The power of good storytelling

Alexander Hamilton was an author of the Federalist papers and first secretary of the U.S. Treasury. He was the leading champion of a central government and was killed in a duel with Aaron Burr.

A little boring, right?  How about this:

“How does the bastard orphan  

Son of a whore and a Scotsman 

Dropped in 

The middle of a forgotten  

Spot in  

The Caribbean

By providence

Impoverished

In squalor,

Grow up to be a hero

And a scholar?”

Aside from his Tony award-winning musical In the Heights, a less well-known demonstration of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s storytelling genius is a rap he composed about Alexander Hamilton.

That’s right, rap. The Hamilton Mixtape, part of which Miranda performed at the White House Evening of Poetry, Music, and the Spoken Word in 2009, engages and entertains like no dry history textbook account could.

We as public relations professionals are essentially storytellers.  We spend much of our time researching our clients and choosing the right words to tell their stories.  Relating the facts isn’t enough.  It’s our job to tell each story well. 

Good PR people don’t distort the facts of any story to make it more provocative or sensational.  Facts reign supreme.  But we must strive to humanize the message – tying it in to something with which the receiver can connect and delivering it in a way that resonates.  Doing so shows a depth of understanding – not only of our clients and their stories, but of the audience for which each message is intended.

Telling a story well lifts the veil that separates the sender from receiver, enhancing the transparency that is so important to an organization’s credibility and, ultimately, its authentic connection to its audience.