The Elements of Persuasion

By on September 3, 2007 in Books with 3 Comments

In The Elements of Persuasion, authors Richard Maxwell and Robert Dickman present the five elements of corporate storytelling.

Their five parts:

  1. Passion
  2. Hero
  3. Antagonist
  4. Awareness
  5. Transformation

Two of money-quotes I’d bank on:

"A story is a fact, wrapped in an emotion that compels us to take an action that transforms our world." Page 5

"Stories are facts wrapped in emotions." Page 125

While the target audience may be the corporate storyteller, others will benefit from reading this: Educators, Parents, Bloggers, Salespeople…anyone who finds themselves in the position of wanting to transform their world.

In many places, we could probably substitute "story" for "blog post" and come away with a book targeted to business bloggers. Well worth a read.

The authors also have a blog (full of stories): The Elements of Persuasion

Other Reader Thoughts:
– @ Marketing Interactions
– @ Greg Verdino’s Marketing Blog 

Follow on Twitter or Facebook or on Google+

Find Your Social Media ROI

I hear it from a lot of business owners: “Where is the ROI with all this Social Media?“ If this is a question you ask yourself, maybe we should work together a bit more. We can work together solo, or via a professional learning community. Find and increase your ROI. There is a “there” there.

About Mike Sansone:

All Posts by
  • http://cuberules.com Scot Herrick

    It’s always a challenge tying the emotion to the point of the blog, especially if we do “factual” points of view based upon data.
    But, the emotion tied to the story is what people remember. Something to keep in front of us when we write.
    Thanks for finding it.

  • http://www.converstations.com Mike Sansone

    One of the antagonists of blogging is the “writing.” The hero is the emotion of our points. As I watch people having a conversation at a Panera or in an airport – most often there is emotion driving the story.
    Your so right, Scot. By keeping emotion in front of us while we blog, we’re more likely to include that in our writing.

  • http://www.giftideahelp.com/ Elizabeth Anderson

    Honestly, less than an hour ago I received Elements of Persuasion. I will read it and tell you what I think. Would I add anything? I will use your post (which I will print out) and Elements to help me with my blogging on gifts. Also, I hopefully will have a meeting with a man from a business in Des Moines to talk with him about corpoate gifts.

Stop SOPA