Storylane is a place to share stories, experiences and invite questions.
Like Tumblr you can upload images and audio and like Quora you can ask questions as well as ask your followers what stories they would like to hear from you.
Of course, you can avoid all of that and just use it to build and audience and gain exposure – or can you?
Setting up an account with Storylane
Setting up an account is quick and simple.
You can set up your account using Facebook or Twitter login, and your profile is instantly ready. You can go to the settings section and view your profile, upload a cover image and write a little about yourself in your bio.
As you can see in the quick video – it takes just under 4 minutes to set up an account. If you view the video using a headset please turn the volume down or I’ll be yelling in your ear 
As I joined via Facebook, I was notified that I knew 2 people on Storylane.
Of course the option to invite your other contacts from other social networks is available. The settings asked if I wanted to upload a cover photo or copy across my Facebook image? I uploaded a photo, it needs to be at least 800 pixels wide so that the image doesn’t distort as my husband’s did in the video.
You also have the option to use your FB photo as your profile picture, again you may want to upload an image as the images pulled in from other sites seem to pixelate.
One click engagment?
With Storylane you have the option to leave feedback with one click – you don’t have any space to comment. 
If what you’ve read compels you, you can click a button to “tell this story too” and add an additional image or commentary. This is similar to to the Tumble reblog feature.
The actions that you take are shared via your connected social networks, but from what I have seen so far, there is nothing to send traffic back to your own sites if your readers wish to get to know you better. Everything at the moment seems one way, perhaps in the future it will become a place to send traffic back to our sites.
Sure, you can follow other users and get updates via the notifications but building your audience on Storylane only keeps them there. And you may already know what I think about building your audience on someone else’s platform.
The positives and negatives to Storylane
If you are happy to build your audience on someone else’s platform then you will like the ease of Storylane. If you like to read, then the site will keep you occupied.
There are some good stories on there and some stories that are almost urban myths, I’m pretty sure the one about the son taking the mother out to dinner did the rounds on Facebook a few months back. That means there will be some confusion of the stories originality, but that’s not an issue exclusive to Storylane, it’s common all over the web.
t’s an opportunity to reach new audiences, but as I mentioned before, they will only know you there unless they decide to Google you. I did add URLs to the bio, but they are not clickable. If you click the Tell a Story section in the navigation bar the screen will be filled with suggested questions – 
If you complete these stories, you’ll have built a very public profile of who you are as a person. And perhaps that’s the best use of Storylane for bloggers; a replacement for your about page. Over to you – Are you on Storylane and if you are what are you using it for?
And if you are not, why not?
Hat tip to Jackie Walker for telling me about Storylane.
About Sarah Arrow
