04 May2010
Five Useful RSS Feeds I Follow That Are Not News or Blogs
I previously wrote a blog post about how I have been using RSS feeds to stay current on the news. The majority of the feeds that I subscribe to are news and blogs, but there are a few that don’t fall under either of these categories that I have found to be useful.- Tweets of a few individuals. I follow about 200 people on Twitter and I can’t log in to Twitter enough times to keep up with every single tweet of the people I follow every day. However, there are those among the Twitter users I follow who share great information and I don’t want to miss any of their tweets. It’s easy to add a Twitter timeline to Google Reader (which I use to read RSS feeds). Copy the Twitter user’s URL (for example, http://twitter.com/whe97007), click on the “add a subscription” button and paste the URL in the box that appears.
- Twitter searches for certain words and hashtags. Using Twitter Advanced Search, I created RSS feeds for tweets from Las Vegas, Nevada, that include the words CPA, accountant, tax, or QuickBooks. I have found a few interesting people to follow and some potential business opportunities. For example, a tweet saying “next year I think I’ll have to invest in a good tax accountant” caught my attention and I contacted that Twitter user. The only drawback to subscribing to these feeds is that I have to sift through a lot of unimportant tweets like “I just got my tax refund so now I can buy that HDTV!”
- LinkedIn Network Updates. LinkedIn is a great site for professional networking, but I don’t visit it daily. I use RSS as a more efficient way to see what my connections are up to. Occasionally, I notice that one of my connections connects to someone I know, who I then connect to as well. You can get RSS feeds within the LinkedIn account settings.
- Notifications for new downloads. For example, I subscribe to the RSS feed of the CPA Technology Advisor to know when a new podcast is available for download.
- YouTube channels. In particular, I enjoy the YouTube channel for K2 Enterprises, which provides technology tips for CPAs. Thanks to RSS, I am alerted when a new video is available to view.
Tags: Facebook, Google Reader, LinkedIn, RSS, Twitter
Trackback from your site.
Janett
| #
Hi Dustin, I have become a fan of your blog posts. I have found them both interesting and informative. There is so much to learn and so few hours in the day. I have not gotten on board with twitter though I have thought about it (time). I did join LinkedIn a few months back and have found the groups to be full of helpful information. I too am a fan of the CPA Technology Advisor it is over flowing with great stuff. I checked out K2 Enterprises on YouTube and it is just the kind of thing I like to subscribe to. Thanks for pointing it out.
Reply
Dustin Wheeler
| #
Thanks Janett! It means a lot to me to know you find my blog helpful. I will write an article in the near future about my experience with Twitter and hopefully give you some ideas.
Reply
W. Michael Hsu
| #
Dustin. Great content my friend and thanks so much for the share. RSS feed has help me organize my online followings for a long time now but it never occured to me to use it to follow a specific twitter user – good one. Got to check out the K2 channel – I’m sure it’s good stuff coming from you. Have a good one friend.
Reply