Rebecca has recently led several sessions for clients who want to build "Brand Ambassadors" to go out and speak on behalf of their organizations.

The sessions focus on presentation skills and helping presenters learn to tell their stories, while tying their story to the organization or a community need.

If you are considering ways to help get your message out, this issue of PR Matters gives you "Helping Brand Ambassadors Tell their Stories."

If you are interested in organizing a session for your group, please visit Brand Ambassador Training for more details.

Enjoy!

Helping Brand Ambassadors Tell Their Stories

Brand ambassadors can carry your messages to the marketplace in a powerful way. Whether employees or key external stakeholders, these people have the knowledge, skills, abilities and—perhaps most importantly—motivation to tell your story in a way that gets understood.

Here are seven tools your brand ambassadors need to tell their stories with impact.

1.) A "Net" for Capturing Stories
Many organizations find it useful to collect their stories (history, anecdotes and examples) to exemplify best practices, jobs well done and the mission in action.

Stories are the large and small instruments of meaning, of explanation, that we store in our memories. We cannot live without them. So why is it that when we’re asked to tell a story as part of a formal presentation, we sometimes go completely blank?

Provide safe venues for your brand ambassadors to develop and share stories, so they can go from conversational use to a piece that stands on its own.

Once the story is perfected, your ambassadors will be able to use these skills in a variety of different ways...during presentations, media appearances, fundraising, etc.

2.) Some Questions to get the Juices Flowing
Help your brand ambassadors understand their stories need to relate to your organization and how you solve community needs. Here are some good questions to help identify good stories.

* Tell me what you do in your job that really gets you jazzed…
* What experiences and/or interests in life have prepared you for your current job?
* What’s an issue you are able to solve with your work (time, place, incident, series of incidents)?
* How did this issue change the way you work? Reflect on your growth and the gifts this work has given you.

3.) The Mighty Index Card
Even when the subject matter is near and dear, it’s not always easy to get the story pulled together. The hardest thing is to just get started.

Get your ambassadors some index cards. Even experienced writers suffer from “blank page syndrome.” It’s too stressful to think of filling a whole page, but that tiny card seems do-able.

4.) Ideas to Find their “Snapshots”
For some people, delivering a story is an easy process. For others it’s a mini personal crisis.

Encourage ambassadors to begin with a small idea. Instead of thinking in terms of a movie, think in terms of a snapshot, and also to gather national or local statistics that tie into the issue. The “snapshots” ambassadors choose need to move people, not just present a list of numbers.

5.) Ways to Listen for their Voice
In addition to the visuals, ambassadors will also be working to find their narrative voice, or unique style of expression.

We all have a ‘formal’ or ‘business’ voice, and we’ve been taught this voice carries authority…but it’s usually not the right tone for ambassadors to tell their story…

Provide tools and practice venues for ambassadors to find their real voice, and remember not to “polish” it away after you’ve found it.

6.) Tips to Overcome “The Editor”
The "editor" is that snarky little voice inside your head that says “what you have to say isn’t entertaining or substantial enough to be heard. You have no story to tell. You’re not creative…” You know the one.

The editor may also tell your ambassadors (silently and in the privacy of their own mind) that their diction is wrong, their voice wavers, or its too soft or too hard or that they are just not anywhere as good as those people on TV…so why bother?

To silence The Editor, you must empower your ambassadors to trust their stories are unique and powerful. Help them understand they are the right person at the right place at the right time to tell the story in a vital way.

7.) Finally…the Bulletpoints
Now that your ambassadors have their messages refined to the point they could deliver even if the electricity went out, you can start thinking about how to illustrate the message with a powerpoint.

A key component of many communications plans is hiring and retaining these brand makers at all levels of the organization.

That’s because when you help others develop a deep commitment for your brand, increased sales and profits are not far behind.

Hart & Partners News

Rebecca recently served on an Ethics panel at the PRSA Sunshine District Conference at Disney's Contemporary Resort in Orlando. The panel was moderated by Clarence Jones. Other panel participants included Geri Evans, APR, Leslie Backus, APR, Ally Berger (Bay News 9) Kim Segal (CNN), and John Cutter (Orlando Sentinel).

Other recent projects have included:
Writing the 2006 Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida Report to the Community

Brand Ambassador Training for more than 30 staff members at the YMCA of Florida's First Coast

IABC North Florida Chapter--May Luncheon Meeting
Communicating with Volunteers: A Few Ingredients for Success

Finally, on the family front, we have moved! View photos of our new house

Let's Stay in Touch!

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Quote

"Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning."

Sir Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
British prime minister

Until next time,

Rebecca Hart, APR
President, Hart & Partners

Comments and questions may be directed to info@hartandpartners.com.
Or you can call anytime: (904) 246-7351.