- FORGET INTERNAL STORYTELLING AT YOUR PERIL
It’s easy to focus our efforts on the most immediate (financial) return, but forget the internal audience at your peril. Inspiring and engaging internal stakeholders to be your biggest supporters can make or break innovation. - WHICH LEVER TO PULL - EMOTIONAL VS RATIONAL VS FACTUAL
Our go-to, when telling stories in the third sector, has been to use emotion to drive connection with supporters. But what about exploring head vs heart (as Daryl Fielding said in her safari talk). How and where can you experiment with the different levers to drive connection - emotional vs rational vs factual? (A GF subscriber is currently running an A/B test on a new product so we’ll share back headlines when they’re available). - RISK OF SILENCE
Your voice has power. Though sometimes the biggest impact comes from not speaking. Are you risking silence by not speaking out on topics that are important to your supporters and beneficiaries? Even if they aren’t part of your core mission? Is your silence being noticed on DEI and climate change? What impact is this having on your brand perception - both internally and externally? - PIVOTING FROM YOUR CORE MISSION
If you do speak out on topics that aren’t core, how do you speak authentically to your supporters? How do you engage audiences with new propositions in new areas of focus?
Take inspiration from Care International’s Gen Zero product. It isn’t until you scroll to the very bottom of the landing page that Care’s brand or logo first appears. Launching products that are “powered by” or “supporting” gives you a safe distance to explore and experiment with new propositions, markets or audiences that might not be core to your current mission. - YOU CAN’T PLEASE EVERYONE
On that note, you can’t please everyone all of the time. Know who your audience is. And who it isn’t. Be single minded and focused. You can’t speak to everyone in a single story. Own your subjectivity.
- EXPERIMENTATION
How and where can you experiment with storytelling? In the Reunion session we heard from a number of organisations who are planning on experimenting telling stories different internally and externally. Using video to give voice to the first person account. Using data to convey impact in new visual formats. Using VR to explore the lived experience. Handing over control the messaging to your supporters to tell their story and communicate your mission. - SUPPLY, DEMAND & CONSENT
Do you have a content pipeline (and is it working)? Are those on the frontline supported to discover and share content in a range of formats? Are you doing proactive content generation, or just reacting to problem solving? How do you ensure you’re getting the right consent to use content, and supporting storytellers when their narratives go live? - IS IT REALLY OVER-EXPOSED?
One thing that occurred to us during the Reunion was, who is actually bored with your story? Is it your supporters or is it your social team? Your team may feel that a story or case study has been used too many times, but consider how many times your supporters will have actually paused and considered the narrative. - SAME STORY, TOLD DIFFERENT WAYS
It’s not just what you tell, it’s how you tell it. To avoid over-exposure consider the different ways to tell the same story. Take a leaf from Katy Jon Went's safari session. Sometimes the most interesting parts come from the middle. Try cutting the story up into different sections, or focusing in from a new angle. Move past your immediate first impressions and assumptions to see new avenues in old narratives. - EMPOWERING THE READER
How can you empower the reader to explore the story how they want? Simon Barratt shared his views on the opportunity VR and gaming gives to enabling people to explore new worlds and new narratives.
- POLYMEDIC CONVERSATIONS
A story or conversation may start on Facebook or in email but that doesn’t mean it ends there. One story can be told through multiple chapters across a range of channels, with the same supporter. These are called polymedic conversations. The tone, style and focus of the narrative shifts to reflect the channel or medium but in reality its one continuous conversation. - THE PERILS OF CUT & PASTE
We’ve all seen it (and probably been guilty of doing it). The two-page content brief cut down to fit an email newsletter, cut again to fit a facebook post. Good content goes out the window when you just cut and paste. Think about your channel and your audience to re-craft stories. - IMPACT NARRATIVES
One of the biggest opportunities stories give are new ways to communicate and land impact. Impact told through data. Impact told through audio. Impact told through a tweet, a TikTok or Reel. Impact brought to life through video or VR. Impact landed, made real and powerful. - SINGULAR FOCUS
One way to communicate impact is to have a singular focus. But that can be hard when your mission is broad and diverse. When you do lots, how do you showcase it all. Answer: you don’t. Be brave and focus on one angle of impact at a time.
"A lot of pop musicians do this: simplify things and find an emotional coordinate and then write a whole song about that coordinate.
Maybe the first verse of a song is about a lover, and the second verse is about a friend, and then the third verse is something you saw in a movie, but it’s all about that particular emotional location.
Pop music is so often an attempt to make sense of something that’s really complicated in everyday life. Often, the method that works is to zoom out and try to look at it from afar."
Bjork
- BRAVERY
Having singular focus or experimenting and trying new things takes bravery. Bravery to break the mould. Bravery to confront old ways of working. Bravery to challenge old stereotypes of colonialism and racism. Bravery to stand up and shout. - POWER OF PARTNERSHIPS
You aren’t alone. There’s power in joining force with others. Power in partnerships to develop and create. To add your voice to the choir and be heard. We The Helpers is a new campaign from UK aid charities to change the perception of aid with the message ‘Aid is helping. We can’t stop now.’ Partners include: WaterAid, British Red Cross, UNICEF, Save the Children, ActionAid, Oxfam, International Rescue Committee, Care International, Bond and One. - WHO’S IN THE WRITER’S ROOM?
Georgia Arnold challenged us to consider who we have in the writer’s room? To truly speak to an audience you need to include them in the creative process. Who’s in your writer’s room? - ROBUSTLY CHALLENGING THE CYNICS
The backlash against the metaverse and web3 has already begun. In order to equip ourselves to take on the cynics we need to stay informed. How can you stay ahead of the conversation so that you’re armed with information to give a balanced assessment of the risk of new opportunities? (We hope that Good Futures is answering some of that challenge for you.) - SUPPORTER JOURNEYS ARE QUEEN
We’ve said it before and we’ll keep saying it - Supporter journeys are queen. Without a good view of where your supporters are, where they could go and what they need, want and (possibly) hate, you’re missing a massive opportunity. How can you use data and insight to better understand your segments? How and where could you empower supporters to design their own journeys? What are the touch points to co-create the now and next? - SINGING FROM THE SAME SONGBOOK
Finally, none of the above will work if you’re not all singing from the same songbook. How do you coordinate across the organisation to align on storytelling and coordinate your efforts to give singular focus on impact narratives?
Getting there isn’t easy. When what works for fundraising isn’t what works for strategy, or services or delivery, or trusts. That’s where engagement frameworks come in. A method to coordinate, align and deliver storytelling across the whole organisation.