The repetition of stories – @thisisseth
What happens to us matters a great deal, but even more powerful are the stories we repeat about what happened.
What can content marketing learn from fairy tales?
Can traditional fairy tales teach us anything about changing behaviour through narrative? After all, that’s the ultimate goal of content marketing.
5 best books for business writing
If you’re writing for business then you’re writing to sell, whether that’s shifting widgets or pushing your point of view.
Trust and the attention asset – @thisisseth
Here’s a great post on trust and the “attention asset” from Seth Godin. A few simple principles:If you’re not measuring attention in dollars and cents, you don’t know what it’s worth.If you’re treating everyone the same, you’re wasting attention.If you’re burning trust to get more attention or more action, you’ve wasted both of them. … […]
Ad, ab … odd. The lasting grip of Latin
The Economist’s Johnson column on the lasting influence of Latin on our language. Ad and ab are workaday prepositions in Latin, the former usually meaning “towards”, or “at” (think of ad hominem) and the latter meaning “from” (think abscond, abdicate and such). Iurare means “to swear”. So in Latin, adiurare meant to swear to do something, and abiurare meant to swear off it—the ab and ad clear as day to your average […]
Digital disruption in the sleepy world of publishing – @jodysabral
More than just a digital copy of the printed page. Author Jody Sabral has a fascinating piece on the world of digital publishing (on BBC.co.uk). I was particularly struck by two aspects. Firstly, how the absence of a physical product is driving fresh approaches to marketing – no longer a lonely book-signing in the darkest […]
The Chief Storyteller – @stevecla
We need more storytellers. Here’s a great little interview with Steve Clayton, Chief Storyteller at Microsoft. I know Steve a little from our days at Microsoft UK and, as you’ll read (or see in the videos), he has a great feel for story. Also worth reading is a follow-on article, How to Tell Your Story, […]
A writer is …
A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people. Thomas Mann A great quote, courtesy of Michael Wade at Execupundit. Mann was a German writer famous for Death in Venice (remember the strangely haunting Dirk Bogarde film?) and The Magic Mountain. The latter made me aware of […]
Sad news: John Perry Barlow
Awoke today to read that John Perry Barlow has died. He was remarkable Renaissance Man: a cattle rancher, song-writing partner of the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir and a pioneer of the internet, co-founding the Electronic Frontier Foundation. See the BBC’s obituary, here. And, the EFF’s announcement, here. Here’s Barlow talking about one of his Barlow-Weir […]
Stories for powerful presentations – Nicholas Bate
As part of his Awesome Presenting 50 series, Nicholas Bate reminds us: More stories. Definitely more stories. Stories are memorable: they have links, flow, drama. They are easy to remember. Bullets are forgettable. Remember! Read the rest, here. Photo by Mark Rasmuson on Unsplash