In Susan and Paul Furiga's penultimate episode in this series, Paul reminds us that for many organizations, the overwhelming volume and variety of social media seems to create one of the biggest storytelling roadblocks imaginable. And, it also creates some of the best opportunities even though social media is a double-edged sword. In this episode, guest Paul Furiga answers the question of what comes first, a story or social media.
About Susan's Guest:
Paul Furiga is the president and chief storyteller at WordWrite, having founded the Pittsburgh-based PR and digital marketing agency nearly 20 years ago in a candy-striped bedroom before growing it into a perennially top-ranked firm. Paul, who was formerly a vice president at Ketchum Public Relations, was honored in 2013 with the Public Relations Society of America Pittsburgh chapter's Hall of Fame Award for his impact in the region.
Before that, Paul spent two decades as a journalist, covering it all, from Cincinnati City Hall to Congress and the White House, as well as serving as editor of the Pittsburgh Business Times. As you can imagine, he has some stories to tell.
Paul Furiga tells us to walk the toothpaste aisle of any large grocery store and you'll be confronted by a confusing reality asking yourself the question, "Aren't most of these toothpastes pretty much the same?" In this episode we learn how developing the story behind your story is the true secret sauce to power your business to new heights. But a consumer purchasing something is a completely different experience than an employee purchasing on behalf of the company they work for. The story we tell needs to take that into account and adjust accordingly or there will be a complete miss on addressing the needs of the B2B buyer.
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Here we are tackling chapter six of Paul Furiga's book, Finding Your Capital S Story." You need to know the answers to these questions before you can create your story.
- What is your organization's purpose?
- What is the market demand for what your company does?
- What competitive position distinguishes you from your competitors? What really sets you apart?
- Who is your client? It's not everyone. AND where are they? What communication channels do you use to sell your purpose or unique position?
- What is your call to action? Don't leave us flat.
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In this fifth chapter, Paul explores experiences that led him to focus on storytelling for companies as a career and a passion. We're going to dig into the story of his own company, explore the application of the principles that drive your Capital S Story, and meet some common heroes that we're going to refer to as archetypes. Paul Furiga is our guest as we continue the series with him. He says, "In most organizations, you're a Capital S Story and your brand are lonely souls living separate lives inside your organization, and they've probably never been introduced to each other. And your story should drive your brand. They should be connected." Tune in for the episode of Sales Lead Management Radio, "When you stray from your archetype your story falls apart."
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Susan's guest, Paul Furiga, author of Finding Your Capital S Story, opens this episode telling us, "In the old days before smartphones and Twitter, I would say that a small S story is something you read in the newspaper, and it's in the bottom of the birdcage tomorrow. Now we don't read newspapers that much anymore. What we do is we look at our Twitter feed and then we swipe that story away. So it's the same thing. The point is that the stories that we consume most of the time, don't rise to the level of answering the most important questions about your organization. That's why we created this term called the capital S Story. And the capital S Story is a story above all other stories that answer these questions. Why somebody would buy from you, work for you, invest in you, or partner with you. These questions get to the very nature and character of your organization. And that's why your capital S Story is a story above all others.
Join them for a continuing discussion of why your story drives your brand.
This is our third episode in the series of Paul Furiga going through his book, Finding Your Capital S Story. We get to go down the history of advertising and where it lost its way and how the founders of advertising from over a hundred years ago as a whole have almost been forgotten (Have you heard of John Wanamaker?) at least their original methods and thinking behind the use of stories to relate to their target audience. What we are facing today is not how it started, and we have lost our way as we go in for the easier, messier quick kill and the splatter shot effect.
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The brain has been proven to be hardwired for storytelling - both telling and listening. Learn how across cultures, countries, languages the stories we tell are the same at their core. Paul Furiga is back to help guide us to identifying our Monomyth, or Heroe's Journey. We talk about Bridgette Jones, Yoda, and how our brains align when we hear those core stories told by others. Join us as we learn about Carl, Joe, the Monomyth, and Déjà vu from his new book, "Finding Your Capital S Story."
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