[LESS INFO] 9 VIEWS | ADDED 20:12:29 05/30/11
What is Storify?
Storify is a way to tell stories using social media such as Tweets, photos and videos. You search multiple social networks from one place, and then drag individual elements into your story. You can re-order the elements and also add text to give context to your readers.
Why should I make stories with Storify? Millions of people are sharing content through social media. But these streams of information are quickly lost in the never-ending stream of updates. With Storify, you can put together the best Tweets, photos and videos to make stories that will be remembered.
Can't I just do this now with my regular blogging platform? It's a pain and takes a lot of time. You can cut and paste text, download and then re-upload photos, copy links to original sources, attempt to format that to look nice by going back and forth between previews and editing modes, etc. We make it easy to do that by just dragging-and-dropping, creating beautiful, simple stories. We preserve all attribution and metadata for each element. We let you notify all the sources quoted in a story with one click, a great way to help it go viral. Stories with Storify are interactive, and your readers can re-Tweet or reply to the people quoted in stories. Also, Storify's API opens up new possibilities for developers to display stories in new ways and on different devices.
What should I Storify? That’s up to you! You can create a story around an event using social media from people who were there, or put together a story using your own Tweets and photos. If you’re a business, you can use it to compile what people are saying about your product. You can also make an online scrapbook from a wedding or party with posts from your friends.
Can I use other sources? We have an API for that and will be opening up the platform to many other sources. We also plan to let you use different algorithms to search for social content. Please stay tuned and let us know what other sources you would like. I ’ve created a story with Storify, now what? You can point readers to the version on your profile page at http://storify.com/your_username. But you can also take the embed code from that story and put it on any Web site, much like you would embed a Youtube video. Because it’s an embed, you will always get attribution as the source and you will be able to see where your story is embedded and how many views it gets. When readers re-Tweet elements from your story and interact with it, you’ll get the attribution as the curator.
Isn’t there an issue with copyrights to use all this stuff? We use publicly available content in accordance with the terms for use provided by the sources we are searching. The content we display has been made public by the original creators. We also maintain links to original sources to make sure they always receive attribution for their work. And we even help you notify the content creators that they are now part of your story. You own the content you create with Storify, so it's ultimately your responsibility to make sure that you have appropriate licenses for any work depending on your use.
What about this feature that notifies the people I quote in my story with @replies on Twitter, aren't I spamming all my followers? We also don't like spam! The @replies don't show up in the timeline that your followers see unless they are following both you and the other person who you've @replied to. This is a feature that Twitter itself created to prevent clutter of people's feeds. Also, we always let you decide whether to send the @replies and to whom, so it's up to you whether you want to use the feature. We will never send tweets from your account without your permission.
What are you doing to help content creators? We care deeply about the debate over how to compensate content creators. That's why we always attribute original sources, as a first step to make sure people are credited for their work and can see how it's used.Having these metrics will help creators identify their best strategy. Should they continue giving it away for free to get exposure or should they monetize part or all of it? Providing these metrics to content owners is the first step for monetization. We are also looking at having paid content sources in Storify, please contact us at info@storify.com if you're interested
Will Storify work with my content management system (CMS)? As long as you can embed any kind of Javascript on your pages, you can embed a Storify story.
Will Storify work with my Wordpress blog? Yes for self-hosted Wordpress blogs! But not for now if your blog is hosted by Wordpress.com. Storify also works with Wordpress MU, but you may have to install a plugin to allow Javascript in blog posts.
Will Storify work with my Tumblr/Posterous site? Storify works with Tumblr and Posterous just fine, please feel free to embed and share your stories there!
How does Storify affect search engine rankings and affect SEO? Stories on Storify.com are optimized for SEO, because we link to all the sources used. We are working on a solution to optimize for SEO on embeds. However, our main focus is optimizing for social sharing, which is the fastest growing way that readers are discovering content.
What happens if someone deletes something they’ve posted? If it’s a Tweet, we keep a copy on our own site and it won’t be removed from your story. For other forms of rich media like photos and video, we simply link to the source so that content will not appear in your story if it's removed by the original creator, as would happen for any embedded content.
What about Storify on the iPad and other devices? Our drag-and-drop interface is ideal for the iPad and touch interfaces, we're working on it!
What does “Storify” mean?
It’s actually an obsolete word that used to be in the dictionary that means “to form or tell stories.” It’s also a word that was used internally at The Associated Press, where our co-founder Burt worked as a correspondent. Editors sending messages to reporters asking them to do a story would regularly write: “Can u pls storify?”
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