One book that I find myself delving into every six months or so is The Story Factor by Annette Simmonds.
She writes about a topic that is close to my heart – the power of storytelling as a way to be influential.
One of the points Annette makes early in her book that resonates with me most is that:
people don’t need more information – they need ‘faith’ and that stories have the power to birth faith and trust
Of course faith and trust are essential items of you want to be influential in your relationships with others.
We live in a world where we’re literally bombarded with information all day every day. There’s nothing wrong with information, or having a blog that is ‘informational’ in nature – but if you want to make an impression on people, be the type of blog that people tell their friends about, that people want to ‘journey’ with – you need something more and ‘story’ is one element that can bring this.
I won’t regurgitate Annette Simmonds whole book here but what she writes makes sense in a lot of settings – particularly for bloggers.
In her introduction Annette introduces six types of stories that help if you want to influence others:
- “Who I Am” Stories
- “Why I Am Here” Stories
- “The Vision” Story
- “Teaching” Stories
- “Values-in-Action” Stories
- “I Know What You Are Thinking” Stories
As I was rereading the book again today I realized that story is important on a blog in two ways. For starters there are ‘single stories’ and then there is ‘the story’ of a blog.
‘Single Stories’ are when you tell a story in a blog post – it might be the full post or part of it. I have written a little more about using stories in this way previously.
‘The Story’ of a blog goes beyond any single post and is where readers catch a glimpse behind the blog, see it’s development, feel drawn into some kind of relationship with it or ownership of it.
Single stories in posts can be great but it is the story of a blog that draws readers into a loyal relationship with it – it’s a powerful thing.
Do you use Story in your blog? How and when have you used it and what impact has it had?
Stories are one of the most powerful and effective sales and marketing tools you have. When you tell the right story at the right moment to the right people you make your point without specifically making your point.
When you try to cram the wrong story down the throats of people at the wrong time you lose big.
Story is central to the human experience – in every medium!
http://johnlynnerpeterson.com/gallery/6050053_SrGWu
Change HAPPENS! We tell stories using the mantra – Produce Once, Publish EVERYWHERE!
http://johnlynnerpeterson.com/gallery/8478134_mADAp
Good stories inspire action!