How The three Cs of Storytelling Can Unite Your Industry and Support Your Business - The Third "C": Care
The third “C” to in Telling Your Stories to Unite Your Industry and Support Your Business is Care. Telling stories that demonstrate how much you genuinely care for the well-being of the people that matter the most to your industry and business will resonate significantly if it comes from a place of service for all. If you’re catching up, we covered the first two Cs you can leverage to unite your industry and supportyour business, connection and competency.
What does Care look like?
I go into more in-depth strategies and tactics to support storytelling with Care in Storytelling for Business – The Art and Science of Creating Connection in the Digital Age,sharing one key strategy now that often gets overlooked and avoided because it’s one of the most challenging, yet most effecting in uniting an industry, and that’s sharing stories when it’s most difficult.
One last boating scenario to illustrate the importance of storytelling with care. One spectacular fall day of fishing, complete with brilliant sunsets, and a live well full of Walleye, didn’t temper the news of a tragedy that occurred the day before on a nearby river, and nor should it have. A boater’s partner had lost their life when their boat hit a very large tree that was floating down the river. The passenger was thrown from the boat and was severely injured when they came into contact with the motor, eventually succumbing to their injuries, despite the best efforts of emergency crews.
The tragedy was a sombre reminder of the power and unpredictability of the waterways, and to always remain vigilant. In times of tragedy, people are most often attuned to messaging, sympathetic to a life lost and a family in mourning and more receptive to take the necessary safety measures when heading out on the water.
On that fall day of fishing, no one at the boat launches was talking about spectacular weather and fish biting, they were all aware of a boater, just like them, had lost their life doing what they, and we, all love—being out on the water. Like many others that day, boaters were proactive telling stories with care on social media, sharing posts about protruding trees and rocks that were exposed due to lower water levels, typical in the fall. Some local emergency services and agencies also posted and shared content about the reminders of staying safe on the water.
When delivering my Storytelling for Business and Active Media Relations sessions, one question that often comes up is “are we exploiting a tragedy?” And, while it may seem that way, the objective of storytelling with care is ultimately to support an industry and to ensure other tragedies are avoided, by educating people how to take precautions, staying safe on the water for years to come. As shared, people pay more attention to proactive messaging when it’s sensitive because it’s usually covered extensively in the media and on social media.
In case you missed it…
Learn about three popular storytelling structures: https://youtu.be/80qoVUt_4MA
