Content curation and storytelling using Storify
I’ve written before about the importance of using authentic, user-generated content, particularly in relation to social media in the context of higher education.
In the past few months, we’ve endeavoured to follow our own advice with the University’s central social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) and have been asking our followers to share their content with us.
#freshsaints Don’t forget to tag us in your Raisin Monday foam fight pics! #foamface pic.twitter.com/c0K6Fym93G
— Univ of St Andrews (@univofstandrews) October 17, 2016
However, collecting content is just the first step in the process – it also needs to be packaged and then shared with our wider audience.
Enter Storify.
What is Storify?
Storify’s tagline is “make the web tell a story”, and this is essentially what it enables you to do.
Users can pull together content from a variety of social media platforms and web resources to tell the story of a particular event.
We recently used this tool to share user-generated content surrounding the annual Raisin Weekend celebrations. This particular example is really just a collection of images, but the option to add headings and text allows you to introduce a stronger narrative thread if you wish.
Why use Storify?
Influencer marketing is big news.
It’s a marketing technique where brands use key leaders or influencers to promote products rather than marketing directly at consumers.
See any of the Kardashians’ Instagram accounts for examples of how it’s done.
This method is particularly effective when marketing to millennials who are more influenced by peer-generated content than traditional advertising methods.
Using the example of our Raisin Weekend story, we showcased a unique aspect of the St Andrews student experience using content generated by real students. This gives prospective students an authentic insight into life at the University of St Andrews.
Twitter moments
Eagle-eyed users will have noticed that Twitter has recently rolled out its “moments” feature to everyone. Previously, this service was just available to Twitter and a few select partners.
If your social media activity is mostly Twitter based, this could be a good content curation and storytelling alternative to Storify.
This video produced by Twitter explains how it works:
For everyone who wants to make a Moment – starting today you can! Creators everywhere can now tell stories with Tweets. pic.twitter.com/ZJtNBoTPWf
— Twitter (@twitter) September 28, 2016
How do you share your user-generated content?