Clarity Strategic^TM

In a previous article I wrote about being the Curator of your Twitter newspaper. But that's, you know, after the newspaper is created, using paper.li. You should also know how to create one, if being a curator is on your mind. Creating a newspaper is really easy!

You may find these images a little scrunched. Click on them to enlarge them!

In the first image, you see the online form you use to set up your new paper. There are six tabs there, and this first one, settings, is where you decide (a) what the paper is to be called; (b) how often it is to appear - the options are daily, twice daily, and weekly; and (c) when it is to come out. In the case of the 24-Hour Bully Stake Out Times, you see I have opted for a daily edition, and it comes out at about 9 PM EST. (Which I have to convert from GMT, and I hate that!) This form is straightforward. The only things you really have to think about are the title ("Daily" is the default, and I didn't want all my papers to be called "Daily," plus, this one is associated with a Facebook Page for the anti-bullying activity) and when your readers are likely to read (and I guessed the evening, when the kids are winding down). I save the settings, then move on.

Next, you consider where your material comes from. I've created a Twitter List - friends and followers interested in the topic, and that's where I begin. After that, I use one Twitter hashtag associated by most readers with the topic. You may decide you need more sources than that, but I find that for this paper at least, I'm getting plenty.

The hashtag I monitor most closely here, because (a) that's the material from which I'm most likely to meet new people, and (b) that's also the material most likely to be off-topic or abusing hashtags (in my opinion). I save the settings, then move on.

The stats may be more important for you than they are for me. I am glad to know that, in the course of about six months, the paper has had about 2700 views. And you may well find me at fault for not actively seeking more than seven people to make it a favorite. But I've been more concerned with delivering a useful paper.

The usability of your paper is pretty important, because you're going to choose your paper to cover a topic you like, or the area where you live, and you can be sure that either you're not the only one who's covering what you want to cover, or there are few people posting links about what you want to cover. In either case, you have to work just a little bit to make your paper worth being anyone's favorite.

Once you have your settings in place, you only have to wait for the paper to come out.

If you choose to Promote among your Settings, there'll be a tweet saying it's out when it's out, and you can also get an e-mail about it.

As soon as possible after I get that tweet, I look at the paper, and make changes as I mentioned in the earlier article. The most important thing is for me to find an article with an eye-catching image to be the featured story, as I did in the edition shown here.

If you make a paper of your own, let me know! I'll subscribe! :-)