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WALL STREET JOURNAL – You see a picture on Pinterest, Instagram or Facebook. But there’s something different about it. There’s a button that asks you if you want to buy the product you see. Would you click then and there? Social-media giants are betting you will. And some small businesses are signing on to the idea. As social sites seek new sources of income—and people demand ever more convenient ways to buy online—they’re giving companies the option to add “buy” buttons to their posts. And some small businesses are already seeing encouraging gains from this new capability, boosting sales by leveraging the close contact they have with customers on social sites. But experts warn that businesses should take a soft and helpful tone when reaching out, because customers can get turned off when companies try to use social media to push them into making impulse buys. They don’t like it when companies post aggressive sales pitches in the comments on pictures at photo-sharing sites, for instance, or when companies send them pushy sales messages through platforms such as Facebook Messenger. Customers are “in a different mind-set when on social sites,” says Jay Baer, president of Convince & Convert, a digital marketing firm in Bloomington, Ind. “They don’t go there to buy. That transition to buying can be jarring.” Room to explore The idea of buying straight from posts on social media isn’t exactly new. But only now is the practice becoming feasible as third-party companies like Shopify and BigCommerce—or in the case of Pinterest, the site itself—make it easier to set up the purchasing options and handle the back-end processing. Companies pay the third-party companies a subscription fee, but the social sites aren’t charging anything yet to monetize posts. On Instagram and Pinterest, companies post photos the way anybody else does, and people find the pictures the way they find any other photos: searching by keyword or seeing what their friends have marked as interesting—“pinned”—or otherwise shared. The only difference is that people have the option to buy items companies have posted. On Facebook, customers arrive at company pages either by searching on keywords or by joining a group devoted to the company. Purchasable items are found by clicking the shop tab, and the transactions are handled by manually entering credit-card numbers that can be stored for later use. Facebook doesn’t charge for the transaction. How can entrepreneurs make the most of this new setup? The experts suggest that companies ease customers into the idea of buying on social media by gently letting them know, since the majority of online users are not even aware that they have the option to make direct purchases on social media. On Pinterest and Instagram, for instance, users are usually looking for ideas or inspiration, not to buy. Companies should not put aggressive sales pitches in the comments to photos, where most of the conversations on Pinterest and Instagram take place. Slava Furman, founder of Miami-based Noli Yoga, knew that yoga practitioners were posting scenic selfies of their perfected yoga positions on Instagram. Without making any sales pitches, he started posting his own photos showing customers in his activewear. Yoga fans discovered them while browsing through other yoga photos or doing keyword searches, since Mr. Furman attaches yoga-relevant hashtag search terms to his images. After building a sizable following, he turned to an e-commerce app called Snappic that lets people buy items in his photos. He currently gets 90% of his business from all of his social-media marketing and advertising efforts, and 15% of that comes from direct sales on Instagram. Special content Avoiding sales pitches is one thing. But companies should also be sure to post compelling content on these social-commerce storefronts that gives users a reason to visit, experts say. On Instagram or Facebook, that might mean streaming live video. In a Facebook shop, companies might offer a free PDF instructional guide for the product, along with a coupon. Pure Cycles, a 20-employee urban-bicycle manufacturing company in Burbank, Calif., posts events that show up in followers’ calendars on Facebook. As with click-to-buy posts on Instagram and Pinterest, visitors to the company’s Facebook shop page can purchase items in photos. But Pure Cycles says it’s careful to add extra content to keep customers interested. The company recently invited customers to its headquarters, where they could test-ride bikes and get free swag. It also features instructional videos and streamed Facebook Live video events where employees interact with customers. Another touch that helps, the company says: The live videos are often done by company owners as a way to make themselves more accessible to customers. When doing a question-and-answer session, they have opportunistically referenced products in the store. Jordan Schau, co-founder of Pure Cycles, says the human touch is crucial to show that there are real people behind the content, not a faceless marketing department. “In terms of shopping and getting the right stuff, it’s much more impactful if we’re behind the chat,” says Mr. Schau, who oversees the social-media efforts at Pure Cycles. He’ll often respond directly to social media inquiries on his personal phone and interact with customers after hours. “We’re not trying to actively hit people up by saying, hey, everybody, we’re having a sale on this,” says Mr. Schau. “We’re more like, hey, we’re your friend. If you have a question about your bike, we’re happy to answer.” You can read the full story here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-small-firms-can-use-pinterest-and-facebook-to-sell-directly-to-customers-1493605265

WALL STREET JOURNAL – Looking for a low-cost way to market your products? Find an influencer. These high-profile reviewers can have thousands—or tens of thousands—of followers and fans on YouTube, Facebook and other social networks. Sending them products to review can be an effective way for a small firm with limited means to reach a vast new audience. But managing the relationship takes a lot of care. The main issue is disclosure: Influencers need to make it very clear how they got the products and what their relationship with the company is. Any lack of transparency can raise tax issues, get influencers and the company in trouble with the Federal Trade Commission and anger viewers. Companies may be face a very vocal online protest or even a boycott. Here are some things to keep in mind when working with a popular Internet reviewer. PICK CAREFULLY: Companies will get the most out of working with reputable bloggers who already maintain full transparency. It also helps to do research to find suitable bloggers who are a good fit with a company’s product and services and to approach them with a personalized message that recognizes their work. WATCH CLOSELY: Don’t assume that bloggers will act on their own to let readers know where they got a service, product or some kind of payment from a company, says Mary Engle, associate director for advertising practices at the FTC in Washington, D.C. It should be part of the company’s social-media policy to ensure compliance. Companies should also monitor bloggers to make sure they follow through. The disclosure can be as simple as “company X gave me this product to review,” says Carleen Pruess, an attorney from Chicago who also blogs about fashion. The message needs to be clear, conspicuous and in the beginning of a blog post. It also has to be more than a general disclosure that applies to the entire website or a link at the end of the page. For video reviews, the disclosure should show up in the clip, not the description, since videos are often embedded into other websites without the description. RESPECT THEIR OPINION: Companies shouldn’t try to strong-arm bloggers into making changes to a review unless there’s a valid reason, such as an incorrect fact. Besides getting on the blogger’s bad side, attaching conditions to a product or service can be legally construed as a contract with an exchange of service as opposed to a gift, says Stephen Slater, managing director at the New York City office of UHY Advisors Inc., an accounting firm. “The IRS may come back and ask you what this relationship is and why you’re giving this item to this person. Giving free samples may not work out that way. It’s really a barter transaction.” Many companies like B&H Photo Video in New York avoid tax and compensation issues by lending items like consumer electronics instead of giving samples away. They won’t send the item until a loan agreement is signed, and the package will include postage-paid mailing labels to make it as easy as possible to return the item. “It has been very good business for us,” says Henry Posner, online reputation manager at B&H. “We work with a lot of influential bloggers. We don’t pressure them to give a good review because we understand that their audience is looking for honest opinions. We will make some attempt to resolve any problems to see if it’s a mistake or manufacturer problem.” Illustration by SHAW NIELSEN. You can read the full story here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303309504579183623549148550

MUSCLE & FITNESS – Trent Sabo is in the moving business. He moves grand pianos, iron weights and 500-pound sumo wrestlers. And, on occasion, he himself is moved. For instance, in the summer of 2003 at the U.S. Sumo Open in Manhattan Beach, California, when the 5’8″, 185-pound American found himself standing across the ring from Akebono Taro, a 6’8″, 500-plus-pound tectonic disruption of flesh and blood, and one of the most celebrated postwar wrestlers in the sport of Sumo. Sabo, 26, the coach and founding member of California’s Oceanside Sumo Kyokai, had been called out by Akebono and had no choice but to accept the challenge. He relished the rare opportunity to face a legend. As he stepped into the dohyo (sumo ring) that hot August day, he snugged up his mawashi (belt), attempting to make it more difficult for the former grand master to grab. He knew he couldn’t go head to head with Akebono, so he adapted a freestyle wrestling tactic: Off the line, he deftly ducked under Akebono’s open handed swipe and latched on to his right leg with a meaty smack. Tucking his head down and shifting his weight, he tried to topple the giant, who remained as stable as a brownstone. Sabo then felt Akebono reach down, grab his belt and tear him off his leg like a Velcro doll, then punt him into the audience. Chairs flew and topped—along with Sabo’s pride. The spectacle was meant to teach him humility; he hasn’t forgotten it yet. Sowing Sumo SeedsSabo took up sumo wrestling in 2000. He saw an add for a sumo tournament in a magazine and figured, What the heck? He had wrestled in high school, tried bodybuilding and gymnastics and even had a brief stint as a mixed martial arts fighter—sumo seemed like a natural choice for him. So he signed up for the tournament’s lightweight division (up to 187 pounds) and won. Later that year he went to a national competition in New Jersey. He didn’t train, figuring his past experience would put him over the top. “My first opponent was thing gangly Canadian,” Sabo says. “I was thinking, I’m gonna make this guy’s liver bleed.” All of a sudden I’m spinning, and it was over. It was an embarrassing defeat made doubly so by the presence of Sabo’s father, a career Marine who was a competitive athlete himself. He wrestled and boxed in the Corps but couldn’t get his mind around his son wearing a thong and smashing bellies with Japanese monsters. When Sabo told him it was white guys and women, his father became suspicious. “Is this even legit?” Sabo had been skeptical in the beginning as well, but the sport got under his skin, and he found himself training for the North American Sumo Championship in 2001. He took second place. The following year he won his weight class. Sabo also started entering the open-class matches, because like professional sumo (all sumo practiced outside of Japan is considered amateur), it’s a one-size-fits-all competition. Despite his comparatively diminutive stature, he has ways to beat the bigger guys. “I keep moving around the ring; if I can get them to chase me or charge me, it makes it almost a guarantee that I’m going to beat them.” But staying competitive in amateur sumo requires more than just a well-founded athletic background—it requires commitment. “It’s more time than a lot of amateurs can give,” says Andrew Freund, director of the U.S. Sumo Open, who notes that most American competitors view the sport as a hobby. European and Mongolian competitors dominate the sport because they’re paid to be athletes. Sabo, however, is a good example of an athlete who sacrifices for his passion. A few years ago he quit his job so he could train full time for the Sumo World Cup in Rotterdam, Netherlands. He lived out of his Ford Probe for eight months, doing nothing but training and eating. “Not having to work or pay rent definitely made all the difference for me,” says Sabo, who won his weight division at the 2004 World Cup. “Mine was the second gold medal an American had won overseas. It was a tough road, though.” These days Sabo follows a more conventional routine, through he’s still serious about winning the World Sumo Championship, the pinnacle of the amateur sumo world. He works full time as a mover and lifts five evenings a week at First Class Fitness in Oceanside with teammate Jovann Rushing. They’ve been training partners since high school and often try to match each other rep for rep in the gym. As sumo wrestlers, they focus on developing off-the-line power. “It’s like the best of football,” Sabo says. “The first person to be pushed out of the sumo ring or to touch the floor with anything but their feet loses. That’s why football players make good sumo wrestlers.” Where the Giant Things AreIn the summer of 2006, Sabo went to Japan to train with the masters. The trip was organized by the head of the International Sumo Federation, who arranged for him and two of his teammates to live and train in a heya, a sumo stable at Nihon University. Because Sabo was a foreigner and a sumo novice, he was treated worse than the students who have to prove their worthiness to the sport. He even got punched in the mouth for being too noisy. The discipline at the university is an extreme form of tough lough that’s inherent in the culture. “They never want you to forget that you’ve made this bad mistake,” Sabo remarks. Although his visit was officially organized, Sabo still had to beg for matches. Most of the time, scrawny 15-year-olds were assigned to practice with him. “They were the lowest-ranked in the class. They couldn’t have been above a buck forty,” Sabo recalls. “They kept driving me out of the ring, match after match, like they’d had a bad day. It shows how much good technique makes a big difference.” In an attempt to save face, Sabo resorted to freestyle wrestling techniques. When a student charged him, Sabo would catch him in a front headlock, forcing the student to release Sabo’s belt and work on his hands, whereupon Sabo would drag him out of the ring. The instructors just frowned. “The Japanese have real strong opinions on a lot of stuff. Stepping away from opponents and dodging and avoiding the fight is not very respectable,” he says. While at Nihon, Sabo was fed impressive amounts of rice and noodles. Students would check their weight several times a day and take naps to keep it on. At night, the younger classmen who were confined in their dorms would ask Sabo to bring back food on his nightly sushi run. “You look at them and they’re not cut, so most people think they’re fat,” Sabo says. “They’re extremely sold. Just punch one of them and it’s like punching a brick wall.” Onward and Upward with the ArtIn March of the U.S. Sumo Open, Sabo wrestled a 420-pound heavyweight named Mark Sagato. During the match, Sabo grabbed Sagato’s midriff, slid around to his backside and pushed him out of the ring. It was a surprise to the audience that had laughed when the two seemingly mismatched opponents stepped into the dohyo. The maneuver, called okuridashi, or push form the rear, is considered one of the most humiliating ways to lose. In Japan, such defeats were often accompanies by beatings with a cane or cigarette burns, Sabo says. In fact, Sagato’s troubles were a good example of why technique is so important, and why Sabo would like to see more bodybuilders and football players try sumo. He believes size, power and drive give them an advantage. But he thinks it’s the diaper—the mawashi—that scares most people off. It looks like a thong made from a fire hose, which in fact it was at one time. Modern versions are made of heavyweight cotton or silk, and amateur competitors, especially women, tend to wear spandex shorts or underwear underneath, but Sabo mostly wrestles raw-dog. He says it allows the mawashi to be worn tighter. Plus, it just looks better to him, even though he says that’s not really the point. “What you wear isn’t what really matters. It’s sumo because it’s highly competitive, very intense and short. You can go out there and you can really go to war with somebody,” he explains. Beyond the World Sumo Championships, Sabo hopes to enjoy one more glory: the Olympics. Sumo is being considered for the 2012 games in London. “Once it’s a full medaled sport, more people will take it seriously,” Sabo says. “They’ll be able to see that it’s not just two fat guys in diapers.” Japanese officials have conceded to the International Olympic Committee requirements for weight classes and allowing women to compete. Traditionally, women weren’t even allowed to touch the dohyo because it was considered defilement, but the sport has changed a lot. Sabo says he would try out for the U.S. team, even if he had to live out of his car again. Sabo’s father, who has seen his son win internationally, now approves of the sport. “M pop has never been afraid of anything and has gotten into some hellacious fights,” Sabo says. “My brother and I are just like that. We’ve got our fathers fire. Now it’s just up to me.”

MAXIMUM FITNESS – You’re not Dwayne Wade or Lance Armstrong, and neither are we. But when our bodies break down, you Dwayne, Lance and I are bandaged brothers, with the same roster of breaks and bruises that account for 80 percent of all sports injuries. WEIGHTLIFTING > Acute Cuff TearMetrosexuals aren’t the only guys who monopolize the mirror. Guys in the gym spend a whole lot of time gazing at their biceps, pecs and quads—the anterior muscles often referred to as mirror muscles. But what you don’t see can hurt you, especially at the shoulder. “You get relative overdevelopment of the front of the shoulder at the expense of the rear deltoid and, more importantly, rotator cuff muscles, which can easily be strained,” says Nicholas DiNubile, MD, orthopedic physician for the Philadelphia 76ers and author of the book Framework: Your 7-Step Program for Healthy Muscles, Bones and Joints. Balancing your workout is the obvious solution. Pair your push and press exercises with pull and row exercises, DiNubile advises. “Make sure to include rotator cuff exercises [such as incline fly’s, above, side raises and bow-and-arrow exercises with elastic tubing] into your routine,” he says, or risk stiff shoulders, lack of strength, pain when reaching overhead, shoulder dislocation or an excruciating rotator cuff tear. If you’re already hurting, DiNubile recommends RICE (see page 90), anti-inflammatories (aspirin or ibuprofen) and a hiatus from working the injured body part. If the pain is intense and persistent, see your doctor and get ready for a lecture. And then do a better job of training your opposing muscles when you get back to the iron. FOOTBALL > Burners and StingersBy nature, football is a physically punishing sport—which is why we love it so much. “But proper technique can lower some of the risk,” says Eric McCarty, MD, chief of sports medicine and team physician for the University of Colorado and University of Denver. One glaring problem is defenders dropping their heads before a hit. “This puts a lot of force on their cervical spine,” says McCarty. “It can cause fractures—and in the worse case, paralysis. It can also allow the ball carrier to juke you or stiff-arm your head into the field.” Symptoms of a bad hit, beside grass-stained teeth, include pain radiating from the back of the neck and down through the arm, tinging and even loss of strength. McCarty recommends an immediate application of RICE to the back of the neck and getting checked out by a doctor. In man cases, it may be a burner or stinger, which occurs when the bundle of brachial plexus nerves in the neck and shoulders is stretched or pinched. The result is a sudden burning and/or stinging pain, hence the nickname. McCarty says the best way to avoid problems is to just keep your head up when tackling so your spine has a more natural curvature. Use your shoulder, he also advises, but don’t reach out when tackling. That can get your shoulder dislocated. GOLF > Golfer’s ElbowLewis Yocum, MD, is an orthopedic surgeon who works with the Anaheim Angels and the PGA, and he’s seen it all. Throughout the week he treats pros from various sports, but Monday mornings are generally full of golfing weekend warriors complaining of lower back, shoulder and elbow pain. Warming up could have saved them the grief, particularly for differs already prone to overswinging: doing a rubber-man windup and then powering through the b all with all your strength. If that’s you and you’re lucky, you may gain some distance. What’s more likely is slicing your $5 Maxfli Blackmax into the trees. And while you’re running up your score, you can hyperextend muscles and ligaments in your arms, elbow and back, since golf torques the body like no other sport. Lousy form can, among other things, lead to medial epicondylitis, a.k.a. golfer’s elbow, which comes about when the shock of hitting the ball travels from your club’s sweet spot up through your hands, arms and joints. Sharp inner elbow pain and wrist weakness will be a few ways your elbow will remind you that your swing truly sucks. Yocum encourages lessons to correct mechanics, and urges golfers to always use tees at the range. And let the clubs do the work. You’ll get more days on the links that way. We spoke with Bill Hartman, PT, CSCS, a therapist in Indianapolis, Indiana, who specializes in golf fitness, for exercise to help counteract golf’s specific stresses. See Golf Twist and Golf Punch, opposite. ROWING > Prolapsed DiskRowing is a combination of techniques and strength, according to Jo Hannafin, MD. It’s important to have good technique and a strong core in order to avoid injury. Hannafin should know: she’s a three-time gold medalist at the U.S. National Rowing Championships, and an orthopedic physician for the U.S. Olympic rowing team. The most common injury she sees occurs in the lower back—the point where power is transferred from the legs to the torso and arms. Fatigued or inexperienced rowers will droop forward and overwork these back muscles instead of swinging through their hips. The result is what rowers call “shooting your tail.” Your butt shoots out and you get a lot of flexion in your back,” says Hannafin. “These are the areas where you have the highest concentration of forces during the rowing stroke.” Focusing on perfect form is your best solution: you should be upright and leaning slightly forward, so the weight is placed on your feet instead of your seat. The alternative? “Pain will shoot across your back muscles. You’re not going to be very fast either.” And in the worst cases, there’s agony: if you experience a deep sciatic pain that radiates into your butt and legs, you should see a doctor right away. You may have a disk injury—that is, your disks are bulging or have burst. For rowers, Craig Ballantyne, MS, CSCS, recommends back and core strengthening exercises such as the plank, to help you withstand the sport’s demands. SOCCER > Metatarsal FractureA player races up the field with the b all, snaking through the opposition like a skier on a slalom course. From one side comes a defender, sliding in to tackle the b all away, but he misjudges and hits his opponent’s shoe instead. Someone call a medic. Rob Palumbo, MD, is an orthopedic surgeon for the NFL Players Association and the U.S. Women’s National Soccer team. He says tackling is one of the most dangerous parts of soccer. When the toes are outstretched, the metatarsals (any of the five long bones between the toes and ankle) can be severely sprained or fractured. You’ll know it by the pain, swelling and difficulty getting b ack up, and you’ll need a trip to the hospital, since the fractures are not the kind of injury you can shake off. Palumbo says the best way to prevent injury—and a red card—is proper positioning and timing. If you’re too close, you can take out somebody’s knee. If you’re too far and stretched out, you can get stomped (that’s what happened to Manchester United superstar and Spice-husband David Beckham). Always keep your eye on the ball, stay low and don’t make the tackle when the b all is at the dribbler’s feet. Wait for it to be kicked ahead a few feet and then angle in. Whatever you do, don’t waver. Fully commit to it and kick through the ball. VOLLEYBALL > Ankle SprainWilliam Briner, MD, says volleyball is truly a team sport since the most common injury, an ankle sprain, often involves a blocker and a spiker. The two players leap heroically into the air to make the play, but the spiker’s momentum carries him under the net. Spiker lands, blocker lands on top. It sounds painful for the trod-upon spiker but it’s the blocker who gets hurt, says Briner, who serves as a team physician for the U.S. national volleyball team. Unfortunately sprains are often inevitable in volleyball, he says. The foot will roll, which stretches or tears the outside lateral collateral ligaments (LCL) in the ankle. Pain, swelling and tenderness are a few symptoms that can be treated with RICE. Anything worse merits a trip to the doctor, Briner says. He also advises patients to wear a brace for as long as a year after the injury, since your first sprain greatly increases the likelihood of a second. BASKETBALL > Jumper’s KneeOne of the most important skills an athlete can lean in basketball is how to make a soft landing. It sounds deceptively simple, but DiNubile is amazed by how many players don’t know how to accordion their knees. Stiff-kneed landings can lead to infrapatellar tendinitis or jumper’s knee, a painful overuse injury that occurs when the tendon that connects the patella (kneecap) to the tibia (shinbone) becomes inflamed. To avoid it, DiNubile recommends practicing making solid square landings and absorbing the force by bending your knees. He also recommends doing quad and thigh stretches to build up leg strength and flexibility. (Ballantyne also recommends strengthening exercises such as the reverse lunge). If you do eventually experience tenderness, swelling and difficulty bending or straightening the leg, don’t ignore it. If jumper’s knee is left untreated, it can become chronic and possibly require surgery. RUNNING > Shin SplintsYou’re on your tenth lap and you feel like you have 10 more in you and another 10 after that. That’s all great except your endorphin high is probably masking what those extra heel strikes are doing to your legs and joints. Overtraining is one of the biggest mistakes Palumbo sees. He’s treated more than a few patients who have precipitously doubled their mileage to train for a race. And though you may have the wind for it, your body suffers because it hasn’t had a chance to acclimate to the extra stress. The result is shin splints, an inflammation of the muscles around the inside edge of your shin bones that comes with a burning pain up and down your lower leg. It’s tempting to ignore since the pain comes and goes, but shin splints can be a symptom of a more serious injury, such as stress fractures—tiny hairline cracks in your tibia. Palumbo recommends an ice massage for shin splints. Rub a block of ice up and down on the inside of the calf for approximately 10 minutes to help reduce the inflammation. He also recommends runners stop for a day or two to see if the pain continues. Recovery can take up to two months, or more if you have stress fractures. Whether you do, don’t ignore it since running on stress fractures can lead to permanent injury. Palumbo also recommends runners follow a sensible schedule tailored to their goals that allows the body to recover between sessions. Increasing distance by 10 percent per week is generally a good baseline. TENNIS > Tennis LegTennis elbow is the poster child of overuse injuries. But another ailment that’s just as common among players age 30 and up is tennis leg, or a medial gastroc tear. Tennis leg occurs when the upper calf muscle at the inner side of the leg is stretched and torn. It happens so suddenly that athletes often think they’ve been hit in the b ack of the leg by a ball from the next court. A bruise and swelling can form on the calf, followed by debilitating pain that makes walking difficult. DiNubile says tennis leg is the result of failure to warm up and stretch, and of not being properly hydrated—muscles are 72 percent water, and they don’t function well when they’re thirsty. The tipping point can often be a change of shoes—even a slightly lower heel height or a stiffer sole, for example, may force your calf to flex differently than your body is used to, resulting in undue strain on the calf or Achilles tendon. So you might want to spend some quiet time in your new sneaks before debuting them on the court. Fortunately, medial

WALL STREET JOURNAL – Paul Smith had 20 minutes to sell the CEO of Procter & Gamble, and his team of managers, on new market-research techniques for which Mr. Smith’s department wanted funding. As associate director of P&G‘s market research, Mr. Smith had spent three weeks assembling a concise pitch with more than 30 PowerPoint slides. On the day of the meeting, CEO A.G. Lafley entered the room, greeted everybody and turned his back to the screen. He then stared intently at Mr. Smith throughout the entire presentation, not once turning to look at a slide. “I felt like maybe I hadn’t done a very good job because he wasn’t looking at my slides like everyone else,” says Mr. Smith, who also noticed that the other managers didn’t seem very engaged. “It didn’t occur to me until later that he did that because he was more interested in what I had to say than in what my slides looked like.” The experience prompted Mr. Smith to alter his approach. These days, he uses far fewer slides and a lot more anecdotes, turning his presentations into stories his audience can relate to instead of lecturing them on what needs changing. As a result, Mr. Smith says, he’s subsequently had much greater success getting his ideas across. In four subsequent presentations to Mr. Lafley and his team, they’ve followed along more closely, asked more questions and given better feedback, says Mr. Smith. Even with digital and social-media tools, employees often struggle to convey ideas to each other, to managers and to customers. That’s why companies such as FedEx, Kimberly-Clark and Microsoft are teaching executives to tell relatable stories as a way to improve workplace communication. It’s a tool that’s more useful than PowerPoint presentations, say career experts, who note that storytelling can also be used on a day-to-day basis to sell ideas to one person or a hundred. But being an effective storyteller requires preparation. Move beyond facts and figures, which aren’t as memorable as narratives, says Cliff Atkinson, a communications consultant from Kensington, Calif., and author of “Beyond Bullet Points.” Many people in business think raw data is persuasive. But when you’re dealing with people from other departments and in different fields who don’t understand how you got that data, you can lose them pretty quickly. “You have to step back and put yourself into their shoes and take them through the process of understanding,” says Mr. Atkinson. “That requires you to distill the most important facts and wrap them in an engaging story.” Find ways to connect with your audience on an emotional level, says Mr. Atkinson. Neuroscientists have discovered that most decisions—whether people realize it or not—are informed by emotional responses. Do some legwork to find significant events in your audience’s lives or your own that you can base your story on or use to reinforce your points, he says. This can include dropping in anecdotes about taking care of a sick family member or a memorable customer story, says Mr. Smith, now a corporate trainer and author of “Lead With a Story: A Guide to Crafting Business Narratives That Captivate, Convince, and Inspire.” Mr. Smith’s book mentions a story told by a single mother to P&G about the trade-offs that she made to support her children. Her experiences, more than anything else that year, convinced P&G executives to lower their price on shortening. Mr. Atkinson suggests organizing your story into three acts and starting by establishing context. You want to let your audience know who the main characters are, what the background of the story is, and what you’d like to accomplish by telling it, he says. You might open, for example, by describing a department that’s consistently failed to meet sales goals. Move on to how your main character—you or the company—fights to resolve the conflicts that create tension in the story, Mr. Atkinson says. Success may require the main character to make additional capital investments or take on new training. Provide real-world examples and detail that can anchor the narrative, he advises. The ending should inspire a call to action, since you are allowing the audience to draw their own conclusions about your story versus just telling them what to do. Don’t be afraid to use your own failures in support of your main points, says Mr. Smith. Whatever you do, don’t preface your story with an apology or ask permission to tell it. Be confident that your story has enough relevance to be told and just launch into it, says Mr. Smith. Confidence and authority, he says, help to sell the idea to your audience. Illustration by JAMES YANG. You can read the full story here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303482504579177651982683162

BBC WORLD SERVICE – Boing Boing claims that a recent boycott of Bank Of America by its bloggers resulted in $1m being taken from the bank in closed accounts. The boycott occurred after clothing salesman Matthew Shinnick attempted to cash a cheque he had received after selling his bikes online. The cheque had come from fraudsters, and Shinnick was arrested at the bank, according to reports. He says it has cost him $14,000 in legal fees to clear his name. “I posted this on Boing Boing saying that it was unfair that Bank Of America didn’t look into this more closely, and talk to him about it before calling the police,” Boing Boing’s co-founder Mark Frauenfelder told BBC World Service’s Digital Planet programme. “After the poor guy had been arrested and treated like a criminal – when in fact he was just the victim of fraud himself – they should have reimbursed his legal expenses. So I said I think that if you have an account with Bank Of America, you might want to consider boycotting them or closing your account.” ‘Orwellian’ airlines Although Bank Of America refuses to reimburse Shinnick, Frauenfelder feels that the consumer impact sent a strong message to them. “The goal was just to let companies know that blogging is something that will encourage them to be more accountable for their actions,” he said. Bank Of America were only the latest in a number of companies boycotted by bloggers. In the past Boing Boing’s bloggers have also boycotted “Orwellian” JetBlue Airlines for privacy issues, the Recording Industry Association of America for suing file-sharers, and Digital Rights company StarForce for its anti-copying malware. Media consultant Gigi Johnson said that personalising issues such as Shinnick’s case fuels the rebellious side of readers, who perceive bloggers as trustworthy peers. “If you look at a 22-year-old, they probably have a totally different sense of the media and how it’s impacting on their lives,” she added. “They’ve never had newspapers as a major element in their lives; local TV news isn’t designed for them; the morning shows are not part of their lifestyle. “Instead, they’re multi-tasking and wanting things that are filtered for their own age group and philosophy.” And there is also the “lemming factor” – the fact that online, millions of people can potentially be rallied to a cause incredibly quickly. This was seen in 2005, when software engineer Mark Russinovich discovered that Sony-BMG was quietly putting an invasive form of copy protection on its CDs. After he posted his discovery on his blog, the news exploded to such an extent it gave rise to dedicated boycott sites, as well as spilling out into traditional media. Ultimately, Song-BMG were forced to recall all affected CDs. For Boing Boing’s Mark Frauenfelder, most responsible bloggers are not looking to be vindictive – but now provide a new set of checks and balances. “I think Sony learned something from that,” he said. “They probably won’t try something like that again because they know that the backlash just isn’t worth it.” This was published on the BBC News website as well as being a radio story for Digital Planet. You can hear the story here: https://www.dennisnishi.com/radio-2/