If you want to engage the media, and your audience, you need to find a good story and tell it well. Here PR professionals offer advice and give top tips for telling real people’s stories.

Put your audience first. Kelly McDaid, head of content partnerships at voucher website vouchercloud, says: “I think tone of the biggest traps for new PR professionals is writing stories that clients or businesses want to be told instead of ones that audiences want to hear and engage with. Experience means balancing these requirements and still delivering a quality product. Ultimately, PR is about connecting with audiences. If you can’t connect with the subject of the piece you’re writing, engaging is going to be that much harder.”

Find real people’s stories. Sian Gaskell, managing director of PR agency CubanEight, says: “Telling a story from a personal point of view is always important, maybe even more so in the world of B2B than B2C. Ultimately, no matter how amazing the technology, or service, what people really care about is the impact is has on real people.

“We always take a hearts and minds approach – if we are working with a B2B brand it’s about focusing on the customer pain points and benefits so that it resonates with the audience. Case studies bring stories to life – we worked with an energy company rolling out smart meters and used examples of real people to tell the story about why this was a good thing (transparency of usage, accurate billing) and bring it to life. Real people talking about real benefits resonated with the media, and we would always see a spike in enquiries when a case study ran in the press.“

See the highlighted panel below for tips for finding, and telling, the stories of real people.

Make sure it is ‘real’ news. Peter Davenport, former senior journalist with The Times and consultant at PR agency Definition, says: “What makes news is a perennial question and one made more complex in an age of social media and the proliferation of news outlets.

“Real news is made up of the events and happenings that impact our lives, whether in politics, crime, health, society, environmental or business. This is real news created by an established process. However, it can also be the unexpected, such as natural disasters or a terrorist incident or, on a lighter note, an unusual twist to a routine event.

“On the other hand, ‘fake news’, ‘celebrity news,’ slanted opinions and meaningless surveys are designed to create an aura of importance or relevance but which, in reality, are artificial. Busy journalists won’t appreciate being ‘sold’ anything which falls into the categories above. However, creating stories about real people with real meaning, which illustrate and humanise current issues or trends is a good way to generate coverage.”

Capture imaginations. Jo Willey, former Daily Express Health Editor, director of Jo Willey Media and media maestro at virtual healthcare agency The Difference Collective, says: “I’ve spent decades working in national newspaper newsrooms so my nose for a story is highly tuned. I am constantly asking clients ‘What's the story?’. ‘So what?’. ‘Who cares?’. ‘Why is that interesting?’.

“Because, let's face it. We human beings are all storytellers. It is, in a large part, what makes us human. Stories are how we communicate with each other and form relationships. They are how society formed, how communities are created and how they continue to thrive.

“A great story is one which captures the reader’s imagination in some way. Be it unusual, surprising, heart-warming, shocking, the media thrives on extremes and EVERY story you read or hear has a human element.

“Brands all have a story to tell. Failing to grasp that and work out what that story is and how best to tell it to engage with their customers is a recipe for disengagement and eventual doom.”

Learn from gossip. Simon Harrison, senior director, corporate at communications agency MSL Group, says: “News is a break in the status quo. It is something that is happening today that was not happening yesterday. All news is information, but very little information is news. All that is also true of gossip.

“A story that is worthy of gossip is one that resonates with an audience and drives a human response. Successful gossip tells us something we didn’t know before and – crucially – that others may not know.

“Storytelling should keep the notion of gossip at its core. Too many corporate narratives keep everyone happy and no-one interested. Gossip could never do that because it would fail. It has to reveal something new. The test of a good story is often whether the reader wants to share it. If we think about the narratives we like to pass on ourselves we’ll get back to the core.

“We need to give people something to gossip about.”

Be authentic. Gaby White, senior account executive at agency Carrington Communications, says: “Transparency and authenticity has never been more important for business. Sharing stories which reveal something about the people behind a brand, or the customers they serve, will ultimately get you that coverage too.”

Get under your company’s skin.
Andy Williams, co-MD at agency Cohesive Communications, says: “The human instinct to make and tell stories is as strong as that to walk on two legs – and even more unique. There are genes for it, that passed the test of natural selection at least 30,000 years ago. They allowed Sapiens – you and I – the crushing advantage of sharing ‘a meeting of minds’. In a world that requires us to connect, collaborate and cut-through at an accelerating pace, that’s maybe more relevant today than ever.

“If you are a leader or marketer of a business and you don’t harness this latent capability, then you are likely to fail. The world has a growing attention deficit. Sharing bland information, trumpeting claims and counterclaims – none of that cuts through. But your story can.

“Understand the real purpose of your business. What does it exist to do? Why is it so gifted at doing it? What strengths, talents, beliefs and ethics are you harnessing? Create THAT story, keep it honest, and tell it well. Figure out your company’s brand myth, nourish it and invest in it. Do it right, and it will be your greatest natural asset.”

Use technology wisely. Adnan Bashir, a corp comms professional based in Toronto, says: “As far as technology goes, brands and agencies need to start using analytics to inform their storytelling and communications strategy. Data analytics and insights can help them uncover perception gaps, as well as what audiences are saying and where. It’s all very well to have a positive and compelling story, but if you’re pushing it out on, for example, a social network that has little to no traction with your target demographic, it means nothing. In short, compelling and honest narratives, driven by the smart use of technology, will enable you to win in the competition for share of voice.”  

Think of the bigger picture. Kristina Lazarevic, PR and content executive at marketing agency Builtvisible, says: “Even when your piece is led by someone’s story, it is essential to back it up by broader data and trends because journalists are always keen to explore the bigger picture.”

Pitch it well. Lazarevic ends on the importance of pitching the story well, or it will never get told: “Although making sure that the story is worth telling is the number one priority, don’t underestimate the power of a good pitch. Being clear and concise about how the story is relevant to the journalist as well as explaining why that particular topic matters now is crucial to have your story considered and landing coverage.”

The importance of good storylelling in PR is neatly summed up by our last contributor Mike Sergeant, when he says: “There’s no PR strategy without an authentic story”.