Making the Most of RSS and a Custom Newsreader in Your Social Networking Community
Posted by:
Walter Roark on
March 10, 2009 at
12:58AM AFT
It is a great advantage to have a custom news page in your online community...a place where people can use and manage a high volume of interesting RSS feeds.
ThePort Network offers a very flexible news page you can lay out 
exactly the way you like. You can have a single page or create multiple pages. Above the page, you can choose from a library of general news feeds and also RSS links that are oriented precisely to your community. With one click, you can also search for new, relevant feeds from the web, then add them to your page.
Select a lively mix of news and blogs that matches your taste. You can view your selected feed modules by headline-only or with introductory text. Better newsreaders let you easily rearrange the page(s), add or delete feeds and share them with members of your community.
One way to share is to tag an entry by clicking on the tag symbol. Generally, your tag will join a tag cloud where other members can click on your chosen keyword and read the story too. With ThePort’s newsreader, when you tag an item, it also posts to your profile page as a “favorite.” So, you can keep a running collection of content that is meaningful to you.
Another sharing option on a “reader” page is to click on the 
envelope icon next to the entry, then enter their addresses and email the article to friends.
If you have Admin privileges in a community, you will be able to add feeds from the Internet to a master feed library so that all members can access them on their newsreader page. Adding RSS feeds to a community is both fun and challenging.
News feeds are relatively easy because every news organization on the Web offers an array of reliable feeds. Just choose the types of feeds you like best. However, blog feeds vary considerably in quality and frequency. Start by Googling with a common phrase.
Let's say you want to collect blog feeds about social media. Start by Googling "Social Media." You are likely to see a listing for a "Social Media Blog Directory." Or an active blogger who offers several blog 
listings on one site. The better blog sites always have links to kindred blog sites. The best bloggers only offer quality links and monitor them regularly. Finding one of these sites is like finding a gold mine.
For its white label communities, ThePort Network routinely aggregates dozens of high-quality RSS feeds to populate members’ newsreader pages. The mix of news authorities and leading bloggers (always tailored to the community’s focus) provides an intriguing blend of up-to-the-minute information members can tap. The links are a great starting point for community interaction.
If you have ideas and opinions about harnessing RSS feeds and the use of social media newsreaders, we welcome your comments.
