4 tools to add your RSS feed to your Twitter profile

With so many social media websites, the more you can automate your processes, the easier it is to stay on top of things. If you create a lot of content in a week, you can spend just as much time promoting your work as producing it, and who has time for that. 

RSS feeds give you a great solution for reducing this workload. Every blog these days has an RSS feed built into it. With it, you can update your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or MySpace account with your latest updates instantly. But not all RSS feed tools were created equal. 

I sat down with my co-workers and created a wish-list of qualities that we as marketing people want in an RSS feeder tool. As usual, all the tools have to be free and not require a download. Beyond that, we wanted to be able to:

• have an easy-to-use interface
• get the hang of it quickly
• send updates to Twitter and other sites
• easily configure it
• add hashtags
• determine the number of updates
• change how often it updates our accounts
• have some form of useable analytics
• selectable URL shortening software

The evaluation method was simple. I visited each site and registered. After my profile loaded, I took a screenshot of the interface and then spent about ten minutes looking around the site. A decent site should be able to explain itself in that time. After using the application, I rated each site against my wish list.  

TwitterFeed is probably the best known of the RSS feeder tools. Signing up is simple and they allow you to use OpenID to register with the site. This means if you already have a Gmail account (and who doesn’t these days), you don’t have to create a new account to use TwitterFeed. You can add as many RSS feeds as you want and they can feed any number of Twitter, Laconica, Ping.fm, Hellotxt and Facebook accounts. You don’t have to worry about flooding your audience with information as it allows you to choose how often it updates and how many of your posts it pulls. You can also change what content gets posted – title only, title & description or description only. There are 21 different shortening link settings and you can add either a post prefix or suffix to make use of hashtags.

PROS: Very easy and highly functional RSS tool. Lots of features and the ability to add multiple accounts and limitless feeds make TwitterFeed an extremely effective single feature site.

CONS: The built-in analytics on the site don’t provide much insight. It’s best used in conjunction with another site like Bit.ly.

RATING: Thumbs Up

RSS2 Twitter is very similar to TwitterFeed, except it’s more limited. You add an RSS feed, decide what to include (title, description, or both), which Twitter account to update, filter keywords and add a prefix. It also automatically shortens URLs and provides analytics on the number of clicks you get from your links. The site uses OAuth to login, which makes it easy to login without a needlessly elaborate form. 

PROS: Easy to use and customizable. The analytics look good with an easy to understand chart.

CONS: Needs more features. Hopefully RSS2 Twitter will add more customizable features to their service. Doesn’t allow you to add additional social media sites. Doesn’t allow 3rd party URL shortening.

RATINGS: Thumbs down

Hootsuite is basically a browser based version of TweetDeck. The site allows you to monitor and update your Twitter feed, create columns to monitor based on hashtags or keywords, has built-in statistics and you can update multiple social networks. Hootsuite is a great online tool and one that makes monitoring your Twitter profile from any computer very easy without having to use a downloadable client, like TweetDeck and Seesmic do. 

PROS: Easy to use, lots of features and the ability to add multiple RSS feeds and social media accounts makes it a great way to update your Twitter profile via RSS feed.

CONS: Hootsuite will only allow you to use their Ow.ly url shortening. This can come into conflict if you’re using Bit.ly or other URL shortening tools. There is also no ability to add hashtags to your post. 

RATINGS: Thumbs Up

Twt.sy is another solid entry into the RSS feeder category. The site allows you to add multiple feeds and Twitter profiles. It doesn’t allow you to add additional social media sites. When you add an RSS feed, you can adjust the tweet update times, what to include in the tweet and any prefixes and keywords to filter by. The main asset of this site is a dashboard that shows the number of clicks, the most popular clicks from that past hour, the most recent links and the links that have the most clicks. You can also see where clicks are originating from thanks to their mashup with Google Maps. It’s a unique feature to Twt.sy. 

PROS: Good use of analytics that no other site has. You can add multiple twitter accounts and RSS feeds.

CONS: Doesn’t allow for updating to additional social media sites. Doesn’t allow third party URL shortening. Needs to add more customizable features. 

RATING: Thumbs down

CONCLUSION:

All the sites in this category are useful tools. It comes down to personal taste and needs. I like to have as many features as possible and that’s why for an RSS feeder, I have to choose TwitterFeed. True, Hootsuite has more overall features but just looking at the RSS features, it falls a little short. If you’re not already using a Twitter interface client, I would recommend using Hootsuite because it will cover all your basic needs and then some. If you’re already using TweetDeck or Seesmic, the extra features aren’t necessary and TwitterFeed’s excellent abilities will more than meet your needs.

Stefan Halley is the Digital Project Leader for The Duffy Agency. He loves to talk about social media and won't shut up about Twitter.

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