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Today, people are self-absorbed with their smartphones and devices. They are inundated with information and sales messages. The inclination is to delete them, ignore them or turn them off.

The technology that was exciting has become addictive and oppressive. Technology companies that once were concerned with changing the world for the better behave as if they are only concerned with growing their bottom lines.

How can you penetrate the "noise"?

According to communication expert Sue Rice, the answer is to create marketing communications modeled on everyday conversation, using a technique she calls "Tiny Thunder". Tiny Thunder is the marriage of storytelling with metaphors. Sue Rice has used Tiny Thunder stories to sell hundreds of millions of dollars of products and services.

We use Tiny Thunder stories every day when we explain something with an unrelated example. For example, lead generation can be explained with a fishing analogy. You "bait" a sales message with a lead magnet to "hook" a prospective customer and get contact information.

Sue Rice gave two excellent examples of metaphors in advertising to make "thunderous" impact (I've included links in case you haven't seen them before.):

• The Apple Computer "Big Brother" ad for the Macintosh Computer in 1984. (Analogizes IBM as Big Brother, with Apple Computer's Macintosh "freeing" humanity from IBM's PC.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtvjbmoDx-I
• The Apple "Here's to the Crazy Ones"/Think Different) ad. (Analogizes Apple Computer's innovation to prominent geniuses.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sMBhDv4sik

With today's short attention spans, metaphoric language has the advantage of communicating your point lightning fast.

Sue Rice's formula for creating a metaphoric story is three steps:

1. Tell the story
2. Explain the lesson of the story
3. Invite the reader/viewer to take an action.

The book includes many examples of Tiny Thunder stories, how to use them, and sources to find them.

When you are creating persuasive communications in speeches, teaching, or promotional writing, you'll want to have a copy of Tiny Thunder to incorporate metaphoric stories to quickly and effectively communicate your ideas and get action from your audience, student, reader or viewer.

Buy it at Amazon: Tiny Thunder: Irresistible Messaging for an Overwhelmed World.

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