Brendon's Blog

Good brands, messages and stories all depend on the same things: solid facts, compelling characters, engaging events and all the other bits that make up the life of a company or organization.

These are the dots that communications and PR professionals connect in the connect-the-dots of promotion and compelling storytelling.

Everything -- including your brand -- rests on a foundation of people, stats and facts.

But dots, unconnected and without context, are tough to recognize, gather and keep. A random data point now could be the crux of a successful story idea six months from now. Or a simple industry conference appearance could snowball into multiple media interviews.

In any case, all the little bits add up to stories, so they’re extremely valuable. Here are some tips for collecting the dots before you connect them:

• Make a repository. Or multiple repositories. I collect them in an established messaging grid. Post-its and notes in Google Docs are good, too.
• Share the wealth. Other people on your teams may be able use the raw information, too. In fact, they may see value in it that you don’t, so sharing access only increases the return on your investment.
• Develop your sources. Opening the pipeline of information inside and outside your organization can only create a stronger foundation of compelling stories. And demonstrating how you turned these dots into marketing and PR gold encourages folks to do share their information even more.

So it starts here. The dots — on post-its, in meetings and in your head — get connected into narratives. Those stories, told well, communicate your messages and eventually change minds.

And as you change minds, you’ll find you’ve accomplished a lot of what you set out to do.