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Storytelling Feature Pack Training

Creating News Content and Telling NC State's Story

Posts are how NC State tells its story. A well-crafted post can be picked up by other campus sites through the Newswire, reach audiences far beyond your own, and contribute to the broader narrative NC State shares with the world.

This training covers how to create news content that works well on your site, from choosing the right post structure to the metadata habits that make a story travel.

Check your tier: Every Storytelling block needs a Pro or Premium tier site. To see your site’s tier, look at the NC State Web Platform widget on your WordPress Dashboard. WP Playground includes every tier, so you can practice either way.

Estimated time to complete: about 23 minutes of video, plus about 20 minutes of practice.

The Difference Between Posts and Pages

Completion Time: 3 minutes

You already know the mechanical difference between pages and posts. This video covers what that distinction actually means in practice, and why it shapes nearly every decision you’ll make when creating news content.

Dig Deeper

Storytelling on the Web

Completion Time: 3 minutes

This video covers how to structure a story for the way people read online. It also covers when the Immersive post template is a better choice than a standard post.

Want to see the Immersive template in action? Browse recent stories on NC State News for examples of both the standard and Immersive post templates.

Choosing a Post Header

Completion Time: 6 minutes

The header is the first thing a reader sees, and it sets the tone for everything that follows. This video walks through the four post header options and how to match the right one to your story.

Hands-on Task: Choose a post header. You’ve been assigned to cover three stories. For each one, choose a post header and write one or two sentences explaining your choice. Then check your answers against the answer key.

  1. A breaking news item about a university research finding that just received national media coverage
  2. A long-form feature profile of a faculty member and her lab’s work
  3. A photo essay covering this year’s new student move-in weekend

Check your answers

  1. Default post header. Breaking news needs to be clear and quick to read, and the Default header stays out of the way of the story.
  2. Side-by-side Header (Immersive template). It’s made for people-forward stories like profiles, where a strong portrait photo anchors the story.
  3. Default Immersive Post Header (Immersive template), if you have one strong photo that sets the scene. If you have video of move-in weekend, the Media Banner Header can use a looping video instead.

Without the NC State Premium Add-on, the Default post header is the right choice for all three. Whatever you choose, a simpler header done well is better than an ambitious one without the right image to support it.

Now try the headers. In WP Playground, go to Posts and add a new post called Practice Post. Set the post’s template to Immersive. Then select the header, click Choose header layout (the paintbrush icon) in its toolbar, and switch between the Default Immersive Post Header, Side-by-side Header and Media Banner Header. Keep your Playground tab open, because you’ll finish this post in task 3.

For a full reference on post header options, see Post Header Options.

Blocks That Serve a Story

Completion Time: 5 minutes

The Storytelling Feature Pack includes blocks specifically designed for long-form narrative content. These blocks allow you to create emphasis, pace the story appropriately and provide visual interest within a post. This video covers the most important ones and, just as importantly, when not to use them.

For reference on the blocks covered in this video:

Additional blocks in this Feature Pack covered by documentation only:

Tags, Categories and Metadata

Completion Time: 3 minutes

A great story with poor metadata is a story that doesn’t travel far. Before you publish any post, four fields deserve your attention, and their scope is not limited to just your site. They improve how your story appears in search results and on social media.

Hands-on Task: Fix the metadata. Review the fictional draft post on the Metadata Example page. Four of its metadata fields have problems that would keep it from being as effective as possible. Identify each problem and note what should be corrected. The answer key is at the bottom of that page.

The Newswire and Digital Magazines

Completion Time: 4 minutes

The Newswire is one of the most powerful tools available to NC State communicators. This video covers how syndication works, what it takes to become a contributing site, and when a digital magazine is the right format for your content.

Ready to contribute your site’s stories to the Newswire? Start with the Newswire documentation for an overview, then submit a request through go.ncsu.edu/ucomm-dev-request to get set up as a contributing site.

Interested in the digital magazine format? See Digital Magazines for an overview of how issues work, then Adding Stories to Magazine Issues and Cover Layouts. (NC State Premium Add-on required.)

Hands-on Task: Building for Multiple Reader Types. Go back to your Practice Post in WP Playground. Replace its title and body with the title and story from the Metadata Example page.

  1. Choose the post header that fits this story best.
  2. Add a Pull Quote at the story’s key moment.
  3. Preview your post. Would a reader who only skims still get the main point?

Training Feedback

As we launch our on demand trainings, we are looking for all feedback — positive, negative and everything in between. Please let us know what you like and how we can improve.

Submit Feedback

Ready for the Quiz?

You’ve covered the full storytelling workflow — from understanding how posts participate in the NC State ecosystem, to choosing the right header, to making sure your stories are structured and tagged to travel beyond your own site.

When you’re confident in the material, take the quiz below. You’ll need a score of 80% or higher to pass.

Complete the Storytelling Training Quiz

What’s next? If you’re also interested in collecting leads, managing events, or using automated content feeds on your site, explore our other trainings: