Thanks to my Retailing Management professor (who also taught my Consumer Behavior course and encouraged me to start blogging!), I've been introduced to the latest and greatest in social media platforms and websites. Her latest introduction and my newest obsession - Storify.
Storify is a website that allows you to create stories or timelines using social media elements, such as photos, videos, tweets, or other articles from the Web. For those who use Weebly, which is my preferred blogging platform, Storify is similar with its drag-and-drop features. Storify allows you to search for content on the righthand side of the screen using Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc., then dragging-and-dropping your findings directly into the story on the lefthand side. As a frequent reader of blogs and a blogger myself, I find that the best, successful, and most interesting blogs are those that are engaging and interactive.
Storify is a website that allows you to create stories or timelines using social media elements, such as photos, videos, tweets, or other articles from the Web. For those who use Weebly, which is my preferred blogging platform, Storify is similar with its drag-and-drop features. Storify allows you to search for content on the righthand side of the screen using Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc., then dragging-and-dropping your findings directly into the story on the lefthand side. As a frequent reader of blogs and a blogger myself, I find that the best, successful, and most interesting blogs are those that are engaging and interactive.
Looks can be deceiving - Storify is very user-friendly!
Being able to directly incorporate different social media platforms from one screen is a shortcut, but one that allows us to spend more time searching the web for content and less time trying to figure out how to summarize or paraphrase our findings. These interactive features keep reading from being mundane, which is the key to being a successful writer or blogger. In this day and age, social media is the primary way that people hear and read about breaking news and the latest trends. With so much information right at our fingertips and the ability to access the news and other stories instantaneously, Storify can be used to share our findings directly from the source.
However, as with all things and social media sites, Storify isn't perfect. As discovered through today's in-class activity, the comment section could use some improvement. In an effort to keep our class interactive, we had to comment directly on the Storify link, but ran into a few issues along the way. Instead of a comment box per se, we had to type our comments as one long string of text. This made it difficult to reread our comments before posting, more likely to make mistakes, and ultimately created more work by having to search for the beginning of the comment. Needless to say, it was a tedious process. Another issue was the lack of "comment" button. In order to post a comment, you have to press the Return button on the keyboard, making it easy to post too early or accidentally.
Overall I think Storify is a great concept with a lot of potential. I am interested to see its success both in and outside of the classroom in future years.
I'm looking forward to creating my own stories and sharing them with you all!
However, as with all things and social media sites, Storify isn't perfect. As discovered through today's in-class activity, the comment section could use some improvement. In an effort to keep our class interactive, we had to comment directly on the Storify link, but ran into a few issues along the way. Instead of a comment box per se, we had to type our comments as one long string of text. This made it difficult to reread our comments before posting, more likely to make mistakes, and ultimately created more work by having to search for the beginning of the comment. Needless to say, it was a tedious process. Another issue was the lack of "comment" button. In order to post a comment, you have to press the Return button on the keyboard, making it easy to post too early or accidentally.
Overall I think Storify is a great concept with a lot of potential. I am interested to see its success both in and outside of the classroom in future years.
I'm looking forward to creating my own stories and sharing them with you all!
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