Telling Your Story on Social Media

Presented By:

Dustin McKissen, CAE, CMEM5 Strategy + Branding, Inc.

What is storytelling?

• A fundamental way humans have communicated to one another since the beginning of time

• A remarkably effective marketing technique that cuts through the dense amount of messaging potential donors are exposed to

• A way to communicate the impact of your donor’s support

Why storytelling?

• Storytelling pulls Donors to your cause, rather than pushing messaging toward them

• Compelling storytelling helps your message cut through the incredible volume of messaging potential donors are exposed to.

- LinkedIn receives publishes more than 50,000 posts per week.

-There are 350,000 tweets sent per minute

Why storytelling?

Because telling an inspiring story, in words, pictures, or video, is your best chance at cutting through the noise of 350,000 tweets per minute and 50,000 posts per week, to say nothing of the countless other media your target

audience is exposed.

Every single tweet, post, and video competes for your audience’s attention.

Creating better content is how you rise above the noise.

Better Content?

Better content does not mean that you have to write like Hemmingway, make videos like Scorsese, or have a Twitter following like Kim Kardashian (apologies for including Hemmingway, Scorsese, and Kardashian in the same sentence!).

Better Content?

Better content requires being:• Genuine• Authentic• Engaging• Inspiring• Original• And…

The Good News is…

These qualities exist in abundance in every nonprofit organization. This sector experiences more authentic, genuine, real, engaging, inspiring stories than any other sector.

You have stories to tell.

So tell them!

Channels for Your Stories

Stories are…

• Blog posts;• Articles;• Photos;• Videos;• Illustrations; • Status updates;• And…

Anything that shares a genuine experience that other people can relate to, or inspires them to make some

positive change in their lives.

Content designed to create a financial transaction will struggle to find an audience.

Content that exists to inform, educate, and inspire will find an audience, especially if you consistently

distribute it.

A Story of Mine • Shared on LinkedIn August 2014• 448,000+ views• 5,775 likes• 2,101 comments• Reprinted and posted in 7

different languages• Plagiarized in many others• Led to a dramatic growth in my

followership• Created multiple business

opportunities

• A human story about someone I love working to overcome a struggle. Countless stories like these exist in your organizations!

But it’s all in the telling!

So, let’s try it….

What do you see?

What do you see?

What do you see?

Remember…

Better content requires being:• Genuine• Authentic• Engaging• Inspiring• Original• Consistent

Thank you for attending today’s Performance Lab, and for being part of the DonorPath community!

If you aren’t already a member, enroll in the Fundraising Readiness Project today!

http://dp.donorpath.org/fundraising-readiness-project