During my time at Bentley, I took a variety of business courses. We all know that to be a successful business person in today’s world, you need a variety of skills and exposure to many different ways of thinking.
In one class, Professor Tim Anderson introduced the talking stick.
He explained to us that it was an ancient tradition. Whoever held the talking stick was the person talking. They could hold on to it as long as they wanted, say whatever they wanted and everyone else had to allow them to speak and not interrupt.
Every so often we’d take a day off from a traditional class and pass the talking stick around the room. You never knew what you were going to hear.
Today, every company is competing for attention. There is a constant rush of new content being published in every medium imaginable and it is impossible to see, read and listen to everything.
Content marketing is something we are all trying to master. There are new tools every week, new sites to examine and waves of options to get you started.
Since I wrote the bestselling book on the topic, people ask me all the time how they can get started. Today I’m going to share that advice with you.
You need to start thinking of the talking stick with all of your marketing.
It doesn’t matter if you are a small accounting firm or a Fortune 500 company. The rules are the same for everyone.
Start with telling your own story. You know it better than anyone else. Start thinking beyond the advertising copy and find the nuggets of uniqueness that make you who you are.
GORUCK is a lifestyle brand that makes a variety of military-quality gear for everyday use. Its website has the standard product pages full of photos and specifications — but take some time to read their blog and look at their social media accounts and you’ll see they rarely talk about the products.
Instead, while they are holding the talking stick they are sharing photo essays on their CEO’s visits to American manufacturing facilities around the country. Stories about their mascot Java and how much he loves to play can’t help but make you smile. Profiles of their latest class to go through a GORUCK Challenge with heartfelt congratulatory messages are prominent.
So why are they not promoting their products? Shouting about the latest sales and special offers?
Remember how a key part of the power of the talking stick is passing it on to the next person?
People like me and the legion of GORUCK fans are the ones promoting the brand. When we have the talking stick, the promotion is authentic and true because it comes from our heart and is said with our voices. Every tweet, status update or blog post comes with a level of honesty that no brand can ever get away with.
The great thing about this approach, in addition to it working, is that there is a never-ending stream of new content possibilities. The brand shares what it loves and what makes them unique, so creating new content doesn’t ever become a chore. Add in all the content being created and shared by everyone else and it adds to the pile of information that they can share across all social channels.
Ford was an early adopter in realizing the importance of storytelling and created Ford Social. This dedicated site not only collects both the corporate-created content, but openly encourages every Ford owner to share their own stories and ideas.
Spend some time on the site and you’ll quickly realize that you forget if what you are looking at is something from the company or from a customer. The lines blur and what the consumer cares about is getting the information they are looking for.
Storytelling is an art, but it is also a skill that you must develop and get better at. The only way to do this is to start today and keep doing it over and over.
We now live in a social world. Technology allows each of us to carry a production studio in our pocket and tell our story from anywhere in the world.
Pick up the talking stick today and determine how best to pass it to your community to help you and your business.
C.C. Chapman is a Boston-based storyteller, explorer and humanitarian. Since graduating from Bentley in 1996, he has launched and sold a successful marketing agency, spoke to audiences around the world and written two best-selling books. His newest book, Amazing Things Will Happen is out now. Find out more at CC-Chapman.com.