Effective Online Storytelling

Effective Online Storytelling Allan Pressel Special Thanks To Our Sponsors

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Today’s Speaker Allan Pressel CEO/Founder, CharityFinders Hosting: Sam Frank, Synthesis Partnership Assisting with chat questions: April Hunt, Nonprofit Webinars

ONLINE STORYTELLING Nonprofit Webinars March 23, 2011 Presented by:Allan Pressel, CEO/founder CharityFinders 877-456-3210 www.CharityFinders.comAllan@CharityFinders.com Special Thanks To Our Sponsors

Agenda Success Story Guidelines Sample Storytelling Approach Strategy Online Storytelling Tips  “Don’t”s  “Do”s Case Studies Exercise: Building an Online Story Q&A (throughout) © CharityFinders, proprietary & confidential, not for reproduction

SUCCESS STORY GUIDELINES Focus on a specific success  Individual  Child  Family  Nonprofit  Environment  Segment of the community “Before” and “after” scenarios Discuss  Programs and services  Staff and volunteers Interviews:  Staff  Volunteers  People that you helped  Their family © CharityFinders, proprietary & confidential, not for reproduction

SAMPLE STORYTELLING APPROACH Call to action on your home page Success story synopses (including pictures)  Provide information people are actually interested in… ...but not all the information  Give the reader a reason to click thru to the story Success story of the month Other success stories © CharityFinders, proprietary & confidential, not for reproduction

Private Website Consultation I’d like to offer each of you a free private website consultation  One hour  Consultation includes:  CharityFinders’ assessment of your site  Recommendations  Building your nonprofits most-needed functionality  In person or by webinar  Include anyone you want (e.g., ED, DD, board members, etc.)  In one location or several  We’ll contact you in 1-2 business days to schedule the consultation © CharityFinders, proprietary & confidential, not for reproduction

AN EFFECTIVE WEBSITE STORY STRATEGY: 6STEPS1. Define Content Strategy  what content your organization needs  how you are going to develop it  how you are going to accomplish this content strategy  Target Audiences  Target Messages  Target Transactions2. Develop Content Style Guide  Grammar & punctuation – naming conventions, abbreviations, etc.  Writing and editing style - fact-checking to tone to length of prose.  Fonts and characters –specific instructions font type, size, color, etc. for headers, paragraphs, bullet points, click text and each section of the website  Graphics and images – use, frequency, size, style, format, etc. © CharityFinders, proprietary & confidential, not for reproduction

AN EFFECTIVE WEBSITE STORY STRATEGY: 6STEPS (CONT.)3. Produce4. Edit/Proof5. Publish6. Maintain/Update © CharityFinders, proprietary & confidential, not for reproduction

“DON’T”S “Don’t say a little in so many words but a great deal in a few.” (Pythagoras) Simply take offline material and post it on your website Include too much content Use long paragraphs or lengthy prose Have lots of information “below the fold” Use pdf’s (unless the document is long or there is a particular reason it needs to be a pdf) Make your stories hard to find Use old or obsolete stories Automatically play sound © CharityFinders, proprietary & confidential, not for reproduction

“DO”S: DEVELOPING YOUR STYLE Incorporate humor Consistency with your branding, mission, and image Each story should have a purpose Present your business or nonprofit/cause in a positive light Tug at their heartstrings, get them to believe in your mission and want to support it © CharityFinders, proprietary & confidential, not for reproduction

“DO”S: PLANNING YOUR CONTENT Ensure consistency in the way different stories are written If possible, tie results directly to prior donor or volunteer action Take notes on what you like and don’t like about other nonprofits’ stories Collect stories, examples, humor, and other content Exercise to think about what stories to include in your site  Identify types of website visitors  For each  What do they want to SEE on your site?  What do they want to DO on your site? Use stories to build better relationships with your constituents Address confidentiality issues Update your stories frequently Use metatags to drive search engine traffic to your stories © CharityFinders, proprietary & confidential, not for reproduction

“DO”S: DEVELOPING YOUR CONTENT  Engage: have an attention grabbing opening  Interest: talk about what the website visitor wants to hear, not what you want to tell them  Entertain  Inspire  Motivate to take action  Be concise  Be credible  Use bullets and lists  Ensure all stories are well-written, error-free, and up-to-date © CharityFinders, proprietary & confidential, not for reproduction

“DO”S: NAVIGATION Easy to find/navigate Hierarchical/drill-down © CharityFinders, proprietary & confidential, not for reproduction

“DO”S: USE IMAGES Pictures  Kids  Animals Graphics Animation Audio Video Images should be:  Large enough  Clickable if appropriate  Of a sufficiently narrow subject  In a commonly used format (e.g. jpeg,  Good resolution gif, etc.)  Small file size  Consistently displayed across  Properly cropped browsers, operating systems, platform (PC vs. Mac)  Including a caption © CharityFinders, proprietary & confidential, not for reproduction

“DO”S: INTERACT WITH THE READERS OFYOUR STORIES Feedback Referrals Polls Blogs Online Q&A E-mail list sign-up Story submittal © CharityFinders, proprietary & confidential, not for reproduction

Your website: 7 Key Goals of an Effective Website You should strive to achieve these goals for your site: •Findability •Stickiness •Loyalty •Referability •Maximum conversion rate •Dynamism •Positive ROI © CharityFinders, proprietary & confidential, not for reproduction

Contact Information Allan Pressel, CEO/founder Allan@CharityFinders.com www.CharityFinders.com 1-877-456-3210 641 21st St. Hermosa Beach, CA 90254 © CharityFinders, proprietary & confidential, not for reproduction

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Effective Online Storytelling

by NonprofitWebinars.com on Mar 24, 2011

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Effective Online Storytelling — Presentation Transcript