Kivi's Nonprofit Communications Blog

As you know, I’m hosting a webinar this week with search engine optimization (SEO) expert David Westbrook. It’s going to be full of great tips on how to do your keyword research and search engine optimization, which is really essential if you expect your website to produce new supporters. David will speak in plain English, so even if HTML is Greek to you, you’ll still understand the basics. The webinar is this Thursday, March 6, 2008 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern and registration is just $35. Details and Registration Here.

Here’s another free tip from David that was news to me: “Frequently people who have heard anything about search engine optimization, but who don’t follow it closely, have heard that there is a near-magical meta tag called the “keyword meta tag.” This comes from the fact that a few years ago search engines relied on it heavily for indexing Web site pages. Today the importance of the keyword tag is zilch. Most search engine companies have programmed the indexing portion of their engines to ignore the tag altogether.”

And here I was thinking I really needed to go update the keyword tags on several of my sites. I’ll knock that right off the to-do list! Thanks David!

P.S. Take three minutes and tell me what webinar topics you want on the schedule this summer. Just rip through the list, ranking each topic on a scale of 1-5. Five free webinar passes are up for grabs for those who complete the survey. Take the survey now.

By Guest Blogger Claire Voyant

Storytelling. As marketing and PR professionals, we know storytelling works, but sometimes it’s hard to convey that to our clients (you nonprofits out there). After all, our clients are serious people doing serious work. Just the word sounds a little “light” doesn’t it? Storytelling. Like a group of children sitting around granny, quilt on her lap, eyeglasses perched on the tip of her nose.

But . . . that’s just the point! I can SEE granny, spinning her tale, the small children listening, “…and then the mama bear . . .” Now, instead of telling you about granny, what if I said this:

“Every year, the Elder Helper program sends more than 250 senior citizens to over 50 low-income child care centers to read to at-risk youth.” Yes, we have the number. We have the buzz words. What we don’t have is a picture in our head.

Painting a Picture. That is the whole point of WHY storytelling works. But don’t listen to me — listen to the expert. His name is Donald Davis, and he’s one of the most beloved storytellers in the country. Fans pack the house when Donald is in town and he’s the headliner at all the major storytelling festivals from Pigeon Forge, Tennessee to Mariposa, California. This former Methodist minister also works with corporations and nonprofits who want to learn how to turn stories into action.

I called his home in Ocracoke, North Carolina, and first had a nice chat with his lovely wife, Merle Davis. She works with nonprofits, too, and said nonprofits really should tell their stories — because they have the best stories to tell. Then I got to talk with the Donald himself, who told me, “I’m not online . . . I’m on the road!”

I got right to the point and asked him why EXACTLY do stories work.

“Because stories paint a picture in your head,” said Donald. “You don’t HEAR a story — you SEE it. Then you feel what that person is feeling. Then you make the human connection to what they’re saying.”

I see that. In my head.

Then I asked him why EXACTLY numbers and jargon don’t work.

“Because numbers and jargon do not paint a picture. They don’t mean anything to the listener. If I say to you “capacity building” you can’t see it. What does “capacity building” look like?”

I don’t know what “capacity building” looks like. Does it have windows?

There you have it, from the Ocracoke-dwelling, bow-tie wearing, crowd pleasing, tale-spinning story man himself. Stories paint a picture in your head and make you feel. You want your audience to feel your mission, don’t you? So paint a picture — with a story.

From now on, when I want to tell a client why storytelling works, I’m going to tell them a story . . . about Donald Davis.

Claire Voyant is Claire Meyerhoff, a media and communications consultant based in Raleigh, NC. You can contact Claire at meymedia AT aol.com.

This post is part of Kivi’s participation in the Blogging4Learning Challenge, where she is writing various kinds of blog posts (including publishing a guest blogger) to share what she’s learning about storytelling for nonprofits.

Please take this 3-minute survey to determine which webinars should be offered in Nonprofit Marketing Guide’s weekly webinar series this summer.

Take the Survey Now

I promise, it’s painless. Simply run through the list of webinar titles and rank them on a scale of 1-5. Everyone who completes the survey and leaves their contact information at the end will be entered into a drawing for one of five free webinar passes!

You’ll find this week’s edition of the Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants at Donor Power Blog. Jeff asked for posts related to “in like a lion” in honor of March finally arriving. See what he came up with. Next week the Carnival moves to the Southern Hemisphere with Priscilla at Solidariti.

If you are new to this blog, you may be wondering, “What the heck is the Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants?” It’s a weekly round-up of some of the best posts in the nonprofit blogosphere. It moves from host to host each week, with Nonprofit Communications as its home base. All subscribers to my blog also get the Carnival update messages like this one. If you want only the carnival updates and not my blog, you can subscribe to a separate feed just for the Carnival. If you’d like your own blog posts to be considered for inclusion, you can sign up for our contributors email reminder list. You do not have to be a consultant or a nonprofit to participate — you simply need to blog on topics of interest to people working in the nonprofit sector.