephron and her class then wrote their news stories, which their teacher declared were all wrong. Not one student found the lead, which was this: “There will be no school on Thursday.”
I spend my days looking for those stories. At InkHouse, we ask clients strange questions about their personal passions and activities. We ask what motivated them to start their companies. We ask what keeps them up at night. We ask them to imagine our world in five to 10 years. These questions help uncover the story. And sometimes, it’s the story that bubbles up from the facts but was hidden under a pile of information, as was the case in Ephron’s story.
What are the 10 essentials to your story? Now delete nine!
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