How to Use Feedly

How to use Feedly

RazorSocial just posted a blog "How to Use Feedly for Tracking Blogs". I've been a Feedly fan since the demise of Google Reader, and had a popular post in 2011 which outlined how to use Google Reader to follow Twitter hashtags "Google Reader Tames Twitter Stream" and Facebook pages.



While Google Reader had the flexibility to track Twitter hashtags, and Facebook pages, it is not clear that Feedly has added this functionality.

Feedly Organization

The "organize" features of Feedly do allow quick sorting/grouping of blog topics. This is a snip showing layout in the left-hand margin for my account. I use four major groups to sort the data, and Feedly show the total number of unread articles (237), and the number of unread items in each group. I read 45 blogs via Feedly, and simply don't know of a faster method to collect and organize my list.

Behind the scenes is a drag-and-drop interface for organization. My "A Economists" list is a collection of favorites - which always get first read. The Z-Other Economists still get some of my attention - but time constraints drive priorities.

Click for larger picture.
Drag and Drop interface for sorting/grouping your blogs.

New Feature for Twitter

Feedly did incorporate a new feature into their "Tweet This" functionality. The prior version simply sent the title of the article, a link and a "via Feedly" tag. At the end of 2014 they updated this feature to use hashtags - so "via Feedly" became #Feedly, and, the group name from your organizer is also sent (#xoloandmacro is my group).

If you are judicious in your naming convention, you can Tweet messages and links directly to a specific Twitter hashtag.

Bottom Line:

• Feedly provides a great blog consolidation platform - with quick collection, organization and reading.
• Setup and organization (and re-organization) is simple
• User Interface is the same on my PC, my Android tablet and my Kindle Fire, and functionality is the same across all three 
• It has decent "push" functionality (to Twitter, to OneNote, etc.) but for pulling data it is not as flexible as the deceased Google Reader.

Feedly Feature Wish List:

1. Simplify a data pull from Twitter and Facebook and Instagram.
2. Improve your online Help, or create a user community.

~Tot1