Work Smarter with Twitter and HootSuite: Changes and updates

Work Smarter with Twitter and HootSuite was published by Harvard Business Review Press on April 2, 2013. This page notes changes and updates to the original text, based on changes in the social media ecosystem and corrections needed:

Google Reader replacement

  • Google’s decision to retire Google Reader means that you’ll need a different tool or workflow to replace my recommended use of Google Reader.
  • Use HootSuite to find shareable links, instead of using Google Reader (as recommended in part 3 of the text, “Joining the Conversation”). My blog post for Harvard Business Review explains how to use HootSuite as a (partial) Reader replacement.
  • Use Feedly as your Google Reader replacement for RSS subscriptions and news reading (here’s a nice summary of how to move to Feedly from Google Reader). I already use Feedly as a “skin” on Google Reader; if you are a current Google Reader user, creating a Feedly account will allow Feedly to suck in all your Google Reader subscriptions and give you a smooth transition. You can queue up tweets in Buffer (or HootSuite) from within Feedly instead of Google Reader, exactly as described in the section “Schedule your Tweets”. You can even install Buffer within the Feedly app for mobile devices.
  • Like other Feedly and If This Then That (IFTT) users, I hope Feedly will become an IFTT channel so that you can star items in Feedly to turn them into draft tweets within HootSuite. Unless and until IFTT adds Feedly as an input channel, I’ll queue up tweets from Feedly by using Buffer. It doesn’t give me quite as much control over scheduling individual tweets, however, so I am still keen to see Feedly-IFTT integration that will allow me to replicate the workflow described in “Speeding up your Twitter Workflow”.

Finding Twitter lists

  • In “Finding Lists that other Twitter Users have Created”, I recommended using Listorious to find Twitter lists. While I knew that Listorious had been acquired by MuckRack, I assumed it would still offer a comprehensive list of Twitter lists. Wrong! MuckRack is still focusing on Twitter for journalists, so those of us looking for other kinds of Twitter lists will really miss Listorious. While not as pretty or powerful as Listorious, List Atlas is the best Twitter list directory I can find today.

Other corrections

  • The current text incorrectly lists Don Tapscott’s Twitter handle as @dontapscott. He is actually @dtapscott.