From beginning to end, a transmedia storytelling should be a social experience, one which draws people together and unifies them through shared and common experiences. At present, producers, writers and creators are obsessed with creating toys and applications which are too exclusive. They do not address the primary goal of storytelling—bringing people together by revealing some truth about the world we all live in.

If transmedia storytelling is to be even more successful in the future, we need to concentrate on designed experiences that are socially inclusive which have the power to bring people together through common interests and goals. This will require that we take more care in designing the path along which our readers and viewers access the stories we tell.

Inexperienced producers have a tendency of creating interactive experiences that are overly complex which ultimately deter audience engagement across every available piece of content. We need to define the ‘path’ between audience access points much like a treasure map so that audience members know where they are in relative to the story as a whole and where they’re going, regardless of which piece of content they’ve accessed.

Story driven experience design is relatively easy to achieve on TV because you are restricted to a linear format. Transmedia narratives, on the other hand, are disseminated across multiple platforms. Without a proper ‘map,’ piecing together so many disparate pieces of content can become a bewildering experience. Keep your audience’s engaged; make them laugh and cry. Thrill them. Frighten them. No matter what you do, keep your audience emotionally connected.