Public Relations: Let Us Yell Your Story

Tom over at Advertising for Peanuts (which is kind of cool) posts about Joining the Story versus merely telling tour story.

Spot freaking on.

If all you need is to have your story told, tell it. But that’s a monologue. See who listens. Still, involving your organization in a dialogue with its customers – and any other audiences – is much simpler.

That’s not to say easier.

The Dominant Narrative Theory is all about recognizing that the version you choose to tell about your brand (city, product, whatever) is not automatically the one that takes hold. That’s kind of where I come in, but I digress …

The old model – the mass media model – was to ignore all those other voices and try to shout them down. Buy more space, hang more paper, hold a bigger event. Essentially, spend your opponent into oblivion. See who can bleed the longest.

Let’s call that Yelling Your Story.

Technology and increasingly savvy audiences have created a new model: building relationships. If you’re not excited about your relationship with your customers, why should they be? That cute actor you hired to represent your company is not the only one who speaks for your company.

Who else? In a viral world, here’s a short list:

You, your boss, your team, your receptionist, your parking attendant, sales force, product specialists, mail room, landlords, janitorial staff, neighbors, friends, freight broker, employees, their families, their friends, their families’ friends, the guy who fixes the ice machine, the creep who follows you on Twitter, that old dude in accounting who doesn’t speak to anybody, the lady who sits next to him on the bus to work, the kid who brings the sandwiches, his mom, her sister, the guy who does their hair, all the other people whose hair he does, their families, their friends …

h/t: kd



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