Breaking news! Baby elephants wear pyjamas to keep warm.
Everyone loves a good story. And every business needs to know how to tell them well. Because sharing the right stories about your products, services and staff can positively influence the way people - internally and externally - feel about you and your brand.
Even with the best intentions, it’s easy for communicators in businesses to tell the same old stories.
You face pressure from your sources - and anyone else who has to approve the work you do - to do things in a certain way. Someone with influence may say your perfect, simple and clear article dumbs down their message. A great piece may be torn to shreds by legal or brand teams.
The good news challenge
Another problem is that you’re mostly trying to tell good news stories. And good news isn’t easy to sell.
Look at any news website or newspaper and they’re saturated with scandals, conflicts and crime. Feel-good news is much harder to find.
So how do you tackle these challenges? How do you succeed in sharing stories that people actually want to read?
Traditional news values
A good basis for progress is to apply proven, traditional news values to the work you do. I studied the subject, as part of a journalism degree, at university. The names Galtung and Ruge, and Schlesinger and Bell are etched on my brain. They’re not brands of whisky.
Here are some of the values that these guys put forward. They can be easily applied to most forms of business writing and provide a strong, proven foundation, for readable, engaging content.
1. Personalise your stories
We all know that people are fascinated by people. We enjoy finding out how other people live, behave and work.
Every story you write should tap into this simple truth. Profiling a senior person in your business? Don’t just share the job stuff. Get them to reveal a little more about what makes them tick. Highlight something light, funny or inspiring.
Find out what they had for breakfast, what they did at the weekend, or a surprising fact that nobody else knows about them.
Little details open a window into someone’s soul.
Another way of connecting with a larger audience is to tie your story into the everyday problems or interests of people. I’m a pretty normal chap. I have a family, I like football, wine, reading and looking at property I can’t afford.
If you dryly informed me that you had a new CEO I probably wouldn’t be all that interested. Sorry. But if you told me he or she wanted to be an astronaut when they were a child - or that they idolised Arsene Wenger (surely somebody must), I’d immediately feel like I knew them.
If you told me company profits were booming at a faster rate than the London property market, I’d give you my time and have a read. Connect your messages back to the everyday. Appeal to people’s emotions and your stories will have more impact.
2. Remain neutral
It’s easy to sound like a salesman when you’re writing for a business you work for. And apologies to any salesmen reading, but no one likes a salesman.
Showing off and grandstanding about your company is never an effective strategy. If you’re reporting a news story or feature internally or externally, keep your writing objective and free from bias. Use quotes from people in the business to add the depth of opinion you need.
The most effective writing simply states the facts and gives readers room to make up their mind.
3. Unexpectedness
Tales of the unexpected are surefire winners. What do I mean by unexpected? If a man catches a fish, it’s not newsworthy. But if a man dressed as a fish rescues someone who’s drowning, whoop whoop, bring me my quill.
How do you apply this to your business communications? It’s all about finding an unusual angle to lead with. Like our man-fish, something that will hook your audience.
I wrote an article for a company’s internal magazine about an employee who’d completed 40 years’ service. A straight write-up would only appeal to those who knew him personally, which wouldn’t be a great return on investment for the company paying me for my services.
During our interview, among tales of his first day in work and top tips for success, he let slip that he was once confronted by a lion as he left work. It had escaped from a circus next door and had him trapped in his office. Journalistic gold!
So I led with the fact he’d come face to face with a lion - and built the service story around that. Suddenly the story had teeth. Bite. And other roar-ful puns. It was a great way of bringing in more readers - and sharing his success as an important and long-serving employee with a larger audience.
4. Unambiguity
That’s an overly ambiguous way of saying that if a story is easy to grasp, it makes for better copy. If you - or your story source - can’t explain their message in a sentence or two, then you/they need to go back to the drawing board and find an easier way to say it.
If readers don’t get a story after the first par, why would they bother hanging around to see if the next one helps them understand it? Whatever pressure you’re getting behind the scenes to include long-winded explanations or, worse still, jargon, you owe it to your readers to keep it short and keep it simple.
5. Continuity
Running stories are the ones with legs. The issues that have gathered momentum in the media - that lots of people in the street are talking about. It could be of minor national interest, like the EU referendum. Or of genuine national interest, such as whether Cheryl and Liam are really together.
If these are the issues people are talking about, you should embrace them in your business writing.
Let’s take the referendum. If your business has any vested interest in whether to stay in or out, now’s the time to take full advantage.
Every business is like a sardine tin packed with unique knowledge and expertise. Find a relevant expert who has something to contribute to these big debates. Post a blog from them on your website - and promote it on social media. Get them into your local paper, onto radio and TV.
Running news stories offer huge PR potential. Ride on their crest. It could be worth thousands in free marketing.
6. Create some Buzz’
Okay, this one isn’t a news value. It’s actually a sweeping statement.
People under 35 are tired of words. They want their information - for the most part - delivered in snappy, bitesize pieces. Buzzfeed style.
Your business content - the way you tell your stories - should reflect these trends.
You wouldn’t eat a whole Yorkie in one mouthful. But you might eat it in one sitting, after snapping it into chunks.
So instead of writing a straight news story, why not break it down into bitesize chunks, with snappy subheads. Introduce quizzes, lists and links to other resources and media.
Contact us
The Writing Lab once met Tom Jones in a bar in Bournemouth. That’s our story - and we’d love to help you tell yours. Get in touch here.