What's the story? (September 2014)
More and more universities are now using Storify as part of their digital content strategies. So what’s the
story with ‘the world’s leading social media storytelling tool’?
The proliferation of mobiles, tablets and wi-fi has made content very easy to generate and publish digitally. Search the web for a particular topic and you will be swamped with pages and pages of search results – far too many to view in their entirety. The aim of Storify, first launched in September 2010 as a private beta (ie. not available to the public), was originally to help journalists and others filter data. Such was its potential and popularity that it went public in April 2011 and was promptly named by TIME as one of the best websites of 2011. It was acquired by Livefyre in September 2013, a San Francisco-based technology company that provides embeddable social media widgets for websites.
Essentially, the Storify website allows users to find, grab and piece together publicly available content from Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Google and other sites. They can create timelines or stories, add text to caption or narrate these, then embed the resulting collages of content on their websites or promote links via social media accounts. It is reportedly used by over 850,000 marketers and journalists at more than 400 global brands and publishers, but the Higher Education market seems to have only recently cottoned on to the tool.
The university pioneers
Most UK universities are relative newcomers to Storify; the ‘mainstream’ having apparently discovered it within the last year or so, though new accounts are still coming online every month. There were a few early adopters who launched accounts in the first half of 2013, including Aston, Birmingham, Cardiff, Leeds Trinity, Nottingham, Reading, UEA and York. However, the two earliest accounts – the pioneers – seem to be Warwick and Suffolk, who were using the technology to pull from Twitter feeds as early as April and May 2012. To my mind, Storify provides a relatively simple vehicle to generate rich content as a means of keeping online users informed, engaged and entertained.
The majority still have very basic Storify accounts, which feature the blue branded standard Storify header and ad hoc posts, often several months apart (including Suffolk rather surprisingly). Those universities who have embraced Storify and are capitalising on the additional ‘space’ this vehicle provides to integrate their brand online include: Aston, Birmingham, Cumbria, Lancaster, Nottingham, Swansea and Warwick. You’ll find photographs which showcase their campuses, matching profile buttons and sometimes key selling messages to provide a description of the institutions, as opposed to comments which merely inform the visitor that it is an official account. If you intend to draw people to your Storify account, from a marketing perspective, it is essential to capitalise on the opportunity this presents to ‘sell’ your university, in much the same way as you would your Twitter or Facebook profile pages.
What story should I tell?
If you are new to Storify, it is worth browsing some existing sites to gather ideas for the type of information to showcase and see which feeds have been the most popular. Generally, choose activities or events which: are of interest to and engage lots of individuals; generate feelings of excitement and celebration; reveal something new (and therefore newsworthy) or receive lots of online coverage and commentary. Below are some ideas to get you started…
Results Day and Clearing:
On A-Level Results Day, you will find university Twitter and Facebook feeds awash with happy comments from students celebrating confirmation of their place. Using Storify to collate your ‘best bits’ creates a real sense of excitement for new students and acts as great word-of-mouth endorsement at the same time – particularly if you are still recruiting in Clearing or Adjustment. Durham University was one of many to provide a dedicated stream of content via Storify on Results Day, with others summarising Clearing activity each day.
Open Days:
Open Days naturally tend to generate a happy buzz among visitors – prospective students, their friends and families – who are hopefully impressed with the facilities, achievements, staff and current students they have encountered. You can provide a real insight into what an Open Day has been like by collating the comments from visitors as well as those from staff and students from your university who have been involved. This provides rich content to promote future events and, if done early enough, can even persuade some last minute visitors keen not to miss out. The University of Reading’s Open Day round-ups have proved very popular in particular with the last two being viewed over 3,000 times! Cleverly, the University immediately promotes the next Open Day at the start of their story. It also provides an interesting narrative to link the pieces of information, such as the fact they were expecting over 5,000 visitors.
Graduation:
With lots of proud tutors, parents, friends, fellow students and other family members, graduations are a guaranteed source of digital content. In an era when the cost and benefits of going to university are so often questioned in the press, graduation ceremonies provide an opportunity to demonstrate the ‘outputs’ of Higher Education and show the world your happy customers. Aston University created feeds for each of its five days of graduation ceremonies, repeating the hugely popular ‘Instagrad’ competition for #AstonClassof14, which led to 30 graduates posting multiple photographs from the day.
Ground-breaking research, outstanding performance, prestigious partnerships or innovative initiatives…if your university is making headlines, be sure to track down the online chatter and promote it as Cardiff University do with their regular ‘Cardiff University in the news’ feeds.
Annual reviews:
Whether you make it an annual, quarterly, monthly or even a weekly round-up (daily may be a little excessive!), Storify provides the perfect excuse to rehash your successes and achievements in a more engaging and cost effective way than the traditional, stuffy, text-heavy, printed publications. The University of East Anglia took two opportunities to promote its highlights and review of 2013, generating over 2,000 views and reinforcing several key messages, such as being listed in a top 100 universities table and having the best overall undergraduate student experience. While the University of Nottingham (one of the most active university accounts on Storify) publishes a regular ‘Our week on twitter’, which usually gains several hundred views.
Anniversaries:
Storify can become another part of the digital communications toolkit for spreading the word about official campaigns and events to highlight landmark anniversaries. Edinburgh Napier and East Anglia are among a number of universities who have collated the messages of support and congratulations they received for their 50th anniversary celebrations.
So, what are you waiting for? It's time to tell your story!
"After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing
we need most in the world." Philip Pullman