Brand Journalism, Step by Step

[fusion_builder_container type=”flex” hundred_percent=”no” equal_height_columns=”no” menu_anchor=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_position=”center center” background_repeat=”no-repeat” fade=”no” background_parallax=”none” parallax_speed=”0.3″ video_mp4=”” video_webm=”” video_ogv=”” video_url=”” video_aspect_ratio=”16:9″ video_loop=”yes” video_mute=”yes” overlay_color=”” video_preview_image=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” padding_top=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” padding_right=”” admin_toggled=”no”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ layout=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” border_position=”all” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding_top=”” padding_right=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” center_content=”no” last=”true” min_height=”” hover_type=”none” link=”” border_sizes_top=”” border_sizes_bottom=”” border_sizes_left=”” border_sizes_right=”” first=”true”][fusion_text columns=”” column_min_width=”” column_spacing=”” rule_style=”” rule_size=”” rule_color=”” hue=”” saturation=”” lightness=”” alpha=”” content_alignment_medium=”” content_alignment_small=”” content_alignment=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” sticky_display=”normal,sticky” class=”” id=”” margin_top=”” margin_right=”” margin_bottom=”” margin_left=”” fusion_font_family_text_font=”” fusion_font_variant_text_font=”” font_size=”” line_height=”” letter_spacing=”” text_transform=”none” text_color=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_color=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_delay=”0″ animation_offset=””]

By Jim Ylisela

No one in your organization is against better storytelling. But it sure can feel that way at times.

I’ve heard all the excuses, including these gems (with my translations):

• “We’re a really conservative organization.” Boring is safer.
• “We’ve always done it this way.” And I’ve got the Betamax tapes to prove it.
• “We don’t have the time to write good stories.” We’re too busy churning out crap assigned to us.

These and many other reasons are why brand journalism can feel like such a heavy lift. There’s so much to do! But to borrow shamelessly from this year’s Oscar-winning Best Picture, you don’t have to do everything, everywhere, all at once.

Here are seven ways to get started.

1. Connect the dots. Before you do anything else, try this exercise: Match your content to your company aspirations. Want to attract talent in a competitive job market? Focus on storytelling that showcases your experts and the work they do. Want to enhance your reputation? Report on the innovation that sets you apart. Thought leadership? Have a point of view and share it with your many audiences. Good storytelling, widely disseminated, draws a crowd and keeps people coming back for more.

2. Rethink your newsroom. A newsroom isn’t a page on your website where your press releases go to die. A newsroom is a way of managing the content your organization generates, more a state of mind than an actual room. So much of communications is siloed, with each function (internal, PR, marketing, etc.) fortified in its own tower and fending off attempts from the other towers to capture and control its turf. Weird.

Instead, think of your comms functions essentially as beats under one big newsroom. Create an editorial process where your communicators come together at regular intervals (we recommend daily, weekly and monthly) to fill the story pipeline, consider the most creative way to produce and distribute content, and to measure the impact of their efforts.

You need an executive editor to prioritize the topics, a managing editor to keep the stories moving on time and with the right elements, and a set of editorial standards that can help you fight off the unworthy assignments.

3. Report from the bottom-up. Too many stories come as dictates from the top. Good reporters find the best stories by getting closer to the people who do the work. Teach your team how to build better relationships with the people on their beats to get the best and most timely stories. And while you’re at it, flip the switch on the focus of your storytelling. It’s not about how great you are. It’s about your audience, the issue, the problem solved. We know it’s about you. Everyone will know. You don’t have to keep telling us.

4. Make room for real reporting. The No. 1 complaint among communicators is that they don’t have enough time to get what they need to write a good story. Teach your reporters how to cover their beats, even when there’s no news, and to get the most out of their interviews. They may be your colleagues, and they may be available, but they don’t necessarily know what news is or how to talk about it. Adjust the editorial calendar to allow more time for reporting and writing.

5. Inspire creativity. Stories that are boring are not read. Stories about processes will give you a headache and make you angry. Stories about people, with an emotional center, get remembered and acted upon. In your weekly story meetings, consider all the different ways you could tell a story, in multiple formats, which will win over your audiences.

6. Bring social down from the clouds. Because of its relative newness among other communications channels, social has typically been treated differently than other channels. In the early days of social, that was good, because you could post content on social that would have taken days, if not weeks, to approve for the more mature channels. Now social media is held up as something that can be scheduled a year out, with a rolling calendar of posts that populate your social channels automatically. This is a terrible waste of social media. Social must be fully integrated with the rest of your editorial process to use its full power.

7. Start with one story. Choose a story that’s important. How does it line up with your organization’s goals? What would make people read it, or watch it? What are your must-haves, namely facts and people? What would be nice to have, to really make the story stand out? A particular interview? A number? What kind of art will illustrate the piece? Work through Steps 1-6 for one story and you can do it for all stories.

 Jim Ylisela, Ragan Consulting Group’s co-founder, loves building newsrooms and working with news teams.

[/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]