A Tool for Documenting Stories
November 18, 2013
A Tool for Documenting Stories
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction
- Storify has allowed me to gather communications and media coverage around particular stories and present them in a clean, attractive, user-friendly, web-based format that can be used by a wide variety of people at my workplace, from my department director to a hospital CEO to a university department head.
- Storify provides built-in tools that allow me to easily search for relevant content across the web, from Twitter to YouTube to media stories on Google News.
- Storify's plug-ins and quick buttons make it easy for me to notice an article, video, or other relevant content and without even going to Storify itself, add to stories or save it to my personal collection to be added to stories later.
- When using the items stored in my "private collection," I often find that items I have already dragged and dropped into story packages remain listed, and when I try to delete the items, so they won't clog up the list, I often am presented with an error message.
- I wish that there was the ability to have more control over item previews, such as choosing or uploading an image or editing text if, for example, that preview material is not accurate because the software isn't "seeing" or importing in the best way. Facebook (personal accounts and Pages) allows this and it's allowed me to put in proper descriptions or a more representative image or headline when appropriate.
- When I go to my account profile, the initial view is only of my three most recent story packages; if I want to see more I have to click "See All." I would rather see at least 6. Having the option to switch to List view (as a default) would also be nice, as often I am updating multiple packages and saving even one click is helpful.
- Using Storify has allowed me as well as others in our department and our division to document the work we do to the people who need to see what our expertise is doing for them. One example of this would include being able to show a psychiatry professor a story package that includes local, national and international news coverage, social media, and our own communications efforts related to promoting a major research finding. Not only does this assure the professor that, yes, we know what we're doing, but that we (communications) are a valuable resource for spreading word of scientific discovery. The professor can also share the Storify package via email, LinkedIn, and professional networks. Another example would be sending a link to a Storify package over to a hospital CEO who wants a summary of recent media coverage involving his hospital and wants it in a format he can understand and share.
- Using Storify to document media coverage, especially as stories "break," allows us to later go back and review how coverage unfolded and what successes we had, what messages we put out, etc. We can and have used Storify packages as "notes" when later creating presentations or doing talks about successful storytelling and media communications.
- My boss can rely on the quick turnaround of Storify, meaning that if he's suddenly asked to provide "documentation" on a media story or category, he can go to me and ask for it, knowing that the product is easy to use and not something that will take me all day. I also appreciate this of course as I have a busy, multifaceted job that doesn't allow me to me loll around to struggle for hours with a product.
Usability
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Consistent Convenient Feel confident using Familiar | None |
- Drag and drop
- Arranging stories up or down
- Formatting text in stories
- Keep the "private collection" area clean, as usually when I try to delete an item (already used or not needed) I get an error, and then later on I may see the item pop up again.