This is the ‘win with stories’ newsletter. Every other week, I send an email with a message wrapped in a super short story and three actionable communication tips.
Today’s story is about Deepinder Goyal, CEO and founder of Zomato.
Team ki fati hui hai
It was New Year’s eve. My wife and I had decided to stay home and have a quiet celebration like millions others across the country.
It was then that Deepinder Goyal’s tweets caught my attention. He was live-tweeting the action behind the scenes as the company witnessed their highest ever volume of orders.
Here are some of the things he tweeted about.
– 20k Biryanis and 16k Pizzas in transit
– 4100 orders per minute
– ‘Team ki fati hui hai’(literally means team is scared as f*#k in English).
Goyal also went on to have cheeky conversations with twitteratis like Tanmay Bhat(of AIB fame).
The results were there for all of us to see. Goyal’s twitter thread was one of the most viewed/engaging ones that night. Zomato won the PR battle against Swiggy. News articles over the next two days repeated things he said in his tweets.
But one of the best results Goyal achieved was to humanise the app. For many, the simple act of ordering a meal became a celebration of efforts by the riders and tech team at Zomato.
CEOs are meant to be the chief storytellers for any company, and Goyal’s tweets that night were a textbook lesson on leadership storytelling.
Are you narrating stories of your company or product or service? If yes, do share examples.
Today’s communications tips are linked to Goyal’s company, Zomato, as well.
- Use ‘I’ wherever necessary: Zomato was caught in the middle of a storm when a Bengaluru based Instagrammer accused their delivery guy of assaulting her. While sharing the company standpoint on Twitter, Goyal said, “I want to chime in about the incident…..”
Personalising the message showed he cared rather than releasing a lukewarm company statement where no one takes responsibility by using ‘we’ all the time.
- Make it visual: Last year when Zomato introduced tips for riders, they did not just ask users to select the amount(10rs, 20rs and so on). The app displayed visuals of what the tip amount corresponded to – like a cutting chai glass for 10rs, sandwich for 25rs, etc.
This tip can be used by us even while writing or speaking apart from presentations. Think how you can fire the audience’s imagination by sharing a visual image. It makes your message a lot more sticky.
- ‘Thoda chill karo, yaar’ or ‘Make communication relatable’: If you noticed, one of Deepinder’s tweets on new year’s eve was ‘team ki fati hui hai’. How can a CEO speak like that?
Well, because we all do.
Communication is not about being sophisticated but relatable. English will continue to stay the language of business in India, but we can all get colloquial every once in a while. What do you think?
That’s it for today. Hope you enjoyed this edition of ‘win with stories’ newsletter. If you have a question about business or personal communication, feel free to reply here or connect with me on Linkedin or Twitter.
Stories mean success. Let’s create many more of them.
Thanks.
Sachin.
