Case study presented at the 2016 Social Enterprise Toronto Conference on the art of storytelling for impact.

1. Quick Roadmap
Agenda
1. Types: kind of
stories to tell
2. Examples: stories
in action
3. Collection: tips to
collect stories with
ease
4. Distribution: get the
most of your stories
(amplify & leverage)
@Furniture_Bank #SETC16

2. Empty Apartment
Founding Story
Inspires Movement

3. Stories
to Tell
Backbone of storytelling strategy – answer questions:
1. Why do you exist? - founding story
2. What do you do and how you do it? – educate “strangers”
3. How do you change lives? – show how product/service changes lives
and what’s in it for the customer (unique sales proposition)
Considerations:
• Personas: who is your audience you are writing for and how does
that feed into your content creation
What Kind of

4. What is a Story?
Storytelling in Action
1. Founding Story
Why we exist
History page, pitch decks,
presentations, social media,
anniversary events, etc.
2. Furniture journey
Show process start to finish
Posted on blog and shared on
social media to validate where
furniture goes (and share
when Q is asked)
3. Client Note
Connect customers back to impact
Distributed in e-newsletter to
furniture donors, on social
media, etc.

5. Stories
With Ease
Think of ways to automate story collection to churn with ease
Record, track and streamline:
1. Story bank it
2. Opt in option in surveys, reviews, etc.
3. Photo ops on site
How to Collect

6. How to
Amplify!
Repurpose stories across platforms (share links, visuals, etc.)
• Blog to get inbound traffic
• Website to enhance page content
• Twitter to tag folks
• Facebook to tell long tail stories
• Instagram to enhance imagery
Identify influencers in your space and put content on their radar
• Journalists
• Companies/organizations
• Thought leaders
Tools of the trade that will help!
• Buzz Sumo (identify influencers and best performing content)
• Twitter photo tags (Instagram too!)
• Hashtagify.me
Distribution

7. How to
Leverage!
Real time marketing Examples
• Syrian refugee crisis
• Goodwill Closures
• Keep on Truckin’
Tools of the trade:
• Google Trends
• Google News
• Twitter
• Trending
• Lists
Tracking performance:
• Visits to website
• Social shares
• Inbound links
• Actions taken
Distribution:

8. Group Exercise:
Meet
Brian
“When I look at the furniture that I prepare for delivery it makes me feel proud. I think
about the people who come to us with nothing and it’s good to know that we’re working
hard to help get them what they need.”