Why You Want to Be First to the Stories that Matter

With so much content out there, it’s hard to stay relevant. Here’s how you can be first to the stories that matter and add your own insights to get your audience engaging. 

In today’s landscape of digital content, what’s relevant can change fast. A flourishing story’s bloom may only last a few hours or a day, before attention-starved readers move onto the next big thing.
That’s why you want to be one of the first to trending stories. As we noted recently, we can now view stories by their predicted social interactions in Spike.
This in mind, we looked at predictive story view on September 6th, the day Hiddleswift, the brief relationship of celebrities Taylor Swift and Tom Hiddleston, became no more. The story had just broken and Spike was predicting big engagement.

Spike predicted the story, posted above on Comicbook.com, would take off on Facebook and Twitter in the next two hours. As we can see several days later, the story became quite large, with hundreds of stories spinning off the announcement.

Some took different angles of reporting, some were straightforward or satirical. But it’s not long before a story becomes oversaturated and old news, as evidenced by the sheer number of articles reporting on the story. That’s why it’s important to pivot fast and activate on the trending topics you find.

So how can you do this? How can you get ahead of the stories that are going to matter to your audience and earn you big views, distribution, and comments?

1. Keep eyes on what stories are surfacing

The first step is to consider your audiences’ needs. What sort of stories does your audience want? Which have been your biggest hits? By determining the value that your content has to your target audience, you can hone your focus on finding the right stories as they surface. How do you find these stories?
The content doesn’t have to be world news or celebrity gossip; it can be stories related to your publication focus or brand. Adding your insights to relevant topics will help establish you as a thought leader in your space.
You can discover these stories just by staying abreast of the news, subscribing to Google alerts, or by using NewsWhip Spike to monitor which stories are getting the buzz on social media (or which ones are predicted to get buzzing).

Spike’s constantly evolving Discover panels keep a pulse on the world’s trending news, such as Election 2016, sports events, and the most ‘Wow’ news in technology. 
Jumping in on a conversation or picking up a story has to be relevant to your publication’s mission. Come across as opportunistic or false, and your content will fall flat.
[fb_pe url=”https://www.facebook.com/dorkly/posts/1177254105651331″ bottom=”30″]
Dorkly, a publisher of nerdy news, found a zookeeper on Tumblr creating Pokémon Go themed signs for exhibits. While all they had to do was curate the Tumblr posts, they knew from their audience’s tastes that this story would be well received. The story drove over 36,000 interactions across Facebook.

2. What interesting spin can you give an emerging story?

Your content needs to have tangible quality for readers to engage with it.
Reebok, who we’ve written about before, has an adept brand newsroom that finds ways to add value to conversations happening in culture now. After Apple announced the removal of the headphone jack on the iPhone 7 last week, Reebok brainstormed ways to add their own point of view.
Following their mission of “Be More Human”, they decided to approach the headphones from a fitness angle, around music and workouts. They created a list of “10 Tangle-Free Workouts”  that can be done with wireless headphones. This kept inline with their audience’s expectation of fitness-related content and inspiration around what humans can do.

No headphone wires? No problem! Check out 10 fitness moves to put your new #iPhone7 #AirPods to use! https://t.co/Q6pK0jz15g

— Reebok (@Reebok) September 9, 2016

Since it was a relevant topic that was being covered, other publications picked up the story.  AskMen and Mashable both covered the story, Mashable creating a native video to Facebook.
Since social media allows for so much experimentation, Facebook video could be an interesting tactic to apply to a trending story. Especially Facebook Live, which as we’ve seen in our publisher, interest publisher, and brand analyses, there are many ways to apply to an ongoing story.
[fb_pe url=”https://www.facebook.com/SPORTbible/videos/2034895799989275/” bottom=”30″]
At the start of the Premier League, the SPORT bible, a humorous sports publisher, did a Facebook Live video of snails racing for each of the Premier League teams. This combined a real event with what the SPORT bible’s audience expected from the publisher — funny and fresh sports content.

3. How did your audience respond?

As more publishers rely on social media for distribution, paying attention to your engagement metrics is key. Who’s sharing, commenting, and reacting to your content?

This story from Refinery29 was their top story on social media of the past week in NewsWhip Spike. Their fifth most engaging story was one about the importance of a recent Michelle Obama photoshoot, suggesting that Refinery29’s content around the current racial issues conversations are resounding with their readers.
Keeping track of how your audience is interacting can clue you in on content wins and fails. From these you can determine the types of viral trends and the adaptation tactics that are the most promising for your content production.
You can also keep an eye on how your competitors are creating content. Do they add to the conversation? How often are they creating content and how does their audience respond?

Get Relevant

It’s highly beneficial to be the first to trending stories and add your publication or brands’ own personal take. It’s a great way to make your content relevant and establish yourself as a thought leader and source of trust.
Listen for the stories that your brand can add value to, and give users either some new information, insights, inspiration, or even entertainment around them. As you pay attention to the stories bringing in engagement, you can tailor your content to precisely fill your audience’s needs around new, emerging stories.