Some presenters didn't even consider themselves marketers, instead, storytellers.  It's all about finding or creating a story that will spread, in a positive way, around the web, from mouth to mouth and be more than just some advertising campaign.

A few good examples that they provided included Dove's Pro-Aging, Kleenex stories and Apple's recent Mac & PC.  Sometimes the stories are true, sometimes their created, but they are never fake.  You can't pay someone to pretend to have a story as it doesn't work.  It's got to be real.

Gary Stein talked about how powerful stories are.  It's the most powerful form of communication and you can change someone's behavior by telling them a story.  People are interested in product reviews as those are the stories that sell the product.  It's not a brand that some searchers are looking for, but a solution or story.

Gary shared these points to making a great story.

• Origin - Where did the product/service come from?
• Purpose - Why are we here?
• Vision - Where are we going?
• Education - Educate the consumer on your product, or industry.
• Ethics - You need to walk the walk and talk the talk.  Live the story.
• Connection - How are you connecting to your consumers and what will you do to make wrongs right?

Sally Falkow says that every brand has a story somewhere, you just need to find it.  Keep it simple, repeatable and memorable.  Authentic stories can succeed where as insincere stores will fail.  Integrate your story into the company and advertising.  Amplify with optimized press releases and syndicate the story across the web.  Once you do have a story, remember to monitor it with a tool like Radin6.  However, always leave some part of the story to the imagination. 

Larry Lawfer's tips include:

• Engage
• Inform
• Retain
• Create
• Community 
• Grow

Be authentic and invite involvement.  He says that video can work well.  If a picture can tell a thousand words, what can a video tell? 

In a world where social media continues to grow and outperform traditional marketing, it's stories that are taking over and defining brands.  

What's your brands story?