10/29/2019

Daily Buzz: Make Your Communications More Interactive

Tweak your storytelling approach

When your nonprofit communications team is writing day in and day out, it can be easy to fall back on old templates or too often repeat specific turns of phrase. But when that happens, over time, communications become formulaic, predictable and un-engaging.

If you think you might be in a communication rut, take a step back and look at how the team engages with your organization’s mission, says media relations expert Peter Panepento on Nonprofit Marketing Guide.

“You might think you already do that—that the stories you tell and the actions you ask your audiences to take are all supporting your mission,” Panepento says. “This is about involving the people whose lives you’re hoping to help improve with your work in the communications. It’s about making your potential donors and volunteers feel as though they are contributing to a movement.”

So, tweak your storytelling (the fall issue of Associations Now has a deep dive on that subject). Instead of “show, don’t tell,” Panepento suggests a different rule: Don’t just show, involve.

“It’s not enough to simply tell powerful stories,” he says. “The real magic comes when we invite our audiences to help us shape the narrative. It’s about relinquishing some of our power—and inviting our audiences to exercise theirs.”

Now, how your nonprofit decides to involve its audience will depend on its mission. For instance, a social challenge akin to the ALS Association’s Ice Bucket Challenge might align with the story you’re trying to tell—or it might not.

Whatever the solution, the idea is to find new ways to make communications more interactive. “It’s not easy to do,” Panepento says. “But, when it happens, it can be transformative.”

Please select this link to read the original article from Associations Now.