For my Digital Artefact, I was luckily enough to be able to volunteer for Beyond Empathy, recommended by the University of Wollongong. Beyond Empathy is an Arts Cultural Development Organisation operating within the Shoalhaven Region on the NSW South Coast. They embody the holistic approach to the art of storytelling and is a responsive action project that aims to build capacity, relationships and resilience.
It revolves around the gathering and sharing hundreds of stories in a podcast and in person community event “podformance” forums related to content from the podcast. The project is led by young people, business and community members from the Shoalhaven region, and aims to equip and future prepare the community and provide a platform for the community’s voices to be heard and valued.
It was a great opportunity to act upon my interests of social media management and public relations, whilst also giving back to the Shoalhaven community after many devastating years of natural disasters. This lead me to apply and join the role of social media and social media generalist.
My Digital Artefact required me to work in a professional atmosphere furthermore creating content. I had to work with KPI’s, meet deadlines, follow important guidelines and policies and effectively communicate with Sam Ketterwell, the creative director and project manager of GRIT. Not only did this give me the chance to build my online portfolio and gain experience on working with an organisation, but it also allowed me to effectively network and build business relationships, which will aid me in my future communications and media career. The project required human-centred design which helped maximise the impact of the media created. The podformances involved showcased personal stories to increase the understanding of GRIT. People were invited to share their experiences.
Beyond Empathy’s Grit Project is currently in the define stage. The define stage involves collecting great ideas to establish features, functions and other elements to solve the problem at hand, allowing real users to resolve issues themselves with minimal difficulty. “In this stage, you will start to progress to the third stage, the ideation phase, where you ask questions to help you look for solutions.” In this case, it involved asking how can we make our audience want to listen to the podformances.
Audience/ Social Utility
The population estimate for Shoalhaven City as of the 30th June 2021 is 108,497. Since the previous year, the population has grown by 1.38%. In the 2016 Census, 5,496 of the 99,650 residents (5.5%) counted in Shoalhaven said that they had Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origins, or both.
As Beyond Empathy targets youth, their mottos of “Cope Adapt and Thrive in the face of adversity,” and “Sh*T happens” is a reminder that education is wealth and it’s important to spread that message to disadvantaged adolescence.
Aesthetic
As mentioned in my Pitch: the aesthetic can involve nature and earthy warm green tones to compliment the organic feel and “outdoors” vibe. This organic feel can relate to their core values. It also relates to their quote “you must make a choice to take a chance to change your life,” with nature representing life.
As it’s also targeting youth, small pops of colour can be added, complimenting raw nature, for that “playground” and “school yard” feel, which impersonates a safe environment where youth can grow, be educated, play and explore. Words and symbols can be showcased through “chalk” writing, imitating a chalkboard at school, highlighting teaching youth.
Overall, the tone of this aesthetic would be fun, warm, kid-friendly and inspiring.
Inspiration:
I drew inspiration from @insideoutys and @earlychildaust Instagram accounts, as it represents youth, through bright and appealing colours, while also showcasing beautiful Indigenous patterns.
The accounts also display awareness around sensitive topics, by using bright and enjoyable colours which help get a dark message across, in a positive and educational way. I wanted to be mindful of how to address sensitive topics. The guidelines and policies supplied by Beyond Empathy also educated me on how to properly do this.
Feedback
It was stated in a peer review, to be more clear about the aesthetic. Adrian stated “the ‘aesthetics’ section describes how colour, environmental images and youth appeals will be used to augment the project’s aims and messages, but it is unclear how these can relate visually to environmental disasters.”
It was important to note that I was using photographs provided by Sam and not everything had to relate back to environmental disasters, as it can be a sensitive subject. Instead, it was focused on the educational activities used to highlight a “tough” journey.
I therefore wanted to update my moodboard from above. Roads were used to represent a journey.
Utilising a moodboard was essential. The visuals excited more than words. Moodboards can “be an effective way of developing your brand identity considering how concepts can be translated online.” Exploring design, colour, styling and content was able to stage a clear vision of what the organisation embodies.
Content
A communication plan was developed to deliver and manage a cross platform program including podformances, Beyond Empathy’s events furthermore the content subsequently generated from the events. We communicated with Sam via email as she shared access to numerous files and documents. KPI’s were set, such as making 2 REELS per week, which allowed me to keep track, reach goals and continue to be motivated.
To understand more about what GRIT does, Sam allowed me to write an informative Instagram caption that showcased the activities performed at the Shoalhaven City Council Library. It was important I used hashtags to increase visibility. From a user perspective, hashtags allow people to find posts that are relevant to their interests and interact with other social media users who share those interests by joining the conversation.
Sam also gave me photos to edit which would be used on their Instagram as posts and stories.
I worked with Jacob, another student volunteering for GRIT, constructing Instagram REELS that allows the audience to view a sneak peak of the Week 5 Podformance. Sam gave me videos and pictures to use. I used the popular platform, Canva, to assist in all of my content creations.
Everything I finalised was sent back to Sam, as she ultimately has the last say.
On each piece, Sam reviewed and gave feedback. At first, I had writing which stated “this will make you laugh and cry.” Sam identified that the aim of the podformances is to provoke idea, thought and stimulate conversation which meant that some of the texts is a bit too leading. I followed the refine process by removing the text, and Sam was happy with my new prototype to go live.
Other types of content I created, was an Instagram post. Sam sent me through some photos and edited them to be displayed on Instagram. As usual, I sent them back to Sam to review. She identified that people could be identified in the pictures, which breaches some privacy laws, and kindly told me to edit them. I followed the refine process and blurred out the individuals faces. Sam was then happy with my new prototype to be posted.
When dealing with trying to come up with new designs, which ultimately draws the audience to want to listen to the Podformance, I adopted problem framing.
Problem framing is the “creation of a novel standpoint from which a problematic situation can be tackled.” This includes
Seeing: “Perceiving the situation in a certain way.”
In this case, I stepped back and put myself into the audiences place, scrolling through the Instagram to see what advertised the Podformance. Mostly, it was photos connected to links.
Thinking: “Adopting certain concepts to describe the situation, patterns of reasoning and problem solving that are associated with that way of seeing.”
I began to think about how more enticing it would be to hear a snippet of the Podformance, accompanied by photos, instead if just text explaining what it would be about.
Acting: “Leading to the possibility to act within the situation.”
By mentioning this to Sam, she allowed me to work with audio and create a REEL via Canva. She praised me on the fact it was more appealing to the audience, rather then just photos stating “link in bio.”
Fast, Inexpensive, Simple and Tiny
As stated in my Pitch, working in a team represented a quick production process (FIST). This was developed through:
- Working with a discussion/forum where the community can express their changing disaster recovery needs
- Utilising free graphic design tools
- Facilitating the conversation through social media
- Reaching targets/KPI’s by setting weekly goals
- Adding audio to videos
- Posting content on time with Podformances
Important learning moments
Something important I have learnt, which stems from working for a professional organisation, is the paper work that comes with it. There was unfortunately a slight delay in the beginning of my time working with Beyond Empathy, as it took some time to gather all the checks I needed and sign off on many contracts. It was an important learning lesson to be prepared and realise the privacy concerns a business may have.
Throughout this progress, I also learnt how important it is to always give back. It also reminded me how important traditional media stories are to help spread the message, in this case throughout the Shoalhaven community, impacting the LGA community in Disaster Recovery and Resilience building. Knowing the impact, has opened by eyes into what future career I want to attend too. The media can play such a positive and negative role in someone’s life.
Final thoughts
Since 2020, I have been creating digital and social content that has been something I like to do. It’s super important to invest your time into creating something that entices you. I was so grateful to be given the opportunity to work with Beyond Empathy, as I enjoyed every minute of it. I have a few more Instagram posts to hand over to Sam, representing information about the NSW Rural Fire Service before thanking her for allowing me to volunteer and learn many new things. I have learnt a great deal about social media, the work behind it and the scheduling. I have also made a great business connection, already speaking to Sam about staying in touch for future projects. Beyond Empathy should be praised on their ability to help out and I am lucky I was a part of it!
Sources:
Samantha's Show 