As people, we gain knowledge and connect with others by sharing stories. Imagine your Main Street leadership team using storytelling to engage and motivate different audiences. What would that look like?
Recently, leaders from the Mobilizing Main Street (MMS) cohort met for their monthly huddle to learn about and apply organizational storytelling to build a community around their mission and foster results. Our guest speaker and facilitator, Sarah Choi of The Spark Mill, says that storytelling helps people connect the dots and understand information more holistically, making it easier to share and engage.
Whether through a social media campaign or one-on-one conversation, storytelling can be used as a call to action. To spark action, you need to tell a specific story to a specific audience to motivate them to do what you need them to do, such as donate time and money or shop and dine downtown. Crafting a message around the 5W1H framework (Who, What, Why, How, When, Where) helps you get to know your audience and your organization for focus and results.
Concluding the huddle, leaders shared “one-minute wisdom bites,” the lesson high points that will help their organizations tell compelling stories:
- Know your audience and change your message for that audience. Be specific and have a call to action.
- Prepare to go out into the community and connect using the 5W1H framework, providing structure to help think through a clear message.
- Choose your communication tools wisely, like Canva, Mailchimp, or Instagram, because you have limited time to capture someone’s attention.
- Take time to craft stories that highlight your organization’s mission and accomplishments so that you capture attention and build donor and volunteer pipelines.
- Embrace “tooting your own horn!” Brag about the work you do, even when it’s uncomfortable.
As an example, check out this video! Do you hear the 5W1H framework?
Image Credit: The Spark Mill
Virginia Main Street 