First of all – what is Paper.li? Generally speaking, it’s a newsletter / webpage that creates itself from the content shared by people I tell it to.
Officially:
“Paper.li organizes links shared on Twitter into an easy to read newspaper-style format. Newspapers can be created for any Twitter user, list or #tag”.
Want to know the best part? It does so automatically!
When I say automatically, it sources the content, adds the author’s info, makes some of the posts featured, has a great video section for YouTube links, and then picks a few people and sends out a tweet promoting the new issue!
That tweet might get a few RT’s, draws more attention to you, gives those mentioned a warm and fuzzy feeling, perhaps starts a new conversation and who knows what else but that’s not why I use Paper.li.
I’m selfish. Plain and simple, I’m flat out, downright, honest to goodness, selfish!
You see, Twitter is a like a party, happening in a rail car passing by at speed. It’s happening all the time and if you are not there you’ll miss something. As my Cousin says, “Life moves pretty fast, if you don’t stop and look around once in a while you could miss it.” Unfortunately, I can’t be there all the time and shouldn’t be. Paper.li is my selfish way to pull the things out (from the people I care most about) that I may have missed while I was working and put them all in one place. I can go back at the end of the day and catch up when the time is right.
Now, about all those people I mentioned, the warm and fuzzy feeling they got and my now public selfish reason… Just because I use it as I described, there’s no reason to diminish the warm and fuzzys. See, each and everyone that is mentioned on my Paper.li got there because I added them to a Twitter List. I’ve 11,000 people I follow but really care about what these 100 or so tweet. That makes them pretty special, eh?
BONUS: We had Paper.li as a guest on Social Media Edge Radio back in November of 2009 You can download the show on iTunes http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/social-media-edge-blog-talk/id306416378# or stream it now at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/jckc/2010/11/09/social-media-edge
Do you have a Paper.li? How are you using it and why?
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- paper.li from @smallrivers and opinion soup (thekencook.com)
He's an avid hockey fan, rides a mountain bike, sometimes rides a road bike, has a few motorcycles (he had a really fast one, bought a cool orange one, rode a really slow one, and now,a perfect "BDR Weapon"). If that isn't enough, he makes cheese and sourdough bread, loves strong beer and good red wine, and poorly plays the Mandolin.
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