Los Angeles Teens Partner with ShortStack to Create a Hub For Peers to Share Positive News
Reno, Nev. (PRWEB) October 16, 2013 -- A group of teens in the Los Angeles area have taken to Facebook to create a hub where they and their peers can share positive news with each other. URBAN TxT (Teens eXploring Technology) is an organization that encourages inner city teenaged males to become catalysts of change in urban communities. The most recent TxT participants partnered with custom Facebook page builder, ShortStack, to create a custom Facebook app where teens could discover and submit positive news about their community.
The group decided to build their idea on Facebook after finding research that showed that this is where a majority of teens spend their online time. However, the Urban TxT team learned something else during their research: teens get very little news via the social network and what news they do get tends to be negative. In light of that discovery, the URBAN TxT teens began searching for a tool that could help them provide a place for teens to discover and share positive news about their community.
Ultimately the URBAN TxT group created a Facebook Page called “Plus Articles” and used custom app designer ShortStack to build a custom Facebook Page app for the Page. Custom Page apps are similar to mini websites that are hosted on Facebook and can be used as microsites.
When an article is submitted through the app, the URBAN TxT team reads the article to make sure it’s positive and relevant news and then publishes it to the app. News ranges from the latest football updates from USC, to movie reviews, jobs programs and animal rescues. Visitors and fans are able to comment and share on each individual news story.
URABN TxT launched their Facebook app in mid July and continues to see success. Positive news stories are submitted daily through the Facebook app and the teens plan to continue to manage the app. The Facebook app is designed like a news site and is broken into five categories: sports, entertainment, technology, politics and education. Articles can be submitted by the URBAN TxT team or fans of the Plus Articles Facebook Page.
ShortStack supports a variety of nonprofits by donating money and services. The company donated its services to URBAN TxT when they heard about the project and learned that the teens were interested in using ShortStack.
About ShortStack
ShortStack is a self-service custom app design tool with features that include contests and sweepstakes, newsletter signup forms and integrations with YouTube, Twitter, RSS and more. ShortStack apps can be installed wherever – to Facebook, websites and blogs, and they’re even viewable on mobile devices.
About URBAN TxT
URBAN Teens eXploring Technology (TxT) inspires young men of color between the 7th and 11th grade to become tech leaders. Through coding, teens in the program develop critical thinking, confidence, and public speaking skills. URBAN TxT is currently running a crowdfunding campaign, hoping to serve hundreds more teens and families by empowering youths to become tech leaders through coding. Please support their efforts by contributing at http://www.razoo.com/story/Urbantxt#.
Sara Piccola, ShortStack, http://www.shortstack.com, +1 (775) 901-0910, [email protected]
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