Storify – Turning Events Into Stories

Storify is an application that pulls together Twitter messages, Facebook status updates, Flickr photos, and YouTube videos to create comprehensive stories about events and newsmakers. Professional journalists, amateur writers, and anyone else that tweets on regular basis can use Storify to put together engaging stories about breaking news topics in very little time.

To get started with Storify, you’ll need to authorize the application to read tweets from your Twitter timeline, see who you follow, update your profile, and post tweets on your behalf. Once you’ve agreed to these terms, you’ll be able to put together new stories utilizing Storify’s social media tools. Create a headline and add a short summary to let readers know what your latest story is about, then click over to the Storify search tab and type in a keyword or search term for whatever topic you’re researching. Storify will immediately present you with a browse-able list of all keyword mentions on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, and Google. When you find a particular tweet or Flickr photo that fits in with the story you’re trying to tell, drag it over to the blank area underneath your story description. You can add context by including your own text above any photo or status update, or rearrange your Storify timeline by dragging and dropping the various elements into whatever order works best.

In addition to helping journalists create compelling stories quickly, Storify also helps those stories go viral. Users can notify all the sources whose information they included in their stories with one click, and they can easily embed their stories into blogs or websites, as well. In very little time, writers who use Storify can create visually interesting and engaging stories using the content that citizen journalists and casual observers have already posted online.

Practical Uses:

• Create a compelling news story about a fire that happened downtown
• Put together a timeline of everything that happened leading up to a major event
• Give credit to all the sources who added information to a breaking news story
• Compile all the updates, photos, and videos that your loyal readers have sent in

Insider Tips:

• Tweet out your story to give credit to all the sources whose updates were used
• Storify stories can be embedded on any page that accepts Javascript
• Storify’s drag and drop functionality works well on iPads
• Users assume ultimate responsibility for ensuring they have the appropriate licenses for any work they use

What we liked:

• Businesses can use Storify to post all the updates that customers have shared about their experiences with specific products
• Journalists can use Storify to promote the people who gave them their information
• Deleted tweets and status updates won’t be removed from writers’ Storify stories
• Storify stories are optimized for SEO purposes

What we didn’t like:

• Storify stories can’t be embedded on blogs hosted by WordPress.com, however that functionality should be coming in the future

Alternatives:

• None

Company Info:

• Launched: April 2011 (Beta)
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: San Francisco, California
• Founded by: Burt Herman and Xavier Damman
• Web site: http://storify.com

Costs:

• Free

Rating:

• 5 out of 5 (wow)