The Alchemists – Blog

From a transmedia storytelling perspective, any change in the world of social networking is exciting — and scary. Plenty of ink (and plenty of pixel-inches) has been given to the actual changes, but what about their import for transmedia storytellers? Here are three points to consider:

1. ‘Spreadable’ media will change. The new “frictionless” sharing will change the social dynamic of the way people share content. If an invisible algorithm decides which videos show up in your stream — or if every video you watch shows up on your profile — there’s an intermediate between ‘not spreading content’ and ‘becoming an evangelist.’ You can share videos in a casual way without feeling like you’re spamming your friends. That’s going to mean a huge change for how transmedia storytellers think about how their stories will spread.
2. It will be harder to create the illusion of reality. Facebook has already made it difficult to create fictional profiles for characters in a transmedia story. The advent of the Timeline will make it nearly impossible to create a convincing fictional profile, even if you can get around Facebook’s regs. While that doesn’t really hurt our ability to tell good stories, it does sadden those of us who’ve been around since the days when of Claire Bennet’s MySpace page — it feels like a door closing, even if somewhere another one is opening.
3. Lifestyle transmedia will surge. ‘Lifestyle’ transmedia – meaning wraparound experiences including fashion, music, and everyday apps – aims to keep viewers immersed in the story by bringing pieces of the story’s vibe into their everyday life. (For example, think about how Mad Men devotees can wear clothes, drink cocktails and listen to music that reminds them of their favorite show.) By emphasizing how people build identity through multiple media – video, audio, etc. – the Timeline will give lifestyle transmedia campaigns an edge.

Obviously, there will be larger shakeups in terms of how we do business, how we actually get our stories onto Facebook and into everyone’s Timelines: will we work directly with Facebook, or through partners like Spotify, Zynga and Vevo? What will it be worth? How will it work? But once we get beyond those questions, the really exciting work begins: learning to tell better and better stories with these new tools.