Why I like Storify...

So, I know we did this in class a few times ago, where all of us were supposed to say how we interacted with the web in a new way. This time though, I've done it for real, and it's one of those moments that I'm proud of because I don't get out of my comfort zone that often. As some of you may know, KOMU has launched a new show called U_News@4 w/ Sarah Hill. During the show, Sarah interacts with people, and we share what "U" the viewer is talking about on the web. I say "we" because I'm a small portion of the show. I'm one of the social media anchors who grabs people's comments from Facebook and Twitter. We even built a new studio for the social media anchors...maybe we're more than just a small portion.

Monica Ayala-Talavera, Sarah, and I at the social media desk

One of the challenges we've faced early on as social media anchors is tracking people's comments on Twitter. On KOMU's Facebook page, which blows up with comments by the way, it's easy to follow a person's comment on the issue because it just goes under the topic you post. On our Twitter page, it's much harder to follow topics because they get lost if multiple people comment on the same issue. Have no fear though, the interactive social media anchors have a plan, and we're already starting to act.

During the second week of the show, I was shown a social media site called Storify by another social media anchor, Emily Spain. It's the perfect website to use to track Twitter comments because you can actually type in a search term on Storify, and it will actually look for the comments on Twitter. Then, you can pull the comments you like and put them on your own page, and they will stay there, so you don't lose them! By pulling them out, a person can focus on one particular part of an issue, and you can narrow the conversation down. I hate complicating things. That's why I like Storify.

An example of a Storify document

For instance today, I 'storified' a story on Education Nation, a week long series NBC News is doing on the problems of education. I tried to narrow down the topic to what some politicians said on the issue. Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley thinks that education has suffered because of budget shortfalls over the past couple of years. I highlighted that by using two different people who paraphrased what O'Malley said. We then post the link to our KOMU.com page, so people can see the Twitter reactions if they missed the show at 4 pm. Man, I've learned a lot about social media in a short amount of time!

                        story I did on U_News@4 w/ Sarah Hill using Storify

Anybody else used Storify? What do you think of the website? Leave me a comment!