RSS via Twitter

I use Twitter for micro-blogging. I also like getting updates from random sources like my wife, witty friends, cnn, the white house, web developers and even Darth Vader. Ideally I would like to also receive certain RSS feeds in my Twitterrific/EventBox window but this functionality is not offered by Twitter yet. Luckily, twitterfeed.com is up to the task. Here’s a short guide on how to do RSS via Twitter.

Step 1: Set up an secondary Twitter account

Go to twitter.com and create a new account where you will be posting your RSS entries. In my case, I created an account with username melvitaxfeeds, named it My Feeds and set the posts as protected. There is no point in making this account public since this account is more like an RSS aggregator. Go to Settings > Picture and set the avatar to the RSS icon, this will help you recognize it as an RSS post when u see it in the timeline.

Step 2: Follow The New Twitter Account

Now you need to log in to your regular Twitter account and follow your feeds account. In my case, my main account melvitax is subscribed to the twits from my newly created melvitaxfeeds account.

Step 3: Set Up TwitterFeed

Log on twitterfeed.com and create a new feed. They support OpenID so I was able to log on with my Yahoo account. In the Add Feed form, enter your login info for your secondary feeds Twitter account. In my case, the melvitaxfeeds account. Then enter the URL of the RSS feed you would like to subscribe to. I am on the market for a used Mac Mini so I am subscribing to a Craigslist feed for any posts regarding the Mac Mini. Finish the form according to your liking and give it some time for it to do it’s thing. In my set up, TwitterFeed checks the RSS feed every half hour and will post up to 5 posts on the melvitaxfeeds Twitter account. If I decide to follow more feeds I can set the option for the Prefix so that I can tell what it is. For now I only have one feed so it’s no big deal.

Once set up these RSS feed entries will show up as twits wherever you do Twitter. Perhaps one day this will be a built in feature, but in the meantime… thank you TwitterFeed.