Yes. Or at least it should be. And yes it's effective. It's all said here in storytelling for business post. Credit to Joe Pulizzi for the find and Fathom for the great infographic. Great examples.
Revealing your Personality Tells your Story
A recent BtoB article
Conveying Personality states that "A company's advertising is the best opportunity it has to reflect the corporate personality..." I agree and disagree. Advertising might be great opportunity to create a personality for your brand. But there is a risk. If the crafted personality doesn't match your actual brand story, doesn't match what your customers and the public actually experience, they you've more than failed. You've created distrust. Much like the stainless steel DeLorean "sports car," you've over promised and under delivered. That's not what you want for your brand story.
Instead work to create and tell your brand story at every opportunity. Not just in your ads. It should be in how you answer the phone. How your office looks. Certainly your website. In fact, it could be argued that there are hundreds of touch points that have more impact than any ad. That's where you convey your personality.
You have more control than you think. Make sure your story is ready.
Where do you think is the most impact-full place to tell your brand story and reveal your brand personality?
Your Twitter Story
Can you tell a story with twitter?
Can you tell a story about your brand with twitter?
Absolutely. And of course it's already been done.
If you haven't started your twitter story, here are three tips from the HubSpot Inbound University before your do:
1. Look professional
2. Listen first, then respond
3. Contribute relevant, useful material
One of the best things about twitter is that you can enable your customers to tell the story for you. By listening then responding with useful content, your story will create itself as you continue the conversation.
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A Short Story from SXSW
Here is an excellent slideshare from a writer's workshop at SXSW '11 on writing the right story.
Who is the Enemy?
Do you know who your customer's enemy is? As importantly, do you state who they are out loud? Your marketing story is lacking if you don't.
We'll assume you know your protagonist, the customer, fairly well. Your marketing story needs to help them identify their enemy. Often our customers know they have problems, they just don't know who the enemy is. When that's the case, they don't know who or how to fight. Help them identify their antagonist and give them the tools to vanquish their enemy. People can't resist the epic battles between good and evil. Notice I didn't see the adventures of the good. It's not much of an adventure - or a very good story - without overcoming adversity or evil.
HubSpot is a great example of this idea in practice. In this recent blog post 8 Lessons.
Point 4 reveals how identifying an enemy was critical to their success.
"You Need An Enemy."
"For some reason, humans can’t resist the cops & robbers theme. When you create your marketing strategy, even if you are creating a new category, you need to polarize. In our case, we picked “outbound marketing” as the enemy. I remember my co-founder showing a slide of a kitten one time and stating something like “every time you buy a list and spam it, a kitten dies.”
Read the complete article on HubSpot blog post.
Stick to the Story Jack
Jack LaLanne passed on January 23. He was 96. "I can't die, it would ruin my image," was one of his most famous quotes. His image was one that he cultivated from the beginning. He found what worked for him, and he stuck with it. He didn't chase new fads, or create Jack LaLanne 2.0. He just told his story, in a very intentional and consistent way. That was enough. He was Jack LaLanne after all.
Seth Godin outlines 8 parts of Jack's story that made him what he was.
Image from www.jacklalanne.com