effective online storytelling

Effective Online Storytelling

Allan Pressel

Special Thanks To Our Sponsors

A Proud Sponsor of NonprofitWebinars.com

Helping ordinary people raise extraordinary amounts for nonprofits is all we do, and we love it.

Today’s Speaker

Hosting: Sam Frank, Synthesis Partnership

Assisting with chat questions: April Hunt, Nonprofit Webinars

Allan PresselCEO/Founder,CharityFinders

Nonprofit Webinars

March 23, 2011

Presented by:

Allan Pressel, CEO/founder

CharityFinders

877-456-3210

www.CharityFinders.com

[email protected]


ONLINE STORYTELLING

mailto:[email protected]


© CharityFinders, proprietary & confidential, not for reproduction

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)


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


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


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 nonprofit's 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


AN EFFECTIVE WEBSITE STORY STRATEGY: 6

STEPS

1. 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 Transactions

2. 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.


AN EFFECTIVE WEBSITE STORY STRATEGY: 6

STEPS (CONT.)

3. Produce

4. Edit/Proof

5. Publish

6. Maintain/Update


“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


“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


“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


“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


“DO”S: NAVIGATION

Easy to find/navigate

Hierarchical/drill-down


“DO”S: USE IMAGES

Pictures

Kids

Animals

Graphics

Animation

Audio

Video

Images should be:

Large enough

Of a sufficiently narrow subject

Good resolution

Small file size

Properly cropped

Including a caption

Clickable if appropriate

In a commonly used format (e.g. jpeg,

gif, etc.)

Consistently displayed across

browsers, operating systems,

platform (PC vs. Mac)


“DO”S: INTERACT WITH THE READERS OF

YOUR STORIES

Feedback

Referrals

Polls

Blogs

Online Q&A

E-mail list sign-up

Story submittal


You should strive to achieve these goals for your site:•Findability

•Stickiness

•Loyalty

•Referability

•Maximum conversion rate

•Dynamism

•Positive ROI

Your website: 7 Key Goals of an Effective Website


Contact Information

Allan Pressel, CEO/founder

[email protected]

www.CharityFinders.com

1-877-456-3210

641 21st St.

Hermosa Beach, CA 90254


http://www.charityfinders.com/

Find the listings for our current season of webinarsand register at

NonprofitWebinars.com

Chris [email protected]

707-812-1234



effective online storytelling

Business