I still remember — more than a decade later — one of the thousand heartbreaking stories about Hurricane Katrina victims, an AP report about the Superdome evacuation:

As powerful as that story is — the poor child cried until he vomited, for gosh sakes — the two most wrenching words are “Snowball, Snowball.”

Why? Because details drive stories.

As The Poynter Institute’s editorial guru Roy Peter Clark counsels:

“Get the name of the dog.”

Three ways to conduct a good interview

Sure, there’s a place for open-ended questions in your interview process. But good stories also require specific, tangible detail. So ask specific questions. Make sure the interview subject names names and numbers numbers.

1. Get the name of the dog.

Clark writes:

So “get the name of the dog, the brand of the beer, the color and make of the sports car,” Clark counsels.

William H. Broad named names when writing about the 1940 collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in an article about how engineers use disasters to learn to improve structures:

Poor Tubby.

Notice how “black cocker spaniel” is more effective than “dog” and how “Tubby” is more effective than “black cocker spaniel” alone.

The other day, I was working with communicators at a financial services organization on their content marketing pieces. For a story on the organization’s financial camps for kids, they’d written:

Pretty abstract; pretty dull. I encouraged them to find a concrete detail to liven things up.

What have your kids done when they were bored? I asked. And from the back of the room, one communicator yelled out:

“They painted the schnauzer.”

Oh, I think we have a lead, I said. What color did they paint him? The communicator answered:

“They used Pepto-Bismol.”

Oh, I know we have a lead.

Just one more thing … What’s the name of the dog?

Frisky.

Make sure your list of questions includes those that go to concrete detail. That’s more important than whether you use a recording device.

2. Ask ‘What’s it like?’

Sometimes, all you need to do to get a comparison is to ask. The question to ask to get a metaphor is “What’s it like?”

That’s the approach Roger von Oech, author of A Whack on the Side of the Head, recommends. His workshop participants ask: “What’s it like?” to create metaphors for the meaning of life.

Two of my favorites:

“Life is like an unassembled abacus. It’s what you make of it that counts.”

“Life is like a maze in which you try to avoid the exit.”

What’s popcorn like?

In my storytelling workshops, participants practice “The Popcorn Project,” where they explain popcorn in part by asking “What’s it like?” Some of the images:

Caramel popcorn is like “honey sliding off a ski slope.”

Stale popcorn smells “like it’s been sitting under a table in a pre-school for 40 years.”

Make sure your interview questions include ‘What’s it like?”

Your subject matter expert may be able to answer this question for you. One good question to ask in the interview is:

“If you were explaining this concept to a class of third graders, what would you say it was like?”

3. Ask the subject to set the scene.

So you weren’t lucky enough to be there when the story unfolded? Ask your subject matter experts to set the scene.

• Start with questions that get to description: “What was the weather like?” “Were you wearing a coat?”
• Take the subject matter expert through a timeline. Ask, “What happened next?” “What happened after that?”
• Switch to the present tense to put the source in the scene: “What are you doing now?”

One technique for fleshing out a story during an interview is to take the subject to the scene of the story and ask her to show you what happened.

I suspect that’s the approach the writer used for this passage, from a story from AMD Advances, the marketing magazine of Advanced Micro Devices:

Scene-setting is one way communicators at AMD Advances do the seemingly impossible: They make technology compelling and understandable through storytelling. As Managing Editor Daniel Koga writes:

“By showing the human side of the high-tech industry, we … convey AMD’s emphasis on customer support and being a company that touts its people as much as its technology.”

men.

Questions and answers

Concepts are great, but concrete details, metaphors and scene setting make or break a story. Make sure you plan to spend part of the interview getting these golden nuggets.

____

Source: Roy Peter Clark, The American Conversation and the Language of Journalism, The Poynter Institute for Media Studies (St. Petersburg, Fla.), 1994

The post How to interview a person for an article appeared first on Wylie Communications, Inc..

Call it an aha! moment:

Aha! moments — aka moments of truth or desk-pounding moments — like this one, from an Eastman Chemical Company annual report, form the core of every corporate story.

Here are four ways to find the aha! moment that’s the gateway to compelling stories.

1. Find the ‘desk-pounding moment.’

When you’re looking for stories, ask the interview subject for the “desk-pounding moment.”

That, according to David Murray, executive director of the Professional Speechwriters Association, “is the moment when somebody pounded on his or her desk and said, ‘Damn it, we’ve got to do something about this.’”

That’s the secret to corporate storytelling.

“That moment is the origin of every corporate program,” Murray says. “The closer you as a reporter get to the very moment the idea was hatched by a human being, the better your story is going to be.”

The moment of invention often makes for a great story. Nike, for instance, began, according to Nikebiz.com …

Looking for a brand story that sells your product or service better than facts and figures? Include in your list of questions when the company began, the sole was invented, the theory discovered. The moment of inception illustrates your organization’s creativity, innovation and vision.

And it can make a terrific — and telling — desk-pounding moment.

2. Ask When questions.

Good stories cover one moment in time. So if you’re looking for a story that connects, ask when questions.

When questions take content experts back to a specific time, a specific place — and, often, a specific story. So try asking “when” questions.

Include interview questions that focus on:

• Moments of pain
• Moments of change
• Moments of crisis
• Moments of decision

These key moments are times that caused your subject matter expert to change course. That’s where the stories are.

A writer once asked Kansas City architect Cary Goodman when he knew he would join his profession. He told her about the time he built a fabulous tree house at the age of 9. His construction was so great that the local paper sent a photographer to shoot it. The photo made the front page.

No doubt about it: When questions are good questions. Whether you’re interviewing on the phone or face-to-face, a successful interview starts with prepared questions that get to stories.

3. Pass the 30-second test.

How do you know whether yours is a moment of truth or just something that happened?

Pass the 30-second test: When you research a moment of truth, make sure the original event didn’t take more than 30 seconds.

In an Esquire profile of Robert Redford, the writer tells about being frustrated by the actor’s incredible need for privacy. In the interviews, he was guarded and wouldn’t share any personal information.

To sum up this attribute, the writer ends with an anecdote about two fans who see the movie star at a New York City intersection:

Light changes; woman sprints over to Redford; asks if it’s really him; he replies.

Thirty seconds. That’s a good anecdote.

So while you’ll ask open-ended questions to elicit quotes and ideas, a good interview also includes questions to get to stories.

4. Make sure it’s a moment.

Self magazine asks for moments of truth in a series of stories about readers who shed pounds and shaped up. Here’s one of them:

Open email, see second chin, sign up for Noom. Thirty seconds. Good anecdote.

But what about this one?

That’s not a moment of truth, it’s a state of mind. The key phrase here is “I used to think.” This is something that happened over time, not once.

However, sometimes you can transform a state of mind into a moment of truth. If it happened several times, I always say, it also happened once. So choose on of those times and focus on that:

Kids ask Mom to push them in the swing; she thinks, “I can’t!”; realizes she’s got to make a lifestyle change.

Make it a story.

Storytelling has the power to engage, influence and inspire, according to the Harvard Business Review. If you want to move readers to act in the business world, create content and marketing campaigns that share your organization’s aha! moments.

The post How to interview for an article to get stories appeared first on Wylie Communications, Inc..

What makes people share information?

News they can use to live their lives better, according to Chadwick Martin Bailey research. Here are the Top 3 reasons people share:

• Because I find it interesting/entertaining: 72%
• Because I think it will be helpful to recipients: 58%
• To get a laugh: 58%

Want your blog posts and status updates to travel the world instead of staying home on the couch? Make them helpful to your social media network.

Writers take classes on how to show, don’t tell; how to use storytelling to make corporate messages as interesting as fiction writing; how to write in the CEO’s voice and from her point of view.

But how about a writing class on how to deliver news readers can use to live their lives better? How-to stories and tipsheets are effective, because:

1. How-to stories get read.

Making a publication “easy to read” is the No. 1 way to increase readership, according to Impact, an extensive study by The Readership Institute.

And one of the handful of ways to accomplish that is to include more “go and do” information. “Go and do” information is the nitty-gritty details that help readers take action on a story:

• Phone numbers
• Times
• Dates
• Addresses
• URLs
• Contact names
• Maps

These elements greatly increase the value and usefulness of the story to readers.

Impact found that if newspapers (and, by extension, other communications) become more “relaxing to read” and make it easier “to find what I’m looking for,” people will:

• Spend more time reading the publication
• Read it more completely
• Read it more often

Communicators can make messages more relaxing and easy by:

• Including more “go and do” — or how-to — information
• Offering more feature-style story structure
• Promoting content more effectively within the publication

2. How-to stories get shared.

What kind of information do people retweet? News and how-tos (PDF), according to research by Dan Zarrella, viral marketing scientist for HubSpot:

• News: 78%
• How-to information: 58%
• Entertainment: 53%
• Opinion: 50%
• Products: 45%
• Small talk: 12%

Please note: News is what CNN and the BBC report. It’s not your urgent updates about your Widget 2.6.3.1.

Don’t worry, though. That leaves how-to information as our best bet for content.

Want more retweets? Write blog posts packed with tips, techniques and step-by-step how-tos..

3. How-to stories get followed.

Informers are the 20% of Twitter users who tweet information, ideas and insights, new studies, quotes, resources and insights. “Meformers” are the 80% who tweet urgent updates about themselves.

Not surprisingly, informers have nearly three times as many followers as meformers, according to a study by Rutgers University professors Mor Naaman and Jeffrey Boase.

4. How-to stories get picked up.

Why how-to stories?

• Journalists and bloggers love tipsheets because they’re ready-made, how-to stories, sidebars and USA Today-style tips boxes. Your fire-safety tips post, for example, might accompany a news piece about a big apartment fire.
• Social media channels run on “Top 10 ways to …” listicles.
• Customers and clients will read the tipsheet you write today for years to come, making tip sheets the ultimate evergreen with an almost limitless shelf life.

5. How-to stories move readers to act.

The best communicators want to move their readers to action, not just to inform them. In one study, the addition of a simple element — a map — increased action by 28%.

In the study, social psychologist Howard Levanthal wanted to persuade a group of Yale seniors to get a tetanus shot. He gave each senior a booklet that:

• Detailed the dangers of tetanus
• Explained the importance of inoculations
• Reported that students could get free shots at the campus health center

After reading the booklets, the students understood the dangers of tetanus and the importance of the shots and said they were likely to get inoculated.

But only 3% actually got the shot.

In a later study, Levanthal added:

• A map of the campus with the health building circled
• A list of times the shots were available

The result: 28% of seniors actually got the shot.

“Go and do” information — like maps, hours of operation and contact information — increase readership. Levanthal’s study suggests that they can also increase action.

Why?

“The students needed to know how to fit the tetanus stuff into their lives,” writes Malcolm Gladwell in The Tipping Point.

“The addition of the map and the times when the shots were available shifted the booklet from an abstract lesson in medical risk — a lesson no different from the countless other academic lessons they had received over their academic career — to a practical and personal piece of medical advice. And once the advice became practical and personal, it became memorable.”

How-to stories work.

How do you write messages that grab attention, get read, shared and acted upon? One of the best ways to write a good story is to focus on writing tips and tricks and techniques. So when looking for your next story idea, look for how-to stories.

Why not write a how-to story today?

The post Why write how-to stories? appeared first on Wylie Communications, Inc..

“How do you find time for social media?” my speakers’ network e-zine asked subscribers.

“I don’t have time to not use social media,” I wrote back.

That’s because the people I follow on social media (heart emojis to @ShelHoltz, @BillSpaniel, @mar_de_palabras and others who surprise and delight me every day) serve as sort of a virtual research team. They scour the web, finding valuable information — new studies, quotes, resources and insights — so I don’t have to.

That is, they’re “informers” — the 20% of Twitter users who tweet information, ideas and insights — not “meformers.”

Not surprisingly, informers have nearly three times as many followers as meformers, according to a study by Rutgers University professors Mor Naaman and Jeffrey Boase.

Here’s how to be an informer, not a meformer:

1. Share helpful information.

Why do people share? According to a study by Chadwick Martin Bailey:

1. Because I find it interesting/entertaining: 72%
2. Because I think it will be helpful to recipients: 58%
3. To get a laugh: 58%

Want your status updates to travel the world instead of staying home on the couch? Make them helpful to your social media network.

2. Write service stories.

What kind of information do people retweet? News and how-tos (PDF), according to research by Dan Zarrella, viral marketing scientist for HubSpot.

Here’s how often six kinds of information get shared on Twitter:

1. News: about 78%
2. How-to information: about 58%
3. Entertainment: about 53%
4. Opinion: 50%
5. Products: about 45%
6. Small talk: about 12%

Please note: News is what CNN and the BBC report. It’s not your urgent updates about your Widget 2.6.3.1.

That leaves how-to information, or service stories, as our best bet for content.

Want more retweets? Pack blog posts and status updates with tips and techniques.

3. Tweet like H&R Block.

That’s what H&R Block does. The company’s Twitter feed offers tax tips and help on demand. Sample tweets:

“IRS urges you to perform a Paycheck Checkup today to make sure your tax withholding is right for you.  http://thndr.me/87pU7v”

“Have a question or problem while doing your taxes online? We have tax pros standing by to call or chat. If you’re really stuck, they can even share your screen to help you through it. Expert help, if and when you need it with H&R Block online. http://bit.ly/2AprdFm”

“More people file free with H&R Block Online. Find out if you’re one of them: http://bit.ly/OnlineTaxFilingHRB”

This how-to approach earned H&R Block a place on Time magazine’s list of top 10 corporate Twitter feeds.

4. Post novel ideas.

Stop posting the same old thing. Fresh ideas — even fresh words — move further and faster on social media.

For this study, Zarrella counted how many times each word appeared in his sample set of 10 million tweets:

• Each word in a regular tweet was found 89.19 other times in the sample.
• Each word in a retweet was found only 16.37 other times.

Want to get retweeted? Share something different. You might even coin your own word.

5. Share tips & techniques.

Take a tip from Whole Foods Market: Give your social media network news they can use. The all-organic market tweets recipes and how-to stories about cooking:

“Check out our foolproof three-step method to cutting a mango. Plus, get tropical ideas for ceviche, grilling and desserts. http://bit.ly/2VE1m5f  #Mangoes #MakesMeWhole”

“We got an all-access pass to @Joan_Nathan’s kitchen while she helped us create our Passover dinner menu. Check it out: http://bit.ly/2UQItiW  #Passover #MakesMeWhole”

“This melon guide is big summer vibes. Check it out: http://bit.ly/2vxeEF8  #Melons #MakesMeWhole”

“Our wine experts pair the top 12 wines with summer. Reds, whites and bubbles for all occasions. Read their suggestions now. http://bit.ly/2YTbg47”

Whole Foods’ recipes and service stories have made it one of the most followed brands on Twitter, with 1.9 million followers. No wonder Whole Foods landed on Time magazine’s list of top 10 corporate Twitter feeds.

6. Transform news and events into insights.

Alan Weiss is the consultant’s consultant. His social media status updates rock.

Instead of blah-blahing about what he ate for dinner or bragging that he’s tweeting from the Imperial Suite at the Park Hyatt-Vendôme, he spins news items and everyday events into insights and ideas:

“If you want a referral, don’t ask someone to ‘represent’ you and never send materials. Here’s the line to request: ‘Joan, I’d like to introduce Tom who’s done outstanding work and I think the two of you would benefit significantly from knowing each other.’”

“Use observed behavior and evidence, not ad hominem attack and assumption. ‘You’re late by 15 minutes each time we schedule critical calls on which you’re needed,’ is better than ‘You’re clearly not a team player.’”

“If you don’t know the size of your prospect’s business, or their major competition, or if they’re independent or a subsidiary, don’t show up. Or did you pass all your tests in school without studying? If so, I guess you’re just gifted….”

How can you take a tip from Weiss and transform news and everyday events into insights and ideas?

Are you an informer? Or a meformer?

The post How to write status updates that go viral? appeared first on Wylie Communications, Inc..