What is storytelling for impact?
Even the word ‘storytelling’ is starting to sound like a marketing buzz word these days, everyone is on about stories and how important they are.
Then add in the word ‘impact’ and you’ve got industry jargon, right?
Well, you’re not wrong. It is industry-speak. So I’d like to demystify storytelling for impact for you. It’s a really important part of what we do and it could be extremely useful in your own communication efforts.
There are so many amazing people on this planet who do really great work. And if you are reading this you’re probably one of them. But time and again when we speak to people we uncover a similar problem. We learn about their important mission, their purposeful business and the work they do only to discover they are not reaching their potential because they can’t connect to their audience.
They just can’t find the right way to get their message across.
This could be because they’re are not sure where to start. They are overwhelmed by the number of platforms to choose from. They are confused by what sort of content to create. There are so many options with everything from blogs, podcasting, websites, social media and traditional advertising. And some even freak out “Ah, storytelling, sounds like a creative thing.”
Not to mention the icky idea of being in front of a camera.
Here’s a secret
It’s all about the story you start from. You need to craft that first. Then you can figure out which platform to focus on by experimenting with the content you create and seeing what connects with your audience.
Once you craft a great story, you can work on your messaging and figure out what you want people to do. The story will engage them, intrigue them and you can end with a call to action that takes them to the next step in joining your tribe.
So the impact storytelling formula is ‘great story = engaged audience + strong call to action = audience taking action’ voila impact storytelling.
There are a few steps to this process and to crafting a great story but we have episodes to help with that – you can find them here:
This post will help you get your head around impact storytelling
The difference between a story and an impact story is the action that happens. Stories can be purely for entertainment, sharing information or simply a way to communicate. But impact stories are designed to get people to do something, they take the audience from passive consumption to active participation. That’s the key difference.
If you can craft a story and message it with a call to action that really gets people wanting to do something, you are well on your way to creating a movement, a change in behaviour or connecting them with your mission.
And that is impact storytelling.
If you’d like to learn more about impact storytelling this video is a great place to start.
In this episode of the Moonshine Moonshot series Mike Hill and Sue Collins are breaking down impact storytelling, specifically visual storytelling, and giving you tips on how to craft yours.
They‘re talking about impact, unpacking what that means and how you can leverage storytelling to get folks taking the action you need them to take.
If you’re short on time and just want to skip to the episode highlights
0:24 – What the hell is a Moonshot anyway?
0:58 – What is visual storytelling?
1:20- Why does visual storytelling work better than text?
4:12 – Why written content is still important for some things?
4:55 – How video and text work together?
9:26 – Why storytelling in communication is so important.
The team at Moonshine Agency have been specialising in impact storytelling for over a decade. We shine the light on important social issues in health, homelessness, education and future thinking. We design purposeful campaigns that get our audiences sitting up and taking action.
If you’d like to learn more about our projects you can see them here, they might be a good source of inspiration for what could be possible in your own work.
Thanks for joining us and once you’ve watched or listened, please let us know what you thought? Do you have questions or do you want more information?
Your feedback will help us make more useful episodes so please, share your thoughts.
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We look forward to hearing from you.
Sue & Mike
Learn more about Sue and Mike here