How to tell story? How to write a good content? What do you want to say? To Whom? When? Here are some fundamentals to write a good story content.
You is about what you do, and why you do it. It’s the stuff that drives you, the stuff that makes you special. It’s where your story starts.
Your audience is about taking your identity and making it part of other people’s lives. It’s about who’s going to be part of your story with you.
Your content is how you make the connection between you and your audience - things you do to engage your audience.
This guide is designed to to help you ask the question everyone must ask
if they want to make a difference.
2. You have a story, and it’s valuable. It’s what makes you and your work
special. It’s about where you’ve been and where you’re going, and why
you’re going there. By telling your story through your content, you can
make your audience a part of your story, encouraging them to become
advocates for you and long-term supporters of your work.
We need to work out what you want to say, why, and to whom.
This is a story that you can write well, if you take time to examine the
fundamentals. There are three parts to this process: you, your audience,
and your content.
● You is about what you do, and why you do it. It’s the stuff that drives
you, the stuff that makes you special. It’s where your story starts.
● Your audience is about taking your identity and making it part of
other people’s lives. It’s about who’s going to be part of your story with
you.
KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
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3. ● Your content is how you make the connection between you and your
audience - things you do to engage your audience.
This guide is designed to to help you ask the question everyone must ask
if they want to make a difference:
Who are we working for? What do they need?
That’s a huge question, so let’s dig into it. If any question in this guide
doesn’t help you understand things better, you don’t have to answer. But
try to challenge yourself and consider what new insights you could get
into your audience by examining what you know but haven’t realized yet.
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4. YOUR AUDIENCE IS REAL
The most important principle about your audience is this: they are real.
It’s tempting to treat your audience as a collection of categories - male,
female, 25-49, low-income, high-income, whatever - but if you stop
there, your view will be broad and impersonal.
Because there never was a human being, anywhere in the world, who
fell into all the categories that marketers made for them.
Working with category data alone, you’re like someone trying to build a
house on a plot of land using only Google Earth. You’re not close
enough. You can’t see the shape of the ground, see how the sun comes
over the trees, feel the way the breeze comes up in the mornings.
You can see from that viewpoint, but while you stay there you’ll never
really understand. But your audience is real. It’s not an abstraction or an
ideal. It’s not made up of categories, it’s made up of individuals, each of
whom will choose to engage with you. One at a time.
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5. They are individuals, and they deserve your respect. And they’ll reward
respect when it’s given. So think seriously about what kind of person is in
your audience, what drives them, what they want, and, crucially, what
they need.
It’s almost impossible to overstate how much good you can do for your
audience - and for yourself - if you commit to meeting their needs,
approaching them not as a cash-cow but as a friend who will benefit
from your help.
If people see you as a helpful voice, you will earn their trust, and they’ll
choose to be part of what you’re doing. It’s not enough to broadcast any
more - the challenge for us all is to become people who create
community around our work.
So to start with, we’re going to engage with your audience as a group of
individuals. We’re going to get an idea of the kind of person who’ll care
about what you’re doing, beyond data. We’re going to create a character -
one person - and work out how to make them part of your story.
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7. Create a Character
Your story is a story you share with your audience. More than that, if
your content is good enough, they’ll become not only your donors or
your customers but your advocates. Your story is a story which your audi-
ence will become a part of as you grow.
You probably already have an image of the kind of person who’s going to
be part of your story, even if you don’t know it - so build that image.
Bring it out of your head, and write it down.
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“The aim of art is to represent not the
outward appearance of things, but
their inward significance.” - Aristotle
8. Make a specific person. Make two or three separate characters, if there
are several different people you’re appealing to - but try to make it spe-
cific, and keep the number small. This is about sharpening your focus.
Don’t worry too much whether you’re being reductive; this is an exercise.
All human beings are different, but in creating a character like this, we’re
tapping into the image in your head of who you’re talking to - the like-
minded people who are out there waiting for someone like you to come
and bring them into a cause.
This is about going past impersonal categories and plugging yourself into
the core concerns, needs and wants of the people you’re trying to reach.
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9. Create a Character Worksheet
Use this worksheet to help get into the head of your character.
• Make a specific person.
• Who is the person you’re talking to?
• What do they look like? Are they male or female? What do they wear? What do
they carry with them?
• Give them a name.
• Get to know them.
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11. Their Values
Characters have motivations - things they care about and things they
want or need. If you’re going to ask people to become part of your story,
you can’t afford to reduce them to a single value or demographic. They’re
complicated. So let’s dig a bit deeper.
The first thing to think about is their values.
The image we’re developing is of someone who cares about things for
reasons you can understand, and speak to.
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“People from different parts of the world can
respond to the same story if it says something
to them about their own history and their own
experience.” - Chinua Achebe
12. They’re probably not driven by one principle alone, but by a collection of
beliefs and hopes and worries about the world. These beliefs don’t have to
overlap with your organizational values entirely; they just have to add up
to a value-set which makes people likely to want the same things that you
want.
Explore those values here.
If there are several different possible value-sets that make up your
audience, then create other characters to cover them; but make them as
comprehensive as possible. This is a chance to understand the things that
really matter to your audience.
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13. Their Values Worksheet
Use this sheet to work out what your character cares about, and why.
• What’s important to them?
• What do they worry about?
• What makes them angry?
• Where do they spend their time? And their money?
• Does religion play an important role in their value system? If so, what is it? Do
they make real decisions based on those beliefs?
• Do you like them? Why/why not?
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15. What They Want
People make decisions over time based on their values, but every decision
is also driven by what they want and what they need.
This operates at many different levels. They may need to feel like they’re
making a difference - that their values are being pursued in the world. Or
they may need to feel like they aren’t alone - that others share their val-
ues. They might want to learn, to deepen their understanding of a certain
issue or place or people group.
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“There's always room for a story that
can transport people to another
place.” - J.K. Rowling
16. Maybe they’re sick of a problem in the world that never seems to go
away. Maybe they need a reason to believe that things can change for the
better.
We’re not finding these things out so we can claim (falsely) to be pursu-
ing them; you don’t need or want to be all things to all people. We’re try-
ing to see where their needs and your activities align.
Find an audience that already wants and needs your work, and they will
eagerly become part of your story.
So let’s explore that. For the character you’ve created, ask yourself some
questions about what they’re looking for.
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17. What They Want Worksheet
What is your character looking for?
• What does your audience wish for?
• What do they feel they’re missing?
• What do they want to see happen in their lifetime?
• What are they passionate about?
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18. • What makes them feel valued/respected?
• What makes them feel devalued/disrespected?
• What type of influence do they want to have?
• What can we do to make them feel empowered?
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20. How They See The World
Each person’s worldview is constantly developing, in response to a wide
variety of factors – what they watch, what they read, who they talk to,
what communities they’re a part of.
Worldview is where each person’s uniqueness is formed, from the combi-
nation of all of these influences and factors.
And in each person’s worldview, we see how they’re unique, and how they
see themselves. It’s their worldview that shapes the stories that people
choose to make for themselves, and seek out, and become part of.
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“Stories can conquer fear, you know.
They can make the heart bigger.”
- Ben Okri
21. Worldviews are where people are unique and where they come together.
So understand the worldview that your character has. What story does
your character want to be a part of? How does your story coincide with
theirs?
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22. How They See The World Worksheet
What does your character want their story to be about?
• How do they see the world?
• What has shaped their worldview?
• What media has shaped the way they understand the world? Films? Books?
• Do they care about issues globally, nationally, regionally, or locally? Only some
of those?
• Have they given time/money/resources to a certain issue or cause? If so, what?
• What do they read that keeps them informed? Web, Twitter, books, magazines,
newspapers?
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24. You and Your Audience
Your audience already exists. They might already know specifically who
you are, or they might not; but on the basis of their values and their
worldview, their wants and their needs, they already care about what you
do.
And no tool is more powerful in reaching them than your content. It’s
the tool you’re going to use to express your identity and to invite people
to be part of your story.
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“The greatest challenge on the Web in the
twenty-first century is to connect with your
target audience in a way that enriches both
them and you.” - David Amerland
25. Having examined who your character is and what drives them, now we
need to look at how you can make - or strengthen - the connection be-
tween them and your work. This worksheet asks some questions about
where they currently are, whether or not they’ve heard of you.
Part of this process is working out what your audience is already seeing of
your organization. Your audience can already find out about you some-
how. You have websites they can visit, or Twitter-feeds they can read, or
Facebook pages they can Like. That’s part of what they already know.
This is a quick audit, to help you see your current content and general
presence through the lens of the character you’ve created.
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26. You and Your Audience Worksheet
This is a story about you and your audience, and how you connect.
• If they don’t already know about you, what does your character already know
about your cause?
• Why do they care about your area of work?
• What’s at stake for them? What do they stand to gain or lose from listening to
you and acting in response?
• What is at stake if they don’t act or listen?
Is it financial? The wellbeing of others? Their own wellbeing?
• What journey do you want to go on with them?
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27. • Why is your destination important to them?
• If they visit your site, what do they use your content for?
• Do they return to your site?
• If you asked your character what they thought of your organization, what would
they say?
• If you asked your character what was exciting about your work, what would
they say?
• Would they mention any particular pieces of content or media?
• If you asked your character what wasn’t working about your current content,
what would they say?
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