Ask one simple question to breathe life into your stories

Facts are essential, but their context and significance can elevate your storytelling. A simple two-word query can unlock the door to landing your message with your target audiences.

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Who, what, where, when, why and how are all important questions, of course, whether you’re launching a product, announcing a partnership, showing off a recent award or letting the world know you’ll be at an upcoming tech show.

However, those announcements are not the story. They are not the news.

Facts do matter. They’re the skeleton of any business story, the structure you build a narrative on, but to create the story, you can’t just list the facts. You have to identify the bigger picture, fill in context and answer one simple question:

So what?

Why business storytelling begins with ‘so what?’

The “so what?” test is an exercise in understanding what matters to your audience. When describing a product, too many companies simply list features—the facts. The best, however, use the “so what?” test to uncover and convey why those features matter to their customers.

The same applies when you’re telling a technology story through mainstream media outlets or on your own blog and social media channels.

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