How to Wow: Four Useful Insights on Amazing Digital Storytelling

The Internet is awash in a flood of digital storytelling tips. You know that telling your story is an important way to connect your nonprofit with your constituents and move people to action, but HOW?!

Look no further! Here are four good ideas to incorporate into your own digital storytelling from two digital storytelling gurus:

• Michael Hoffman is the Founder and CEO of See3 Communications where he is the leading authority in online video for nonprofits.
• Joe Lambert is the Executive Director of the Center for Digital Storytelling. Joe is the principal author of the Digital Storytelling Cookbook, Digital Storytelling: Capturing Lives, Creating Community and his newest book, Seven Stages: Story and the Human Experience.

They shared their advice during TechSoup’s August 14 Storymakers Roundtable: Creating a Break-out Story webinar.

This was part one in our three-part Storymakers 2014 webinar series. Next up is Super-Short Storytelling on August 27, 2014 with Greenpeace, followed by How to Get Your Story Noticed on September 10, 2014 with the CEO of Black Girls Code, Kimberly Bryant. Learn more here.

1. Have a Hero

If you want your story to drive people to action, identify a hero in your story and have your hero model the behavior you want your viewers to follow.

Here’s a powerful example from Medecins sans Frontieres:

*Spoiler alert!* Here’s why this video is impactful, teary-eyed amazingness: It makes a clear link between the action of the hero (namely, The Check-Writing Blonde Lady) and how her contribution results in providing MSF with vital resources to save lives (electricity, in this instance) .

Good, powerful stuff.

What does this mean? It means clearly identifying from whose perspective you are telling your story.

There are three options here for what paradigm you can use: the story of self, the story of us, and the story of now.

The Story of Self 

This one’s pretty straightforward. When telling a story from a personal lens, the framing is critical. Help your audience understand where you are in your story and what choices you made. 

[Note: You don’t have to go deep into your life history, but you have to address 'who am I' to be telling this story.]

You want to answer these questions:

• Why am I here on behalf of my organization?
• What have I seen or done that brings me here to talk about my story in the first place?

The Story of Us

This version tells why a particular group of people came together as a community to address “x” problem.

The Story of Now

This one's really about how to compel people to action right now. This very second, even.

The Story of Now uses a story to create a sense of urgency to move people to action. It means crafting your story to help your viewers see what the challenge, risks, and opportunities are. [See that MSF video link again for a refresher…] 

3. Focus on the Critical Moment of Change

You know the way a good joke depends a lot on timing? Similarly, a good story focuses on the critical moment of change. Identify the critical moment of change in your story and use this moment to frame the story. 

I really like this one as a great example. It’s done in a clean, simple format involving a single voice narrating over two photos:

4. Keep Your Video Short

Here’s how our digital storytelling gurus said you should think about video length:

• One guru suggested keeping the length at two minutes or less because science suggests our brains don’t focus for much longer than that.
• Our other guru said that the length of your video should depend on the relationship you have with your constituents and their level of engagement.

Is your video for prospective constituents? Keep it short.

Are you sharing a story with loyal contributors or volunteers? You may want to take more time to let your story unfold.

*Submissions to the Storymakers 2014 Challenge opens August 26, 2014. Submit here and find out more information on our webinar series, our global-tweet-chat, and more storytelling resources.

Images:

• Image 1: Internet Archive Book Images / no restrictions
• Image 2: Internet Archive Book Images / no restrictions
  
• Image 3: Internet Archive Book Images / no restrictions
• Image 4: Internet Archive Book Images / no restrictions