How I read my feeds
Steve Rubel asked - how do I read my feeds? It seems I'm not the only RSS addict in PR.
'Course, RSS isn't new, but most RSS geeks are geeks, not PRs. But as I work in a PR consultancy I need to track what's being said about the brands, people and issues that my clients are involved in. As a blogger I need to track conversations about my chosen topic. And as a consumer I track stuff that I might find interesting.
I use Bloglines to track my feeds - about 400-odd of them. Bloglines is my fave over the likes of Google Reader for two reasons.
1. Its desk/laptop interface has always been top notch for my needs - such as speed, organising, subscribing and presentation (Google Reader has a lot of buzz but I'm afraid it's not for me just yet - really basic things like you can't change the width of the sidebar really wind me up)
2. It integrates with my BlackBerry perfectly. As I spend about a third of every working day on the move this is really important to me
I have 30 folders in my Bloglines, which I organise like this:
1-2 - must reads: These are required-reading blogs (at number one) then my must-follow conversations and mentions based on custom-built RSS feeds (at number two). This folder contains any crisis work I'm also involved in
3-11 - client and industry feeds: These are split sector-by-sector for the clients I work on and contain mentions of their names, competitors, products and people. the folder also includes my industry feeds, podcasts, Twitters, aggregators/memetrakers and buzz-topics
11-12 - personal feeds: These I dip in and out of as they include hobbies or tracking the low-profile personal sites I run and incoming traffic
13-30 - sleeper feeds: These are for when clients call upon some tracking and monitoring of an issue on an infrequent basis. In other words I'll get asked, and can respond on demand, what blogs are saying about a niche topic. This happens once every few months so I keep the feeds ready and waiting once they're built
My habits - I'll tend to check feeds on my BlackBerry on my way into the office, then they'll be on in the background through the working day on my MacBook. I'll check them on my way home again on the BlackBerry. Evenings and weekends I'll dip in and out but not too much.
In response to Josh Bernhoff who asks whether people work better when they have time to switch off from feeds, I would answer yes. Same as email. Sometimes you need to focus and switch off from things, not that I often get that luxury working in a service industry. The reason I organise my feeds the way I do is so that I can dip in for a very short time and still get the important stuff done. But I have the choice to immerse myself in information and still get most of what I need brought to me instead of havig to search an infinite number of mags, papers, sites or stations to get it. That's the importance of RSS to a PR person, in my humble opinion.
Not that I ignore print or broadcast media - they're in the office too so I can keep it retro. I know some people are saying TV is full of yesterday's news, and that dead-tree media is dead, but they still wield enormous power as media, so can't be ignored.
How about you?
Cheers for the insight Drew. I've dabbled with many different RSS aggregators and like you not a fan of the Google offering - just too basic and clunky.
I'm a Newsgator user, and have it tied into my corporate email account - use it like a second inbox and tend to dip in at the beginning, middle and end of day. I am currently trying the less is more or one-in-one out approach limiting my feeds to 50 (seemed like a good number). Pretty basic but does work for me (well seems to at the moment).
Posted by: Justin | March 09, 2007 at 05:35 PM
I must be an RSS geek because I find that really interesting. I'm constantly refining my systems of reading and trying to cull feeds to keep them to a maangeable number.
Posted by: Antony | March 10, 2007 at 05:26 AM
I couldn't do my job without RSS. Back in the day we used to employ legions of assistants to scan the news for us. Those days are gone. Thanks for sharing your feed organisation. Me? I scan mine (about 350) first thing in the morning and then again in the evening. I rarely dip in during the day. I save juicy stories for the weekend when I have more time.
Posted by: Sherrilynne Starkie | March 10, 2007 at 09:37 AM
I'd be interested in getting your feedback on feedmashr.com which takes another approach to the rss feed mix application. It mashes the daily popular rss feeds from the popular social bookmarking sites, and others, but also lets you toggle back in time to see hot links that you may have missed.
Posted by: Chris | March 16, 2007 at 11:03 PM
300 feeds? Drew you RSS ninja!
Google Reader does the trick for me and my 100+ feeds but I do share some of your UI frustrations.
I used to use Newsgator a couple of years ago and Bloglines so I'll re-try them both based on yours/Justin's recommendations and see whether they work for me.
Good tips, especially regarding brand/keyword monitoring...very simple to set up and extremely useful to have in one place. I'm always suprised when I come chat to PRs who don't do this as standard issue for their clients.
Posted by: Michelle Goodall | July 06, 2009 at 05:23 PM
It's 619 now Michelle. With that amount I need the management :) But I should update this post, as I now use Feedly more than Bloglines
Posted by: Drew B | July 06, 2009 at 08:48 PM