By Ameena Rasheed, NABJ Digital Journalism Task Force intern
If you have been following the NABJ Digital blog long enough, then you know that we love social media curation tools like Storify and Storination. For today’s multimedia journalist, these types of things are a God send. No more pilling up blog posts with separate pieces of media from across the Web. Now, you can drag and drop online content (Tweets, photos, urls, etc.) into one cohesive space. While Storify has taken over, I’m excited about one of the newer sites called RebelMouse, it is a little like Storify on Steriods, but packaged up like Pinterest.
What you can use it for:
- Beat reporting
- A homepage or social media dashboard for your online portfolio, website or blog
- Collaborative multimedia projects on current events
Let’s get started:
When you visit RebelMouse, you are given the option to log in or sign up through several different social networking sites. Once logged in, you will see your homepage (pictured below). Your homepage will display all of your connected social media streams.
To start customizing your RebelMouse homepage, go to the “Dashboard” section on the upper right hand corner of the page. Once on your “Dashboard” page (pictured below), you will be able to add which sites’ content you want on your RebelMouse homepage. What’s unique about RebelMouse is that you actually get to invite others (via email or RebelMouse name) to help add to the content, too! This is great for group projects. Depending on your purpose of using this tool, the types of social media accounts you use may vary. If you hover your mouse over each section you are able to edit the content (change the title, add or remove photos and more).
For Twitter: You are only allowed to connect one Twitter account. Keep in mind that ALL of the tweets with images and links from that account will appear in the RebelMouse feed, so pay attention to what you post.
*An easy way to filter the content, whether you are working as an individual journalist or you are covering a story with several others, is by using a unique hashtag to make sure that all the content is on one accord.
For Facebook: Like with Twitter, you can connect only one page. **For Facebook, it will post all content that isn’t marked as private.
*If you click on the “Content & Feeds” button (pictured below) that is to the right of the “Sites” button, you get more advanced options to for connecting your social media feeds. There you can add other sites such as Pinterest and Tumblr. By inputting various usernames and hashtags, you are able to filter the content even more. Once you input the username or hashtag, you have the option of choosing how that content is gathered and shared.
**Since RebelMouse is all about what’s visually appealing, the tweets without media (photo or video) will go into your drafts. Facebook posts that are marked private and photos you like on Instagram are also compiled into the “Drafts” section. From the “Drafts,” you can either post or delete the content.
If you are interested in sharing your stream, you can go to the “Embed” section to retrieve the HTML to place in any blog or site or just use the WordPress plugin. I used the WordPress plugin for my online portfolio as a “front page” to share my favorite news headlines and what I’m reading online at the moment.
Extras: Do you use Google Chrome? Add the “Stick” bookmarklet to your browser so you can add content to your RebelMouse account while surfing the Web.
Add navigation to your site by creating RebelMouse pages for specific topics. At the top of my page (pictured above), I have several tabs going across. To the right of my tabs, there is a “More” button. If you click the pencil to the right of that button, you are able to create, edit and delete specific pages. You can reorder each page by dragging the navigation items by the handle on the left column.
NABJers, are you using RebelMouse? Let us know in the comments! And check out the NABJDigital page.
NABJDigital Blog 
Very apt description: “it is a little like Storify on Steriods, but packaged up like Pinterest.”
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How do I change the twitter account on my rebelmouse profile?
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Amazing blog! Do you have any tips for aspiring writers?
I’m planning to start my own blog soon but I’m a little lost on everything.
Would you advise starting with a free platform like WordPress or go for
a paid option? There are so many choices out there that I’m completely confused .. Any tips? Thanks a lot!
Whats up this is kinda of off topic but I was wondering if blogs use
WYSIWYG editors or if you have to manually code
with HTML. I’m starting a blog soon but have no coding know-how so I wanted to get guidance from someone with experience. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
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I’m using Rebel Mouse on my site. I like much, much more than similar online curation tools like Paper.li and Scoot.it. I’m not bold enough to say that Rebel Mouse can replace my own personal website. Also I tried the blogging feature where you update your Rebel Mouse site directly and I didn’t care for that either (I have auto-update turned on, and it kept interrupting my writing when trying to compose a post). Also you can’t modify their themes without getting a paid account; although you can create your own CSS theme for your site if you wish.
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