Content Curation
Pocket is an application which saves any webpage for you to look at in more detail later, when you have time. It is a bookmarking tool – if you find a webpage via a link in Twitter (or anywhere else), you can save it to Pocket, and then return to it and the other things you’ve saved later on. Pocket is a web browser based service, meaning you can access it from anywhere and any device or computer. To create an account, you’ll simply need an email address, username and password. On your desktop computer, you can download and install it into your browser, so you can simply hit a button in your toolbar to save a webpage (how to install it depends on which browser you prefer to use, but Pocket will take you through the steps – it’s easy!). When you use Twitter in a browser with Pocket installed (and also if you have installed the Pocket app on your smartphone or ipad), then a ‘Pocket’ option appears alongside the other options of ‘reply’, ‘retweet’, ‘favourite’ etc when you hover over a tweet containing a link, so you can save it right from the tweet instead of having to open the link and add it to Pocket from there. You can also access Pocket on the web, if you’re on a computer which isn’t yours, or where you can’t install it into the browser.
If you use a smartphone or tablet such as an iphone, ipad or Android device, you could download an app which curates content from your Twitter feed, such as Flipboard. Once you have downloaded the app, you can connect it with your Twitter account (or other social media) and it will draw in the links that people share with you and display them for you. To find out more about Flipboard, and how to set up an account, see instructions in its ‘support’ section. Alternatives to Flipboard are Zite and Pulse.
If you don’t have a tablet device, you can set up an account with news.me, which will deliver the main stories shared by the people you follow on Twitter in an email. To sign up, you’ll need to add your email address, and then connect it with your Twitter (or Facebook) account by clicking on the request to authorise this. That’s it!
Storify
Storyful
“Storyful was founded by journalists who wanted to separate the news from the noise of the real-time web. We set out to discover the smartest conversations about world events and raise up the authentic voices on the big stories. Storyful’s golden rule is there is ALWAYS someone closer to the story. And in the last few months, we’ve worked with people at the heart of the action, capturing turning points in history in words, pictures and video.”
6 Innovative Uses of Tumblr by Newsrooms
This MediaBistro article looks at six short case studies, and includes a list of media outlets using Tumblr.
How Journalists Can Use Google+
Instagram for newsrooms
Poynter takes a look at the many useful engagement strategies possible with Instagram, as well as one intriguing news-gathering/sourcing possibility.
The Journalistic Pros & Cons of Vine
This piece looks at some of the possibilities and ethical challenges of using Vine to cover breaking events.
Should publishers run towards Facebook or away from it?
The headline is slightly misleading — this Poynter article examines the pros and cons of publishers using Facebook to build audiences and track them, instead of answering the question.
8 Uses for Foursquare
Another interesting article from the Poynter Institute, looking at how to use Foursquare as a story- and source-building tool.
YouTube’s Reporter’s Center
Almost a mini-U for online video journalism, chock full of good videos (what else) on using YouTube and reporting effectively.
Social Media Services:
Twitter
Tumblr
Facebook
Foursquare
Instagram
Vine
YouTube
Skype
Friendfeed
Posterous
Digg | StumbleUpon | Delicious
Giphy – for making animated GIFs
Journalism-Related
Storyful
Wired Journalists
Storify: Somewhat similar to Storyful, it is a way for media organizations to aggregate and include social media streams.
MediaBistro: A community site for journalists and other media professionals.
Muck Rack: a community of journalists using Twitter.
Quick Instagram Search Tool
If you have other suggestions, please leave them in comments or send me an email/DM on Twitter.