Have you seen Paper.li yet?
I first noticed this service a couple of days ago when I started to see some curious posts show up in my Twitter @reply stream. The first was from my friend Karen Kay. Paper.li is a new site that’s allows you to create a daily online newspaper composed of Tweets that include links from either selected people you follow or list on Twitter or for a particular #hashtag search.
It’s free to use and can be setup in just a few minutes. I just created Social Media Confidential featuring a few people I follow on Twitter that usually have social media related tweets or other topics I’m interested in.
At your option, your daily page can be promoted via Tweets automatically and people can subscribe to get an email notification when your new issue is available.
Ultimately what you get is something along the lines of a magazine or newspaper that’s created just for you and is updated regularly. Since it can be difficult to follow all your favorite writers on Twitter itself or even using an app like Hootsuite, Paper.li seems like a great idea. Why not give it a whirl?
Have you already setup a page on Paper.li? Share a link in the comments section below or just tell us what you think of the service.
Bill, thanks for this review. I had noticed the “papers” in my stream–any number of my Twitter friends have enrolled. My first impression was that it was somewhat spammy–obviously automated from start to finish. Kind of like getting people’s horoscope in your Twitter stream.
I have wondered about the purpose. I wondered, and still do, whether it has some sort of SEO effect.
Having read your review, I will take the time to check it out.
Hi Kay, the “Promote on Twitter” option is off by default in paper.li so you don’t have to announce it at all.
At first glance, I thought it was another one of those spammy shout-outs, too. But when I checked, it appears the announcements only included the @handles of people actually included in the current issue of the paper.
I don’t know if it has an SEO effect but it is a way to get your name if front of new readers. More importantly, it’s a way for readers to read your work more often since it doesn’t rely on them coming to your blog or being in front of the computer when that tweet comes by announcing your latest post.
It’s also a way of getting a feel for who some on Twitter are actually paying attention to.
Hey Bill! Thanks for the shout out! I thought those posts from paper.li were a little spammy at first too, until I actually read one. It is awesome how it pulls all that stuff together. I really enjoy reading my own.
It is still in Alpha and has a few bugs. I tried, for example to set up a second paper for a different list, and it didn’t work. No error message, it just didn’t work. Looks like the option is there, so that is still a kink – it may be that you have to pay or have a certain # of readers before you can setup a second one, not sure.
At any rate, I have been fine tuning that one list, to get the most good out of it. While it serves a purpose for me (pulls the best stuff from my favorite Tweeters into an easy to read platform), I hope it serves my followers too – As long as I feel it does both, I will continue to promote it. Since I am not on my own list, my own tweets/links, etc are not part of the paper. Therefore I feel comfortable in saying it is not spam. I have read a few others, and though I don’t necessarily like them all, none have seemed “spammy” to me.
Thanks again!
KK
Hey Karen, thanks for turning me on to it. My paper hasn’t updated yet (according to the page, that’ll happen in 2 hours). For now, I’m not going to promote mine but will read it and, if necessary, tweak it. If using it for promo purposes, I think it would be okay to include yourself as long as you included several others just as a real newspaper or magazine would.
I’ve subscribed to a couple of papers so far, Bill, and I’m liking this platform a lot. The paper looks crisp and classy and it provides a much easier and more pleasant means of keeping up with your favorite Twitter peeps versus Hootsuite or TweetDeck – more relaxed and enjoyable.
Clicked on “Social Media Confidential” but nothing has queued yet. Probably needs a few more hours to aggregate.
I think you’d really enjoy the “Fiona Bosticky Daily” – check it out. She’s the Australian owner of “Abnormal Marketing”, a top notch researcher, and a real pro at networking.
Write On!
Melanie
Hi Melanie,
Having some issues getting SMC to add any content even after two updates. I went in and added more people to the list and more topics. Let’s see what happens.
I’ll check out Fiona’s page. Thanks for the tip!
Bill