Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

So how exactly do you harness audience's ever-decreasing attention span? By giving them an active role in their content consumption process by publishing stories with interactive elements. Such tools can increase engagement, on-site dwell time, and social share rates.

ProjectHubSpot and Playbuzz joined forces to scour the web for amazing examples of interactive storytelling. Each industry poses its own obstacles and unique characteristics, but share one common denominator: Interactive content works for all topics and audiences.

Let’s take a look at a few examples from the ebook....

Researchers Rob Walker and Joshua Glenn created SignificantObjects.com as a way to show the value of storytelling. They acquired several random inexpensive knick-knacks from eBay actions — averaging $1.50 per purchase. They had writers create heartfelt stories about these tchotchkes: items such as a butter dish, a porcelain miniature and a mini jar of mayonnaise.

Altogether, the $128.74 investment yielded $3,612.51 when re-sold with the stories. By adding an intriguing story, a simple Missouri shot glass purchased for $1 sold for $76. Here’s part of the tale:

“See that freaky little bird? That’s the state bird, my friend. The Missouri Hunt-and-Pecker. Never heard of ’em? Well, then I guess you’ve never been to Missouri, have you? Maybe passed through, didn’t get out of the car. Or changed planes in the airport, or went up in the Arch once, just to say you’d done it. But that’s not Missouri to me. St. Louis is the gateway, sure, but you want to know Missouri you need to drive a few hours into the corn, you want to visit St. Joseph, up through Maryville — skirt the Iowa border, though Iowa’s a sore point from where I sit. You need to get lost in Missouri or you never really were there in the first place. Even then you won’t be likely to meet the Hunt-and-Pecker unless you circulate a manuscript or two.”

Having an effective storytelling strategy may not always generate quick conversions, but it can illustrate why a consumer should invest in your product instead of a competitor’s. In this case, storytelling added massive return on objects originally valued at a pittance....