With a little creativity, your newsroom can craft stories that will leave readers with a positive impression of your organization and its writers. In a world where people expect more from their media than simply slapping 3000-word articles into WordPress, you need to stand out with a story that captures their imagination and tells a story they’ll remember. Feature stories are an excellent way to do just that.

A trending story is a piece that identifies a topic that’s currently generating a lot of buzz. It might be a new fashion, a popular movie or TV show, or a political event. The key is to identify a trend before it’s too late and then write a story that will grab readers’ attention.

While trends can be spotted through social media, you can also find them in your day-to-day activities on your reporting beat or by looking at public records. For example, on a police beat, you might notice that certain neighborhoods are seeing more drug arrests than others. Or, you might notice that students in a specific school district are struggling to get to class on time.

Unlike hard news, a trend story should be more in-depth and can appeal to a variety of emotions. It’s a great way to create a sense of community and engage with your audience. This story is an example of a good trending piece: it introduces readers to a group of dedicated individuals who work tirelessly to rescue and rehabilitate endangered baby animals. It also features a mixture of embedded tweets, photographs and videos to keep readers engaged and moving through the article.