Ever-Present: The Secret Behind Pervasive Storytelling

At Folktellers, we’re obsessed with storytelling — so much so that we’ve built our business on a few basic narrative beliefs:

??Collective?— Everyone has a meaningful story to share, and these stories are told each and every day of our waking lives (whether we like it or not). All these individual narratives feed up into the global story, which makes up our humanity.

??Accountable?— You own your story, until you let someone else tell it for you.

??Transmedia?-People want to experience and engage with stories in different ways. If you believe this going in, you can create deeper experiences on purpose and by design.

??Pervasive?— If you want to build an audience for your stories, you must find innovative ways to connect with people on a regular basis. Your tales must be fresh, interesting, and accessible to a wide and diverse fanbase.

This last bullet addresses an ongoing challenge for any storyteller. In this modern world of over-input and distraction, it’s very difficult to get anyone’s attention. It requires Pervasive Storytelling to really capture someone’s imagination and keep them interested in the stories you tell.

Steve Olenski of Forbes Magazine offers best practices for this type of storytelling:

“Begin thinking like a publisher, not a marketer. Publishers build deep, trust-based relationships with the audience. Study their practices and methodologies and invest in the technologies and team members like the most successful publishers/media companies.” That requires letting go of the traditional marketing approach, including not focusing on ROI. Instead, focus on telling amazing stories and creating premium experiences of this storytelling content. Engagement will follow.”

Pervasive Storytelling is more than just frequency marketing. It requires that you publish a variety of high-quality, story-based content on a regular basis across different media platforms. This process is ongoing and must be done to establish a firm audience footprint that may be sustained over time.

And that is the key — new content needs to be delivered on an ongoing basis, over time. Building an authentic, lasting fanbase is a marathon, not a sprint.

Folktellers Producer and Tech Guru, Steve Sadler, points out that,

“Either you’re Ever-Present or Never-Present.”

When asked to explain further, Sadler added,

“Pervasive Storytelling requires the right amount of quality content to match the appropriate release frequency required to engage your target audience. You can’t stop because once you do, your audience will diminish along with the interest and engagement with your stories. This is where people and businesses fail. They treat their stories like a marketing campaign that has a beginning and an end. In Pervasive Storytelling, it never ends. You need to keep a constant stream of great story content flowing.”

This is the challenge of modern storytellers everywhere — How do you tell great stories and share them effectively?

These are exciting times. Best practices abound but the challenges remain as we move deeper into the growing potential of modern storytelling.

Now, what’s your story?