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.
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.