Q&A: The power of digital storytelling in Asia

BARCELONA — Social giving in Asia is growing, with more people engaging with causes online and being triggered to act, according to Rebecca Lim, head of Our Better World. OBW, which is part of the Singapore International Foundation, focuses on telling stories about the work of nonprofits and social enterprises in Asia in an effort to prompt audiences to support them or take action. OBW research has found that people in Asian countries view social giving in different ways. With more internet users in Asia than anywhere else in the world, NGOs can use digital storytelling to tap into these various motivations and perspectives, Lim said. “There needs to be greater awareness among [staff] members, funders, and nonprofit social enterprises of the value of digital and the importance of actually having such capabilities ... within the organization,” Lim said. OBW published 35 stories in the form of videos, photo essays and blog posts in 2018 — on issues such as education, inclusion, and health care — which garnered a total of 37.2 million views. In a survey of more than 2,200 of its followers, 60% said they were spurred to take action by viewing stories, whether by donating, volunteering, or simply finding out more about the issue. Lim shared OBW’s experience in mastering digital storytelling for an Asian audience and offered practical tips on how to provoke action. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Since Our Better World was launched in 2012, you’ve reached millions of people with stories on development and humanitarian issues. What are the key lessons you've learned about engagement? It’s been quite a journey and some of the key lessons we've learned come under four Rs. It's important to be real. You can see from our stories that they're authentic and that's what matters; be careful and don't manipulate the facts. Being real means when we make mistakes, we own up to them and we're constantly learning how to get better. Number two is about relationships, which are at the core of all we do. It's always the dignity of the story subject that we very much take care of and when we work with storytellers they must share that same belief and mode of operation. In a sense, you could do this without putting a high weight on relationships, but for us, we've learned that the best stories come through when you genuinely value the relationships of your story, the story subjects, and storytellers. Thirdly, it's about being redeeming. If you look across our stories, we don't shy away from showing the reality of the issues, but we always focus on the solution and how that is making a difference. This is important because we’ve heard from our community that in so doing, it helps empower an online audience to say “I can play a part.” Fourthly, it's relevance because there's so much content out there and what matters is “why should I care, why does it matter?” Relevance is both on a personal and societal level. When there's relevance in our story, it gives our audience a way to contribute and that matters. What critical elements do you think a story needs to have in order for it to really engage with an Asian audience specifically and trigger them to give? Through research, we found three core elements in a story that help trigger action. It needs to be a story that impacts thoughts and helps people see a unique perspective. It also needs to impact feelings, and we've seen from our research it's the complexity and intensity of emotions in a story that matters. The third element is really relevance, so it connects with you. If you look across Asia, the cultural differences and insights unearthed from the research are also very important. For example, for Singapore, we have distilled it under the term “social welfare” where people contribute because there is a desire to improve the lives of others and they see it as being the responsible thing to do. That differs to the Philippines or Indonesia where giving comes from a motivation [of] social cohesion — a desire to improve communities and to bring communities together. In Malaysia, it's about social preservation — the desire to uphold ethics in the midst of social decline. In India, the motivation is toward social change, a desire to confront a flawed system and the role of digital is sensitization. How storytelling evolves around themes of ethics and values is crucial. What would you say to organizations that question the value of communications, especially if there are budget constraints? It's unique to each organization. Do they really see communications as an overhead or do they see communications as an opportunity to bring in new supporters? I think that's a fundamental question to answer. Do you have a set of best practices when it comes to digital storytelling and connecting audiences to your cause? A lot of nonprofits struggle with being clear on their objectives and target audience. They try to be everything to everybody. So if, for example, your objective is to get more volunteers, then you need to understand who your target audience is and then ask how you tell your story with this objective and audience in mind. Don't try to have multiple objectives and multiple target audiences because that tends to dilute the message. It's also not just about sourcing and crafting the best story. There’s a need to reach the right target audience in order to create impact. The relevant part is having the right target audience to inspire action. Another point is that a lot of nonprofits talk about what they do in their communications but what's important is why they're actually doing what they do. Many times, the motivation is what connects with audiences. People also tend to be skeptical of what you do so you need to share evidence of impact and then communicate that impact to build stronger credibility. Finally, keep experimenting because, especially in the online space, things keep changing. Update June 11, 2019: This article has been updated to clarify that Our Better World was launched in 2012.