Your Company Story
Here's one of the most useful techniques I know for getting your point across while humanizing you and your organization.
It is effectively a 30 to 45 second TV ad for your company, told in your own words.
What incidents make you proud?
What funny or even sad incidents express the spirit of your business?
What was the influence on your life that led you to this place?
Company stories should be:
Short (just a few sentences)
Unique
Clear (i.e. jargonless)
Concrete (to give a vivid image)
Exciting (let your passion shine through)
Service Oriented (the story teaches how well you serve your clients)
Strategic (based around what you want people to think of your business)
"I had some success in the media recently with the Olivier Internet Job Index, especially the description of the fall in multimedia jobs being like the descent of the Mir. People like Alan Jones are beginning to recognise the IJI as a rival to the ANZ job series. It's very rewarding because my client, Bob Olivier, and I have been working on this since August."
You're hearing Company stories all the time, over coffee, during meetings, and on emails - they're the human anecdotes that people love to tell about their work.
To make the most of them you need to put them into the formula.
Company stories can provide a circuit breaker in a tough interview ("Let me tell you why I love working here..."); they're fantastic in a speech or presentation; and often will be picked up by a journalist as a lead to an otherwise prosaic story.
This concept taken from Information Anxiety2 by Richard Wurland, which I highly recommend.
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