The Decline Agenda

The technology behind paper.li is impressive but more important is how it harnesses your Twitter followers, lists and hashtags to create something of  low key beauty on your screen.  

So many newspapers but not enough readers is a problem for Paper.li as more of these daily papers appear.  Paper.li may indeed be a fad but it does underline the power of Twitter as creator of conent.  In a sense paper.li is akin to a content management system that works seamlessly.  Fair enough you are limited and have little control over what appears in your paper these are determined by the quality of links  posted by your followers or Twitter list.

So how should you use Paper.li

Followers, lists or hastags?

• For the risk averse I think list of Twitter followers grouped together by a common subject they Tweet about is a good idea.  The content generated onto your ‘Daily’ will be more targeted.

• If you have a large amount of Followers this will create a Paper.li that is less focused.

• Using a hashtag poses I think the greatest threat as links appearing on these tweets could generate content on your ‘Daily’ that you wish never appeared.

How to use your Paper.li daily?

At first the thrill of seeing your Daily for the first time makes you want to share it with your Twitter followers.  However another way to use your ‘Daily’ is to cast an eye over it once a day as a web listening exercise.  This way your ‘Daily’ is a like a dashboard where you can check out what your valued followers are posting. 

Of course if you are an organisation care needs I think to be taken around what appears in your ‘Daily’.  For an organisation the most prudent course of action is to base your ‘Daily’ on Twitter list of trusted followers.  Take a look at your organisation’s ‘Daily’ and like an editor ask yourself does it look good?  would others be interested?  if the answer is yes then promote the paper.  Your ‘Daily’ will update in about twenty three hours so you can check again maybe the next one will be worth promoting.