“The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching.”
Aristotle
The reason people tell a story is to try and make sense of the world around them. The story may only be a single image depicting some terrible tragedy or some great joy. The story could be a 1000 page novel or a few sentences, it does not really matter what form the story takes, the important point is it makes sense of the world around us.
This why an employee makes a great brand storyteller as they are already telling stories about the brand they work for. They tell stories about the brand to colleagues, friends, customers and usually anyone who will listen.
The Brand As An Employee Sees It
The problem with this kind of brand storytelling is that it is usually negative storytelling and highlights all the problems the employee is having at a given moment. This can be especially problematic for a brand when it is undergoing a time of competition pressures, economic downturns, organizational change, culture shifts or any internal pressures. The story the employee tells about the brand is going to be negative because of these pressures. A brand needs to focus on sharing positive stories with its employees because even in economic downturns or periods of organizational change individual employees can prosper if they rise to the challenge.These positive individual employee stories should be highlighted by the brand. Similarly there are positive product developments that are launched to deal with a new situation and these stories should be highlighted to all the employees.
Your Employee Makes A Motivated Storyteller
Despite any possible risks, your employee is the only person who can tell your brand story in an engaging manner. The person who works for a brand invariably has the inside track on your brand. An employee knows what your customers think your brand narrative is about because they are dealing with your customer’s everyday.
Since your employee will tell your story you should give them tips to it well.
3 Tips To Help An Employee Share A Brand Story
Employees tell the best brand stories when you don’t make them stick to a script. If an employee is allowed to tell a brand story in his or her own words it is instantly more believable to its audience. However you can give them guidelines on telling a brand story.
1.Keep The Story Honest
“No legacy is so rich as honesty. “
William Shakespeare
The most important rule of brand storytelling is that you should only tell honest stories. Even one dishonest story from a single employee devalues the entire brand. Do not make the mistake of thinking a story too boring and stretching the truth to enhance the audience’s attention. If your story sounds boring look for a more interesting angle.
2.Only Tell Positive Brand Stories
To engage an audience an employee needs to make their story upbeat and positive. An audience sees enough negative storytelling in any given day and will appreciate a positive story for a change.
3.Value Your Audiences Time
Let your employee know that they need to value their audience’s time. This means they need to keep their brand stories easy to understand ,short and to the point.
The Power Of Storytelling
The stories we tell have the power to change how the world sees an organization and just as importantly how an organization sees itself. This power resides with the story each employee shares with their colleagues and the rest of the world. Unless an organization can foster a culture of celebrating individual success, highlighting positive organizations gains and generally being honest with its self these stories will not succeed in changing the world around them.