The power of storytelling

“Storytelling hasn’t changed, the way we do it has changed.”

Geoff Turral from StoryStream is a master storyteller on and off the web. His unconference felt like a self-help hour, as Geoff told the story of his transition from corporate life to starting his own business.

He talked of the adventure and the challenges he faced during this period of big change and how he arrived at the more steady feeling of being in control. “Pressure: you control, stress: you don’t” he advised. If we can learn to cherish what we worry about, it will become the fuel for our business success.

“The awakening for me was when the transition stopped being a threat,” Geoff continued.

When imagining the path of your business, he advised we go to the end of the road in our minds and think, ‘what is the worst that can happen?’

Geoff’s approach to content is to cut out the noise - “Don’t shout in the pub” is his analogy and he has used it to create a more succinct approach to content strategy - for him, firing things at your audience on Twitter sounds like an ‘anti-social strategy’, instead you should “scoop up what they are already saying and use that - it’s about content not context. Stop shouting and start listening.”

‘Get it together’, Geoff advises. Use your audience and the user generated content out there - Amazon and tripadvisor are great examples.

As a writer working is digital content strategy, I found Geoff’s talk enlightening. He is acting on what many in the industry have been saying for a while and has developed software that will make the process easier. The most inspiring part of the talk, for me, was the advice that we need to focus on what is really at the bottom of our anxiety - “Surface level concerns can’t be what traps you.”

http://www.crunch.co.ukBy Sophie Turton of Crunch

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