Step 1. 

Point your browser to http://storify.com/. 

Storify is still in private beta release, so you will either need to request an invite. As of now, it does not take long to be approved for an account.  

Step 2. 

Once you have received an invite key and registered, log in to Storify. It will request your permission to sign in using your Twitter account. Type in your username and password and click “Sign In.”

Step 3. 

Click “+Create New Story” to start a new story. 

Step 4. 

On the top right-hand corner, add a headline for your story. You have the option of adding a brief summary below the title as well. Below the headline bar is the story area where you will drag story elements into. 

Step 5. 

On the left-hand side, you will see icons for the different media sources that you can pull story content from: Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Google, RSS, and a URL importer. Select which platform you’d like to start with. 

Step 6. 

To search for story elements from Twitter: select from one of the five tabs - my tweets, timeline, search, fav, and user/list. To pull from your own Tweets, click on the my tweets tab. Drag the tweet you want to use in your story to the story template on the right-side. 

To pull Tweets from other Twitter users you follow, select the timeline tab. 

If you want to search Tweets for a particular topic or hashtag, select the Search tab. Enter the keywords and then click Search. You can filter the search results by checking next to “with links,” “with images,” or “exclude RT.”

The Fav tab shows Tweets you have favorited. 

The User/List tab lets you search for a particular user. 

Step 7. 

Unlike other curation platforms, Storify is not limited to Twitter; it lets you search and pull from other social media platforms. Here’s how to use the other tools:

To pull content from Facebook: conduct a search on Facebook to find elements. 

To pull content from Flickr: search for photos using a particular Flickr user’s name, by search, or by a Creative Commons search. 

To pull content from YouTube: search by user or keyword. 

To pull content from Google: search via the web, Google news, or Google images. 

To pull content from an RSS feed: provide the RSS feed URL.

To pull content from a URL: add the URL and click “Get Embed.”

Step 8. 

To rearrange the order of your story elements, click on the dark grey left-side of any element and drag it up or down to place it somewhere else in the story stream.

Step 9.

Want to add your own text before or after any story element? Click on the “T” icon. Add your text and click done. This is helpful if you want to provide context to the different story elements you are adding. 

Step 10.

If you want to save your story as a draft and add more/edit it later, click “save as draft” in the top right-hand corner. Ready to publish it? Click “Publish story.”

Step 11. 

When you choose to publish your story, you also have the option of notifying the sources you’ve quoted in the story. It will automatically ask if you want to Tweet them. Don’t want to? Just click the “X” on the box. 

Step 12. 

To share your story: copy the URL of your Storify page and share it with others. You can also Tweet the story by clicking the Twitter icon at the top or bottom of the story page. You can also share it on Facebook. Storify also gives you the code so you can embed the story on your own website or blog.  

Step 13. 

You can now add a “Storify this” bookmarklet to your web browser. When you see content on a web page that you want to add to your story, all you have to do is click the bookmarklet to get a link to the page. See the video tutorial here. 

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