Storytelling campaigns can encourage people to engage in social change, but it’s important to thoughtfully design how to ask them to be involved. Here are some tips for designing effective calls to action.

1. Make it specific. Effective calls to action are not one size fits all; instead, they should be focused on translating a goal into a specific action that can be taken by a target audience. Having specific calls to action can increase psychological wellness by focusing people’s energy on a particular action, which can result in them being more likely to follow through.
2. Make it feel achievable. Research has found that people are less likely to help others when the number of people in need is high, as positive feelings that come from helping some do not outweigh the negative ones because of not being able to help everyone. This can result it less people taking action.
3. Make it easy. Calls to action should ask people to do something they want to do and that can be done easily. Using small, positive reinforcements that can move attitudes in a particular direction can also make taking action easier.
4. Make it feel like everyone else is doing it. People often seek out actions that can help them maintain status within their social groups. By identifying a community based on a shared group identity and connecting actions to it, people can see their personal interest in engaging in the action.

For more information, read “How to Build Better Calls to Action” from the Stanford Social Innovation Review.