Jimmy Buffett has an incredible business mind and a true entrepreneurial spirit. (There are unsubstantiated rumours that he is related to Warren Buffett, so the business part of his brain kind of makes sense.) He was one of the first in the music business to embrace digital technology; he recognized the coming shift in the music industry and left his big name label to start his own. He has ownership in two successful restaurant chains (Margaritaville and Cheeseburger in Paradise), interests in hotels and he just opened the Margaritaville Casino in Las Vegas. He still performs worldwide, has made over 30 albums, written several books (four made it to the New York Times Bestseller list), and he pilots his own plane… the list of his accomplishments goes on and on. And, of course, above all else, Jimmy is a storyteller. We talked about storytelling a lot in our interview.

I recently pulled out my interview notes and took a look at what Jimmy told me back then. His key points about storytelling are relevant, even for those of us who tell stories in a more corporate environment than Jimmy does.

Spend More Time Listening

One of the first things Jimmy told me was that he has stories to tell because he spends most of his time listening. It was obvious that he is interested in what others have to say. This man has done tens of thousands of interviews, knows how to give good sound bites and he is a consummate professional when it comes to the interview process. Yet, less than two minutes into our interview, he started asking me questions too. (The first one was why I knew so much about him!) Jimmy Buffett is an interesting person, but what I think a lot of people don’t realize is that he is really interested in everything. He engages people, asks questions, finds out what they think; he learns their story.

This is a valuable lesson for a communicator. We can be so focused on what we want the story to be—driven by deadlines and focused on key messages and positioning—that we forget to really listen. Sometimes really interesting stories are told to us and we don’t hear them because we have an agenda in our head. Other times, we are so busy multi-tasking, that we don’t even realize what is really being shared with us. Take your attention out of your own head and put it on the person in front you. It may sound simple, but it will bring big results.

Develop Compelling Characters

This doesn’t mean that you have to write about pirates, sailors and island eccentrics like Jimmy does, but—relevant to your brand—you should showcase what is interesting, unique, and even a little quirky about the people you are profiling.

Have a CEO who is a jazz musician by night or a customer service rep who does the Ironman? Share that. It is more compelling than knowing where they got their MBA or being told what business awards they have won.

A good story takes us into the lead character’s world—we get to know the real person, who they are when they aren’t at work, what drives them, what inspires them, and what scares them. We want to know what makes them leap out of bed in the morning and what drives them to keep going when times are tough. Bring the whole person to life, not just their professional résumé.

Use Words to Paint a Picture

No matter what the medium, Jimmy paints a compelling picture using words. From his songs to his books to what he talks about in concert—when he tells you a story, he describes the location, the people and the events in a way that makes you feel as if you are there. (Even the menu items in his restaurants tell their own story!)

We live in a world that is often shaped by statistics and facts. As communicators we are diligent about making sure the information we provide is accurate. We curse misinformation and errors. A good (corporate) storyteller uses stats and facts as the foundation, but then focuses on bringing the people, the place and the event to life. No one ever climbed Mt. Everest, changed a corporate culture or invented life-altering technology because they were inspired by stats and facts. If all you have are facts and stats, then you have a report, not a story. A good story is based in fact, but what connects us is the heart and soul of it.

Don’t Forget to Have Fun

Corporate storytelling can be challenging, but if you follow Jimmy’s advice, it gets much easier. And it’s so much more fun! Which was the last piece of advice that Jimmy gave me. He said, “No matter what you do, just don’t forget to have fun with it. If you aren’t having fun, it makes for really long, boring days. And no one needs that.”

…And if you’re reading this Jimmy, I’d love to buy you a cold one and talk “storytelling” with you again. (I will be at Margaritaville Las Vegas on February 22 from 6 – 8 p.m. sitting at the bar, listening.)

There are some standard approaches to storytelling that consistently work – if you have compelling content. There is the “Hero’s Quest.” This tells the story of someone standing up – against the odds – for what they believe in. We have had many opportunities to use this in showcasing how individuals in an organization brought social responsibility to their workplace or how they overcame personal challenges to grow and evolve, and what that experience means to their professional role.

The “Coming of Age” is the story of transformation where there is a valuable life lesson that is learned through experience. This storyline can be very effective in our wired world. We have used it to showcase how an organization grew and evolved, how another embraced new methods of employee attraction and retention, and how one embraced the new conversational approach of social media and the active, online consumer.

There is the “Stranger in a Strange Land” approach, which speaks to change and how to adapt. We have used this with great success when introducing a new CEO or senior executive that has come from another industry.

And we can’t forget the “Romance” – in a corporate environment, this would be called “Collaboration” – which we have used during mergers and acquisitions, when two diverse divisions or departments were given an opportunity to work together.

These are just a few of the classic storylines that you can use to tell your story. At the heart of it is the human interest component, which we will talk more about in Thursday’s post.

Once you have defined your storyline and understand what it is you want to share, it is also important to identify the medium (or mediums) that will work for your stakeholder groups. Often we develop a storyline that is told through different mediums, which gives us the opportunity to share different aspects of the story. Writing a profile article is very different than a feature piece; telling the story through video will showcase different aspects than a print piece. A podcast is different again.

It isn’t just about what medium will tell the story most effectively; it’s also about how your target audience wants to engage. We often reach out with a brief survey and ask them whether they would prefer to read an article or watch a video or, in some cases, listen to the podcast. Instead of assuming, go to the stakeholder group and ask.

Step 1: Clearly identify your stakeholder groups.

This blog post isn’t about what to do should your organization be faced with an issue or a crisis. It is about what you can do today, proactively, even if there isn’t the slightest evidence that there might be a challenge in your future. (A word of warning: A small mistake by someone in your organization could get a lot of interest online and turn into a huge crisis. Don’t think a crisis would never happen to you. It can. And at some point, it likely will.)

Back to today’s post…

We are often asked to develop issues and crisis communications plans for clients. One of the components that we include focuses on what the organization is doing now, at this moment, when there isn’t a challenge looming on the horizon. We find that there are a lot of organizations that aren’t proactively building relationships with their stakeholder groups. Not only is that dangerous, but it’s bad business. (Marketing and sales information doesn’t count as relationship building material, just for the record. And from what I have seen on some Twitter and Facebook pages, there are organizations out there that don’t realize that.)

Using Groupon or promoting a product or service through advertising, direct marketing or other channels is fine, but if that is the only connection you have with your stakeholder group, then you aren’t building relationships—you are setting up transactions. Transactions don’t necessarily create loyalty, encourage your customers or clients to tell others about your organization, and they won’t come to your defence if you are facing an issue or crisis.

We have clients in diverse industry sectors. At first glance, some seem to have more sizzle than others; their stories are easy to identify. For others, it takes a bit of digging to see what would be of interest. However, in all the years that I have been a story chaser, both as a journalist for Maclean’s and as a communicator, I have not yet found one industry or organization that didn’t have a compelling story to tell to their stakeholder group. And that’s the thing to remember—the whole world doesn’t have to be engaged, just your stakeholder group.

The first step to proactively building relationships with your stakeholders is to clearly identify each of your stakeholder groups. Who are they? What is the relationship to your organization and to each other? What do they want to know about your organization? (Not what you want to tell them, but what do they want to know?) How do they want to learn about you? (Facebook, Twitter, your website, a blog, etc.) What traditional media do they read, watch or listen to? Spend some time really getting to know who your stakeholders are. You might be surprised at what you learn.

For our clients, we spend time understanding their stakeholders. Depending on the project, we often create stakeholder character profiles complete with visuals, personalities, likes and dislikes. It’s a creative exercise that gets us thinking about how we need to share information.

Stay tuned for my next blog post on how to identify your organization’s interesting and compelling story.

Click here for a link to the story.

One of my professional goals is to work with more clients who realize that great PR is about building relationships, about educating and informing, and about engaging with your target market or stakeholder group. Social media has made a huge impact on public relations. There are many avenues for great PR and they include traditional approaches and new media. One of the areas I am excited about is in the area of brand journalism. Brand journalism allows organizations to create interesting, useful pieces – video, articles, Q&As and more – that share relevant information that is of value to the stakeholder group.

We recently worked with a client who was concerned that if they took a brand journalism approach it would mean that their objectives would be left behind – that they would be putting budget towards something that doesn’t have measurable results. Their CEO was committed to creating a different avenue to communicate directly with stakeholders (who were consumers). They were surprised (and relieved) when we explained that not only can (and should) a brand journalism approach support the organization’s objectives, but also that response and reaction can be measured.

Brand journalism is about telling your organization’s story in an interesting and compelling manner. When we start a brand journalism project, we work with our clients to define their objectives and goals, we research and develop interesting (and authentic and true) story angles, and we define how the story should be told – articles, video, podcasts, town hall meetings, online live question and answer sessions, etc. – by understanding who the target audience is and what they want. In order to measure, we need to clearly understand what the goals and objectives are and we need to know the current status – where are you now and where do you want to go?

Brand journalism is an editorial approach to telling your organization’s story in a credible and interesting way. Think about a segment you might see on the morning news and how it shows more than just the sales pitch for an event, a product or a service. It talks about trends, about why something is becoming popular or important, and it focuses on why it matters to the audience. It focuses on the human interest component – the heart and soul. It’s about people, the experience and about providing some type of information that is of value to you. That’s what a good brand journalism piece or campaign should be – what it should do is make the person reading or watching feel like their time was well-spent, that they learned something, and that they have a new or different perspective. They should never feel like they are being sold.

Here’s to a fun, challenging and successful 2012 – filled with great and authentic stories and clients!

It was refreshing to read this article on pitching on Ragan.com. New York Times Tech Journalist David Pogue talks about the pitches that grabbed his attention. (Just for the record, we are big fans of Pogue!) It’s worth a read. And if you think the information provided by a tech journalist isn’t relevant to your organization and what you want to pitch – you’re dead wrong. This approach translates to almost any proactive media pitch for any industry. It’s about being relevant, being timely, understanding what the journalist or blogger is interested in, and catching their attention in a way that works for that particular blogger or journalist.

Great media and blogger relations takes time. Don’t slap together a news release and shotgun it out to everyone. It doesn’t work that way anymore!

The Organization Blog

This blog is a little less about the person writing it than it is about the organization as a whole. Often there will be several writers who cover a range of topics and areas regarding the organization. It might be that different departments or division heads each write one blog post a week about news, events and interesting points relevant to their area.

In this style, it is more like local news and opinion coverage, with a little thought-leadership, than the more personal column style of the CEO or President’s blog.

There is more organization and focus needed here to make sure that there is a flow of subjects and that writers don’t duplicate efforts or put out conflicting information – which we all know can happen when there are multiple voices. Often, the communications team would act as the news editor and review all the information before it is posted to ensure that overall consistency in style and tone is reflected.

The Employee Blog

These can be the most engaging – if you have the right employee(s) writing the blog posts. It has been our experience that organizations have some incredible people working on the front lines who are great at blogging. It’s these people who have engaging, interesting, amazing stories that showcase the product or services that you offer – and the heart and soul of your organization: the people.

There are, of course, challenges here. Not everyone on the front lines understands what should and should not be shared publicly. Training and coaching can be helpful here. The other side of this is that sometimes, as communicators, we get caught up in positioning, messaging and talking points. Having someone who lives the brand every day write the blog posts can bring us back to a reality that is important. There are times when it’s okay to say things are challenging and when it’s okay to talk about an issue and how it was resolved. Most people want to know about the heart of an organization – not just what your product or service does for them. They want to know how you act when there is an issue; they want to know what the day is like for someone who works there – to understand the challenges that you face and how you deal with them.

The Blend

Some of the best blogs we’ve helped develop and maintain are the ones that bring the CEO and the employees into the spotlight. The CEO might blog on Fridays, while a team of employee bloggers rotate through the other days. Some of the most popular blog posts have been where employees interview the CEO or the CEO speaks with employees and finds out about their role in the company.

The blend blog style allows for some great human interaction that showcases the people behind the product or service, something we’re all interested in knowing more about.

Does your organization have a blog? Who writes it?