What’s Your Story?
I remember the day clearly. I was in my mid-20s and in a veterinarian's office interviewing the vets about a two-legged dog named Scoots. He received that name because of the hind skateboard he used that enabled him to roam freely through the vet's office.
Why am I writing this story?
At that moment, I perhaps questioned everything. “Why am I writing this story when I wanted to be a court reporter? Was journalism school the biggest mistake of my life? How much can one write about a two-legged dog?”
Those may have been some darker times in my life career-wise. But at the heart of that day, and others like it was the question that many a reporter has asked, and hopefully many a content creator.
Why am I writing this story?
The Power of Story
I found early with ministry that a story would be written for any number of reasons – it seemed like a cool idea, it’s a topic we haven’t covered in a while, it’s a great story so everyone needs to hear it!
The reality of those decisions? Little data and research went into what we said yes and no to. Gut instinct was our friend and page views were our goal.
But we have since found a way to broaden our thinking when it comes to story, and how we use the power of story to not just talk about an event or an emotion but to motivate audiences to take their next steps.
We took key steps to guide what content we proceeded with and what stories we left on the planning room floor:
- Stick to a core set of topics for which your ministry is known. If you’ve already written about a topic, can you edit and work on that existing piece to strengthen it rather than start over? This will help you with Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
- Create pillar pages — long-form articles covering a topic in-depth — to establish powerful search optimization. For Cru®, we discovered so many articles on the same topic that we chose to combine the articles onto pillar pages, making one super webpage per topic.
Using a Narrative
If you are a ministry with many entities creating content, and one of your struggles is actually figuring out how to partner together, you’re not alone.
One of Cru’s biggest challenges was helping the many different facets of our organization learn how to talk to one another about content planning, potential overlap and partnerships, and generally working together rather than in silos.
So we tried a new approach, the content narrative.
So we tried a new approach, the content narrative. For seven years now, we have gathered content representatives from each ministry and department. Together they plan a year’s worth of content by creating a narrative for the following year.
The content narrative process is powerful and uniting for a number of reasons. The biggest reason is that each group has a chance to speak into the story and the topics we use for the larger, overall story. We sit together and draw out ideas. We use all the sticky notes Office Depot has and, together, end a three-day workshop in agreement on what our next year will look like.
Hosting a Narrative Workshop
At my workshop in April, “What’s Your Story?,” we’ll go over some key components to hosting a Narrative Workshop. Here are a few key points:
- Don’t limit the room. Invite those creating content and making decisions on how your ministry is talking to its audience.
- Reiterate the goal over and over. This is about deciding on a shared story from which everyone can build.
- The heart behind this effort is to create easier opportunities for collaboration. Then you can establish a clear and concise voice for your ministry. This will care for your audience by providing a story across your many spaces.
Creating Campaigns
Once you’ve decided on your narrative for the year, you can then look at the story and pull out themes and topics that allow you to dive into the monthly or quarterly components of your narrative.
This will allow everyone in the workshop to identify potential collaboration points and larger campaigns that your full ministry could rally behind.
For us at Cru, it took a few years for our stakeholders to understand the value of the narrative and to trust everyone in the room to share content and campaigns.
The low-hanging fruit came when we spearheaded an Advent series and invited writers, fund developers, creatives and resource teams to join us in creating one powerful Advent devotional that all of our entities could take, brand for their ministry and share with their audiences.
Each year, we continue to hold our narrative workshop and find new ways to collaborate across departments, ministries and specialties. It’s not always easy, but the power of hearing many voices creating one product cannot be denied.
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Angel Barrett has worked with Cru for ten years and currently serves as the U.S. director of communications. Cru®’s purpose is helping to fulfill the Great Commission in the power of the Holy Spirit by helping people meet Jesus, building them in their faith and sending them to be multiplying disciples. Visit Cru.org anytime to explore content created to help you take your next step with Jesus.
Learn more about Outcomes magazine.
Angel Barrett will lead a workshop entitled “What's Your Story?” at this year’s Outcomes Conference in Jacksonville, FL, April 9-11. Register to attend >>
