Many of us who work in media – whether as publishers, producers, marketers, or evangelists – create stories around the work that we do. It’s our job to create tales to interest people, to gather attention and, in most cases, sales or contracts.

As creating media becomes easier, businesses – and business owners and employees – are creating more of their own media. Many don’t have the background that professional media workers do, and as a result, are prone to mis-step.

We perceive these mis-steps most easily as inappropriate disclosure, poor personal judgment, or a lack of self-censorship.

But we also counsel businesses that talking only about themselves, about their business, and the benefits of their work is a bad idea. Why?

Watch this video. Award-winning novelist Chimamanda Adichie speaks about the danger of the single story.

The single story is dangerous from any angle. If your single story is a drunken photo on Facebook, you fail. If your single story is a mis-step with sensitive information, you fail.

If your drunken photo is one story of many – well, you still might want to rethink where you leave your camera. But people are a lot more likely to take the detail in stride at the value of what it is; a detail, not a whole picture.

It’s not just about how you tell your story. It’s about what stories (plural please) you’re telling, as well as how.

What stories are you telling? How are you telling them?

Video from TED Talks on YouTube. Hat tip Justin Kownacki for sharing the video.