It’s more than just a story.

People like future-related products and images more if they’re positioned to the right, and past-related ones if they’re on the left. The effect reverses for those who write right-to-left.

It’s time to test whether cultures that are better aligned to strategy execution are helping companies respond to COVID-19.

In recent years, a renewed focus on purpose has meant that enterprises and brands with a human story tend to stand out more and resonate with audiences.

Your talent narrative is your talent story. When you, or your CEO, or a hiring manager, sit in front of a candidate from entry-level, low-skill, to a c-suite position, what narrative are you sharing? Is it the same for all levels, does it adjust based on the relative value of the position, or maybe you’re selling a narrative about the ... Read More

At the end of the day, strategy is the art of getting other people to do something. In the pursuit of that, narrative (call it ‘storytelling’ if you really must) is the strategist’s tool. Strategy is narrative.

From screenplay writing inspiration, to how storytelling training is part of their onboarding, CEO David Cancel shares how they drive narrative internally at Drift.

The top 8 recruitment marketing trends for 2020 (oh look, employer brand as the core of all messages is #1).

And if you're looking to fine-tune your storytelling content strategy, Narrative Science has a nice ebook called Let Your People Be People I can recommend.

What's the future of brand storytelling? Google collected some smart thinkers and posed that question. And while there was a lot of talk of "digital-first," I wonder if their own recruiters and employer branders would 100% agree.

If you occasionally feel like you tell the same employer brand story over and over and over (guilty!), you might appreciate some different ways to tell a story. Take any profile, article, posting, or video and re-tell it in a new format and it will feel fresh and news (I mean, George Lucas was just retelling a samurai story in space and he's a billionaire).

Remember, your brand is less a set of words, images or concepts, but of the stories people tell themselves and (obliquely) each other about why they work there. So here's a great piece on how you can use narrative to as a means to influence decisions.

You know I'm a story fan, so you might not be surprised to see that I loved this piece on creating a villain in your own brand story. Who opposes your company? Who are you trying very hard to NOT be? What are you working to vanquish? Villains don't just offer an element of drama, they serve as a driving purpose to your own brand, offering a suggestion of how far you'll be willing to go to defeat the enemy.

Yes, you should actively be sharing your stories right now. Right now! Lauryn Sargent, who knows a thing or two about employee stories, makes a solid case for telling more stories now, not less. Whether the news is good or bad, telling stories turns anything into a more human experience, one that gets more eyeballs and sticks in the brain longer.

Normally, in difficult times, our instinct is to reach out, literally. Human touch and physical expression—a hug, a hand on a shoulder, a quiet look of concern, sitting next to someone and not saying anything—are powerful ways to show people we’re here for them. But what do we do when all that’s left is our voice?Let's remember that the words we choose, on our career sites, on our job posts, on our outreach, on our emails, are the cheapest, most effective way we have to set frames and shape perceptions. We need to remember how important words are, especially when we are coping (and helping others cope) with... everything.

Still on the content marketing side, have you given any thought at all to building episodic content?

Here's a nice juicy article on how to write short stories in your posts to create more clicks and engagement. This article didn't feel at all like the usual run-of-the-mill listicle, but had some great new ideas that get your readers to really chew over your ideas.

Let's talk Tik Tok! Or maybe we shouldn't! Just as the all-dancing, all-singing social platform starts to gain traction as a legitimate branding platform, it gets branded as a state agency intelligence operation. But when has a little espionage stopped "the kids" from singing? (That's the entire plot of Val Kilmer's Top Secret, btw.) So if you're ready to ignore potential Trump/Bezos bans of the social channel, here are so suggestions on how to do it right. My favorite? Think of it as an education platform first.

Allison Kruse has really carved out her own space on how to effectively use content marketing in employer brand communications. So when she writes a big ol' article on how to use content marketing thinking to address and overcome employee advocacy challenges, I have to share it.

Further evidence that you and your marketing team should be spending more time together and occasionally taking long walks on the beach: employee advocates are the new “influencer.” In a lot of ways, influencers made a kind of sense in a world with a million options (or products, services, lifestyles, etc) because they acted as a kind of “native guide” to these things. A Kardashian can point to weight loss products and fashion because it’s something they know about. But as influencers as a celebrity become stale, the new advocate is the insider, someone with the inside view on things. They have a more credible voice and are seen as more real than marketing and can change people’s minds about your company (both as an employer, and as a vendor).

With the events of 2020 having redefined all aspects of work, how you position your employer brand has never been more critical than it is today.

Let’s talk about influencers. Not the Fyre Festival type, but the people in your ecosystem who are creating content to connect with internal and external audiences. The people who influence others to consider working here. This is more than simple “advocacy,” or even tactical referrals, this is about helping your own influencers these people build emotional connections, which is what sparks longer-term relationships.

Sally Bolig (hi Sally!) took recent LinkedIn data and did a better job of pulling out the insights than LinkedIn did. Of note: Companies are posting more in 2020 than before, posts about Covid seem to be plateauing as a messaging focus, and more companies are using LI to post about hiring. (This is good stuff if you want to convince marketing to let you have a seat at the LI table). Also note how quickly we all went from “don’t talk about race and politics on your corporate site” to “well, we have to say something about BLM…” in a matter of a few weeks.

Many businesses are redirecting their strategy to focus more on customer value and experience, from both a proactive standpoint and a reactive one.

What do doughnuts and tacos have to do with employer branding? You may be applying the wrong marketing and sales techniques to recruitment.

There’s no shortage of lessons communicators can extract from the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, but one really stands out. Simple communication wins the days. The underlying principles that guide effective communications in times of great urgency apply in more ordinary times as well.

Since organized brands were first introduced over 100 years ago alongside industrialism, they have changed their nature and role in society. Brands have When our favorite brands exceed the expectation we have of them, by giving us a surprise, we get more excited and our interest in and loyalty to the brand increases.

Want to strengthen your brand story telling? Go back to your fundamentals (so sayeth Google). Understand emotional state, understand what emotions you want to create, and nail your tone.

Katrina Kibben (is there anyone who thinks more or better about job postings? I doubt it), asks the killer question: for entry-level job postings, why even have bullets at all?