News is taking over the internet. Figures are constantly changing for how many tweets there are a second, how much information we both consume and produce that it's impossible to keep up. I'm not going to bother to put in a graphic - just follow the link to take you to Google and do a search for 'social media one minute' and grab an image that appeals to you! Of course, we don't know what 'news' means now either - your news isn't the same as my news, and they're both different to the national or international news. However, there are plenty of apps that allow you to define your own news in accordance with the people who you follow on Twitter and Facebook. The idea is that if you let the app(s) know who you are, and who you follow the app can take a look at the stories those contacts are writing or tweeting about, and can bring that information back to you. One of the implications of this is that when you're choosing people to follow on Twitter in particular, you want to make sure that they really do represent the section of your industry that interests you, or they work in the same area or have the same job or interests. That way your network can properly represent your interests and help to keep you fully informed.
Mention
With Mention you can monitor in real-time about anything on the web and social media. React quickly, collaborate and analyse your online presence.Twitter, Facebook and Instagram integrations let you reply and engage from your Mention dashboard. Mention can also monitor YouTube and Pinterest for you. As well as the apps, it does have a website that you can visit.
With Nuzzel you can see the news from your friends. They say of themselves "We created Nuzzel to solve the problems of social overload. You can use Nuzzel to discover the best news stories shared by your friends on Facebook and Twitter without being overwhelmed or missing anything." Nuzzel keeps track of what your friends are saying on Twitter and it will count to see how many times a link is shared by them. The more something is shared, the more popular and important it's regarded, and the more likely it is to be of interest to you. You can get a list of the top five stories sent to your email every morning (which is how I work) but you can also utilise the app as well.
Flipboard is another tool that allows you to find information that's of interest to you because it's of interest to your friends. It's in a magazine type format, allowing you to 'flip' from page to page. It collects content from social media networks and presents it back to you. You can train the software by liking or disliking the stories presented to you. In February 2015 the owners created a website https://flipboard.com/ and you can use the resources there as well as on your mobile device. It's a very quick and easy tool to use, as well as being very attractively put together.
Create an account for yourself on one of the three apps, and link it to your social media platforms, and try it out. Does it work for you? Does it find information that you might have otherwise missed? Does it save you time? Let other people know in the comments!
Community
Have you got any comments to make about either of the apps? Anything you'd like to share, or discuss? This is the place to do so. Please add in any of your comments below!
This is your Sidebar, which you can edit like any other page in your workspace.
This Sidebar appears everywhere on your workspace. Add to it whatever you like -- a navigation section, a link to your favorite web sites, or anything else.
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