Replacing your RSS reader with Twitter + Hootsuite

July 25, 2010 by Levi Smith

We’re living in an age of information overload. The difficulty isn’t finding information, but sifting through it to focus on what’s important and matters to you.

RSS feeds became commonplace several years ago and have been a great way to consolidate information sources using a RSS reader (e.g. Google Reader, iGoogle or even Outlook). While these RSS readers served their purpose, I’m increasingly hearing people confess that they’re overwhelmed by the volume of unread items in their RSS reader to the point they give up. If this is you or you’re simply looking for the most efficient way to sift through a high volume of online information, I suggest a Twitter + Hootsuite setup.

If you’re thinking, “But I love my RSS reader” or “I’m skeptical of Twitter”, here’s why I recommend a Twitter + Hoosuite solution:

New How-to Video

Twitter

limited to 140 characters, which makes skimming easier
at it’s core, it’s a tool for broadcasting helpful information. If you still think it’s for people sharing what they’ve had for breakfast, let that preconception go.
efficiently integrates with other social sites and applications in a way that RSS feeds do not (e.g. Facebook or LinkedIn)
Almost every information source worth following, whether an individual or site, has a Twitter account that is providing as much or more information compared to their RSS feed

Hootsuite

allows you to easily setup a funnel system to prioritize Twitter streams (more about this below)
has a great user interface, includes search capability, is free and offers versions of its app for the iPhone, iPad and Android
allows you to manage all your social network communications in one place

The setup:

Watch the video tutorial
Create a twitter and hootsuite account if you haven’t already done so
On twitter, create lists labeled priority1, priority2 and priority3 and make the lists private (you can see my lists on my about page)
Search for the people, blogs, reporters, companies, new sites, etc. that you want to follow and click the follow button. If you can’t find the desired twitter account, check the source site for a twitter icon.
On hootsuite, link your twitter account (settings>social networks).
Click add stream and chose your priority1 list. Repeat for the other two lists and your home stream.
Drag & drop the streams from left to right in this order: priority1, priority2, priority3 and home stream
Click on a twitter username in the home stream. Click the add to list button to assign it to one of the lists you created. priority1 is for the most important and priority3 for the least. Repeat for each of the twitter usernames you added in Step 3.
Add hootsuite to your home page group in your browser

How to use:

Each day, simply logon to hootsuite and begin skimming through the columns from left to right as time permits. You’ll be able to skim the tweets quickly, click on desired links and ensure you see the most important information first because of the prioritized funnel you’ve with the priority lists. It’s easy to go back to Step 7 and change list assignment based on who you find provides the most important or relevant information.

Hope this helps!

Digging Deeper:

If you want to refine the streams you’re sifting through more than by prioritized lists, you can create search streams in Hootsuite using terms that will help you filter the specific information you are looking for.

Twitter and Hootsuite can of course be used for far more than described above. Twitter is the leading platform to share information that you believe others in your network would find helpful. Your tweets can be automatically fed into Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. so that you only have to post updates in Twitter and they’re shared with multiple networks (not just your twitter followers).

Hootsuite is a great communication tool and allows you to easily manage all of your social network interactions from one site instead of having to separately visit Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. Hootsuite also offers delegation and statistics features that make it a great tool for monitoring engagement and managing personal or business brands.

Tags: How to

Posted in: Reviews, Technology

http://www.jondale.com Jon Dale

Great idea.
One thought. Why not make the lists public and use your normal Twitter account? Perhaps call the list “Sources”. That way others, like me, can look at what influences you. And maybe even use your list.
By the way. Love the new blog look.
http://profile.typepad.com/levismith Levi Smith

A good suggestion on switching over the lists from private to public. Wasn’t thinking about others making use of those lists like the others I’ve created.
New blog look should be up in a few weeks. Glad you liked the preview.
http://www.startrekcreditsale.com/ sto credits

yes,a nice idea.worth to have a try.
http://profile.typepad.com/levismith Levi Smith

My priority lists on twitter have been made public for anyone wishing to look at them:
http://twitter.com/levi_smith/lists
http://www.gjel.com Ben Buchwalter

I like the idea of HootSuite a lot. But I recently switched to TweetDeck which does the same thing but more efficiently and with more options. I definitely suggest checking it out.
http://profile.typepad.com/levismith Levi Smith

I like TweetDeck too, but prefer the HootSuite Ui. The prioritized funnel I discuss in the post can be done with either though. Appreciate the recommendation.
http://www.playerassist.com/ffxiv/ ffxiv gil

Great idea,Why not make the lists public and use your normal Twitter account?yes,i have the same idea.
http://www.twojordan.com/ Air Jordan

So nice blog! But I have a suggestion that you can add some humorous language up to your article. Maybe you can write more better.
http://www.yaahshoes.com/nike_classics/nike_vandal Nike Vandal

It is authentic that we do not know what we’ve acquired until eventually we shed it, but it is also actual that we really don’t know what we’ve been missing till it arrives. Do you imagine so?
http://twitter.com/adamgriffo Adam Griffith

Love the concept Levi – I’m going to give this a go.

http://www.itsworthnoting.com Levi Smith

If you’ve been using an RSS reader, I think you’ll really like this setup.

http://danielrobles.es Daniel

Hi! We would love to add a reference to this article in the HootSuite Help Desk. Do you mind?

http://www.itsworthnoting.com Levi Smith

Feel free!

http://www.tedcurran.net TedCurran

Hmmmm. I’m not sold on the point that Twitter is better than RSS– even the most interesting people usually mix some extraneous nonsense into their Twitter feed, while RSS feeds usually point to more “ready for prime time” material like blog posts.

On the topic of people being overwhelmed by too many feeds– I usually advise people not to look at their GReader or Twitter like an email. You don’t have to read everything, you don’t have to look at it every day, you can let it all just flow right past you like a river, man! Ommmm. My metaphor is like walking into a room full of interesting conversations– you wouldn’t feel pressure to participate in EVERY conversation that’s going on, but rather hope to wander into a good one.
http://www.tedcurran.net TedCurran

Hmmmm. I’m not sold on the point that Twitter is better than RSS– even the most interesting people usually mix some extraneous nonsense into their Twitter feed, while RSS feeds usually point to more “ready for prime time” material like blog posts.

On the topic of people being overwhelmed by too many feeds– I usually advise people not to look at their GReader or Twitter like an email. You don’t have to read everything, you don’t have to look at it every day, you can let it all just flow right past you like a river, man! Ommmm. My metaphor is like walking into a room full of interesting conversations– you wouldn’t feel pressure to participate in EVERY conversation that’s going on, but rather hope to wander into a good one.
http://www.tedcurran.net TedCurran

Hmmmm. I’m not sold on the point that Twitter is better than RSS– even the most interesting people usually mix some extraneous nonsense into their Twitter feed, while RSS feeds usually point to more “ready for prime time” material like blog posts.

On the topic of people being overwhelmed by too many feeds– I usually advise people not to look at their GReader or Twitter like an email. You don’t have to read everything, you don’t have to look at it every day, you can let it all just flow right past you like a river, man! Ommmm. My metaphor is like walking into a room full of interesting conversations– you wouldn’t feel pressure to participate in EVERY conversation that’s going on, but rather hope to wander into a good one.
http://www.tedcurran.net TedCurran

Hmmmm. I’m not sold on the point that Twitter is better than RSS– even the most interesting people usually mix some extraneous nonsense into their Twitter feed, while RSS feeds usually point to more “ready for prime time” material like blog posts.

On the topic of people being overwhelmed by too many feeds– I usually advise people not to look at their GReader or Twitter like an email. You don’t have to read everything, you don’t have to look at it every day, you can let it all just flow right past you like a river, man! Ommmm. My metaphor is like walking into a room full of interesting conversations– you wouldn’t feel pressure to participate in EVERY conversation that’s going on, but rather hope to wander into a good one.
http://www.tedcurran.net TedCurran

Hmmmm. I’m not sold on the point that Twitter is better than RSS– even the most interesting people usually mix some extraneous nonsense into their Twitter feed, while RSS feeds usually point to more “ready for prime time” material like blog posts.

On the topic of people being overwhelmed by too many feeds– I usually advise people not to look at their GReader or Twitter like an email. You don’t have to read everything, you don’t have to look at it every day, you can let it all just flow right past you like a river, man! Ommmm. My metaphor is like walking into a room full of interesting conversations– you wouldn’t feel pressure to participate in EVERY conversation that’s going on, but rather hope to wander into a good one.
Skitsamma

Maybe you should tell your readers that the Hootsuite link is an affiliated one.

http://www.itsworthnoting.com Levi Smith

I appreciate your concern and I do provide notice in the site terms. As stated there, I only use affiliate links for sites, products or services I would recommend regardless.

http://twitter.com/Grimm_Law D. Grimm

Here’s another way to do this:
http://davidhgrimm.com/2011/09/05/how-to-turn-hootsuite-and-tweetdeck-into-rss-readers-2/
http://twitter.com/Grimm_Law D. Grimm

Here’s another way to do this:

http://davidhgrimm.com/2011/09/05/how-to-turn-hootsuite-and-tweetdeck-into-rss-readers-2/
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This is my first time i visit here. I found interesting things to many in your blog, mostly to the debate. Of the tons of comments on your articles, I’m not the only one who has all the fun here! Keep up the good work.

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