Storytelling for Business

For more than 25 years, storytelling has been at the core of everything Rob Wozny has accomplished as an intrepid senior journalist, creative content strategist, and proven business communicator. Leveraging his passion and experience for storytelling, Rob works with business owners and leaders to understand their goals and align them with business storytelling ideas, personalized to attract and engage the people that matter most to them. Author location: Manitoba, Canada

• PrologueChapter 1: The Story Behind The StoryChapter 2: The (Growing!) Need for StorytellingChapter 3: Build Your Own Media NetworkChapter 4: Choose Your ChannelChapter 5: Managing The MediaChapter 6: People PowerChapter 7: Audience AnalysisChapter 8: When a Story Goes SidewaysChapter 9: The Inside StoryChapter 10: Making Measurement MatterChapter 11: The Stories You Tell YourselfEpilogueAcknowledgmentsAbout the Author Chapter OneChapter one explores what makes a compelling story for your business, including the structures, tools, strategies, and the science behind why people are influenced by the power of storytelling. The chapter gives you a fulsome perspective on what you need, while providing the peace of mind that less is sometimes more, when “more” is so readily and easily available.Chapter TwoChapter two examines the (growing) need for storytelling in companies and organizations, along with the benefits of investing in storytelling for business. The chapter offers the most important reasons why business storytelling is such a worthwhile endeavour for your business, correlated by evidence of return on investment.Chapter ThreeChapter three explains how to build your own media network to distribute your storytelling content, complemented by ideas and concepts on how to maximize the storytelling for your business. The chapter cautions not to become overwhelmed by near-infinite options and how to decide what media ultimately is best for the story of your business.Chapter FourChapter four dives into why people consume content on social media, making your storytelling amendable to your stakeholders via these platforms (your own media network), plus some of the other channels of communication your business can incorporate into your business storytelling.Chapter FiveChapter five delves into one of the most impactful channels of amplifying your business storytelling – the mainstream media, whose own social media networks are in some cases more powerful than some of their own traditional channels. While a palatable storytelling option, the chapter covers some of the risk and reward of working with the media.Chapter Six Chapter six showcases the most important element of storytelling for business - people. Along with how to choose your storytellers, chapter six shows you how to prepare them to communicate your messages effectively and accurately, while coming across as genuine and interesting. Chapter SevenChapter seven identifies who are the most influential people you need to reach to take a desirable course of action, influenced by the storytelling of your business. The chapter goes into greater detail on how they think and act in relation to your storytelling content, and how and where to find them.Chapter EightChapter eight guides you through how to respond and recover if the story of your business does not go as planned, generating a negative response, or inadvertently harming the operations of your organization. Presented as When a Story Goes Sideways, this chapter covers some strategies to prevent sideways stories from occurring in the first place and who you need on your team to help you with this important risk-mitigation strategy.Chapter NineChapter nine looks inward to tell the story of your business from an internal perspective. Your internal stakeholders, especially your employees, are the most powerful storytellers within your networks. The chapter explores how to identify and empower them to be your organization’s ultimate ambassadors.Chapter TenChapter ten investigates why measurement matters in storytelling for business. The chapter explains some of the leading benchmarks and tools to measure if your storytelling succeeded in supporting the goals of the organization, and how you can leverage them to track ROI.Chapter ElevenChapter eleven reveals that storytelling for business is not always an easy journey, but certainly worth taking the risk as the benefits can be profound and rewarding, both personally and professionally. The chapter provides some guidance and advice on storytelling perseverance in the face of some detractors who may try to knock you back, but elucidating you to the bigger storytelling picture.

A direct book with actionable advice, great for anyone working in marketing or looking to expand their own social media outreach. How to tell a story that builds a business or brand, this book focuses on the "business" side but plenty of examples and advice for everyone making money online.