Three Stories Perfectly Presented for Social Media

We look at three good examples of stories that hit the three goals of engagement, presentation for social media, and targeted content. 

When editors and publishers think about how to best present their stories on social media, there’s often a few different viewpoints in the newsroom.
They usually have to do with what the desired outcome is – clicks through to the site? New readers? Massive virality, or consistent quality engagement?
For the most part, just planning to go viral is not a viable social strategy for publishers. Instead, they should be thinking carefully about how each piece of content they produce has the potential to be shared on different platforms and devices. That means having good site infrastructure, facilitating sharing, and serving up the right sort of stories at the right time. Most of all, it means telling great stories that the readers of your site can relate to and pass on to the rest of their network.
But it’s easier said than done for many publishers. Being able to present a story for a social audience is often a bigger challenge than presenting it on your homepage. There, readers have arrived looking to click and read your stories alone, in the news feed, you’re just another box demanding their attention.
Here are three recent examples of publishers employing good editorial filter on social. All of these stories did well for their sites: they got shared and commented on lots, they were well-presented on different platforms and devices, and most importantly, they spoke to their target audience, and their friends and followers.

1. NPR: ‘Hey, New Teachers, It’s OK To Cry In Your Car’ (October 22, 2015)

Hey, new teachers, cry in your car yesterday? This'll help: https://t.co/GrvNzQ5yKN @npr_ed @npr @meg_anders pic.twitter.com/hMjL62X0AT

— Cory Turner (@NPRCoryTurner) October 22, 2015

This story, about the difficulties new teachers face in their first year at school, performed over 2,700 times better than the average NPR story on Facebook.
The headline is conversational, social, and piques curiosity. The illustration catches the eye more than any stock image could. And the story itself speaks to a very specific readership.
Thanks to NPR’s editorial training guidelines, we’re able to get a look at what makes a successful NPR headline. One piece of advice is that the headline should ‘lead to a reaction’.
You’re writing headlines for people. People looking for something interesting to read or watch or listen or share. How will your target audience react when they see your headline? Will they be curious? Surprised? Sad? Angry? Happy? Will they click on it? Will they share it?
This story has the necessary tone, presentation, and level of intrigue to make it a success for NPR’s social media team.

2. USA Today: ‘Kansas City is the best baseball town in America right now’ (October 28, 2015)

USA Today’s popular sports-focussed FTW vertical is focussed completely on social media for distribution. This story is a great example of a sports story perfectly pitched for a social media audience.
Many Kansas baseball fans would be inclined to share this story, which is based on the fact that 76% of Kansas city TVs tuned into the one baseball game at the same time.
For other baseball fans, there’s a curiosity element here. What makes Kansas City the best?
Spike showed that the story performed 288 times better on Facebook than the average USA Today story.

3. Quartz: ‘You might want to turn off this new iOS 9 setting if you don’t have unlimited data’

Here’s something that gets people sharing: money-saving hacks.
This informative story points iPhone users’ attention towards a new setting that could hurt monthly data plans. It’s a short, instructive piece, which not only outlines the possible unwanted effect of the new setting, but also tells readers how to switch it off.

The story ended up being one of the most shared stories on Facebook in September 2015.
Would the effect have been the same if Quartz had de-personalised the headline? That’s unlikely.
Have you any more examples of publishers telling stories cleverly on social? Let us know on Twitter. 

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