The Storytelling Edge: How to Transform Your Business, Stop Screaming into the Void, and Make People Love You

PRAISE FOR THE STORYTELLING EDGE

"A terrific and timely book that makes a compelling case for fundamentally rethinking how your business communicates. Recommended!"
JAY BAER, founder of Convince & Convert and author of Hug Your Haters

"Once upon a time, storytelling was confused with talking at people. Not anymore. Shane and Joe are your narrators in a journey that will transform how you talk to other human beings to be more believable, relevant, compelling and unforgettable."
BRIAN SOLIS, experience architect, digital anthropologist, best–selling author

"Neuroscience, algorithms, illustrations, personal anecdotes and good, old–fashioned empathy: This entertaining and informative tome journeys to the core of how we communicate and pushes us, as marketers and humans, to do it better, ′speeding the reader through′ and leaving us wanting more."
ANN HYNEK, VP of Global Content Marketing at Morgan Stanley

Content strategists Joe Lazauskas and Shane Snow offer an insider′s guide to transforming your business and all the relationships that matter to it through the art and science of telling great stories.

Smart businesses know that they need to use stories to connect to the people they care about. But few know how to do it well. In The Storytelling Edge, the content strategy minds behind Contently, the world renowned content marketing technology company, reveal their secrets that have helped award–winning brands to build relationships with millions of advocates and customers.

Join as they dive into the neuroscience of storytelling, the elements of powerful stories, and methodologies to grow businesses through engaging and accountable content.

With The Storytelling Edge, you will discover how leaders and workers can craft the powerful stories that not only build brands and engage customers, but also build relationships and make people care in work and in life.

Acknowledgments xiii

About the Authors xv

Introduction xvii

Stories Matter xviii

Businesses Need to Tell Good Stories xix

Workers and Leaders Need to Tell Good Stories xx

Who Are We? xx

Why This Book? xxii

1 The Power of Story 1

Jacques and the Beggar 4

And Now for Shane s Favorite Ryan Gosling Story 5

Our Brains Are Built for Story 8

Stories Help Us Remember 10

Stories Generate Empathy at the

Chemical Level 12

Stories Bring Us Together 14

With Great Power . . . 19

2 The Elements of Great Storytelling 23

Element 1: Relatability 25

Element 2: Novelty 29

What Movie Popularity Data Tell Us about

Novelty 31

Element 3: Tension 35

Element 4: Fluency 38

3 Honing Your Storytelling Chops 41

Universal Storytelling Frameworks 43

The Ben Franklin Method for Improving Story Skills 48

The Sludge Report 52

4 Transforming Business with Storytelling 57

How Stories Make Products and Services Better 62

Stories Make Advertising Better 68

Stories Make Your Sales Conversions Better 71

Stories Make Your Hiring Process Better 73

Stories Build Your Brand 74

How We Built the Most Influential Content

Strategy Blog on Earth 79

#1: Committing to a Mission 79

#2: Getting Smart about Audience 81

#3: Establishing a Strategic Methodology 83

5 The Killer Formula for Building an Audience 85

The CCO Pattern: Create, Connect, Optimize 87

Connect: The Storytelling Bull s–Eye 94

Create: The Story Funnel–Matrix 100

Optimize: Cranking the Efficiency 104

6 The Brand Newsroom 113

The Talent Race 116

The Virtual Newsroom 118

What Type of Newsroom Do You Prefer? 119

7 The Future of Brand Storytelling 121

#1: Breakthrough Quality Storytelling 125

#2: Rigorously Strategic 128

#3: Tech–Enabled and Data–Optimized 132

The Content Decision Engine 135

The Content Operating Wheel 136

Strategy 138

Plan 142

Create 145

Activate 148

Optimize 150

8 The Storytelling Habit 157

Selling Storytelling Inside Your Organization 160

A Culture of Storytelling 164

May the Story Force Be with You 165

Notes 167

Index 169

JOE LAZAUSKAS is director of content strategy and editor–in–chief of Contently, Inc., which SHANE SNOW cofounded with Joe Coleman and Dave Goldberg. Contently is a thriving technology company with a suite of software that helps Fortune 500 companies (and others) to create, manage, and optimize content to build relationships with employees and customers.