Facebook Story Ideas for Writers

By Jason Boog 

Do you struggle to find readers on Facebook?

SocialTimes recently caught up with Facebook journalism program manager Vadim Lavrusik, getting a long list of useful storytelling resources and tips. Here’s more from SocialTimes:

With a longer character limit than Twitter (around 60,000 characters compared to Twitter’s 140), Facebook stories can unfold in real-time through text, images, and videos on the Page or serve as a preview for a longer article on a news website. Stories told on Facebook benefit also from community dialogue through comments, likes, and shares, Lavrusik said. Facebook recently launched a media portal for journalists to aid in their storytelling, with reports on best practices for journalists and media companies, as well as a case study on how Slate magazine doubled its Facebook referrals between the second quarter of 2012 and the first quarter of 2013.

SocialTimes editor Devon Glenn discussed these tips on the Morning Media Menu today. If you want to listen, press play below.

In addition, the Facebook Media Portal has a useful essay from BuzzFeed founder Jonah Peretti. We’ve reprinted our three favorite tips below. Read “13 Ways to Make Something Go Viral” at this link:

Humor Is Inherently Social

You go out to dinner with your friends, everyone tells jokes and laughs, and the next day you don’t remember the jokes — but you feel closer to your friends. Laughing together on Facebook brings millions of people closer each day. It isn’t surprising that the most popular BuzzFeed badge is “LOL.”

Nostalgia Is Inherently Social
People love to reminisce about the past. For example, check out these 12 Extremely Disappointing Facts About Popular Music.

At BuzzFeed, we even launched a “Rewind” section devoted entirely to nostalgia.

And with our partner GE, we created a Time Machine that lets you see BuzzFeed from different decades and it turns out the site was WAY better in the 1980s!

Human Rights Are Inherently Social

The Arab Spring, women’s rights, and gay marriage are all things many people on Facebook are proud to share. BuzzFeed is nonpartisan and doesn’t take political stands, but basic freedoms shouldn’t be political which is why we support marriage equality with posts like this one.