Categories: Articles

Twitter Is Going To Kill RSS

Information overload. We’re all dealing with it. We were dealing with it when there were only a handful of publishers and producers. Now, everyone is a publisher and producer.

We used to be able to count on our RSS readers to filter out the noise and ensure that only the content we, specifically, chose would make its way on to our radars, but – for the most part – we’re all just too overwhelmed (see the post below: This Conversation Is A Blip). So much great content, so little time and not enough real filters and aggregators to really sort the wheat from the chaff.

Who can we count on?

We can count on humans (or each other). We trust our "friends" (however deep or shallow you want to go on that word). Try this little and simple experiment: ignore your news reader for one full day and only pay attention to what people on Twitter are talking about, sharing and linking to. Then, go back and compare. Did you miss any huge stories by not following your reader, or did you find more different and engaging pieces of content through Twitter that you would have never experienced had you only been focused on your own, self-initiated, feeds?

Amazing isn’t it?

The trick to making this even more powerful is to follow and engage with the "right people" – those who really do share similar values to you and those who are really engaging (and engaged) on Twitter. Odds are, you have tons of news feeds but don’t have the appetite or time to filter and aggregate. Imagine not having to subscribe to every episode of a particular Podcast, but instead being informed by your own peer group which episodes were worth checking out (and which ones to ditch)? How much would that change the way you engage with content?

What’s going on here?

Unlike the promise of virtual worlds (remember Second Life?), Twitter is doing a whole lot more than showing us the value of content in 140 characters or less. It’s showing us much more than how each and every one of us can report (and create) the news. Twitter is not just a technology or communications platform. Twitter is actually a great human-powered RSS machine. You can follow the smartest people out there and follow what’s on their radar.

Does this mean that Twitter is going to kill RSS?

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.