Two Little Words that Create Community

The second little word is we. You can avoid hierarchy, foster community feeling, and show your clients/constituents as active participants in your work by making sure that we never means only your staff, but always includes everyone you view as part of your community: staff, clients/constituents, donors, volunteers, and possibly family members or others who indirectly benefit from you work. This creates an atmosphere of family and belonging that participants enjoy and that people want to join or support.

Human psychology makes us identify with a group of people described as we or us and dis-identify or disassociate from a group of people described as they or them. Therefore, if we refers to your staff and they refers to your constituents, a reader will subconsciously compare herself to your staff and disassociate herself from your constituents. Whether your reader is a grant reviewer, donor, or prospective client, that’s the opposite of what you want her to do. You want your reader to see your constituents or clients as like herself or others she knows, so that she will feel she’d fit right in and consider joining you, or so that she will empathize enough to take out her checkbook.

We messaging also flies in the face of the you-focused marketing plastered seemingly everywhere we go in America. There is nothing wrong with you messaging in itself, and it is often the most effective, but its prevalence supports our culture of individualistic isolation by encouraging people to focus only on themselves and not on the broader picture. This basic imbalance is one of the main ones that mission-based work must correct in order for our society to move forward in a more humane, sustainable way.

Example:

At Fitness Freddy’s, we are highly experienced trainers who know how to help people lose weight and meet their fitness goals.

There is a division set up here between the trainers and the people who want to lose weight, and therefore there is a sense of coolness and lack of relationship between them. Readers are probably potential clients, but are led to identify with the trainers, and disassociate from the current clients. In fact, the current clients are depicted more as an abstract concept than as real people.

At Fitness Freddy’s, you can work with highly experienced trainers to lose weight and meet your fitness goals.

This is better, but the focus on the individual alone does not establish any warmth between clients and trainers. It also completely omits even the presence of other clients, let alone the added benefit of connecting with them. It sounds like every other you marketing message we see, and is therefore forgettable.

At Fitness Freddy’s, all of us, from exercising newbies to professional trainers, are dedicated to supporting one another in maintaining healthy weight and meeting our fitness goals.

With the warmth and sense of community in this message, suddenly Fitness Freddy’s feels like a place where you can connect with community, form bonds with others, and meet emotional/social needs while meeting physical needs for exercise. No matter how out of shape you are, you are not “less than” the trainers, and in fact there is plenty of room for you to support both fellow clients and trainers in meeting their fitness goals. Exercise becomes not only working out, but pleasurable social connection. The focus on a community with mutual emotional support also makes readers feel more comfortable and inspired to come work out.

Words that Make People Smile

The words and phrases we hear every day shape how we think and feel. What words and phrases do people at your organization – staff, clients, constituents, volunteers – hear every day? What words and phrases do you use to represent yourself to prospective funders or customers? If your wording supports hierarchy and divisiveness, people will experience you through those modes. If it supports equality and community, people will warm, smile, and come to you.

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