Often, managers and team leaders rely on their employees to stay in the know with industry news and future trends. And questions about keeping up to date with the latest news areroutinely asked to applicants in job interviews, too.
But how does your company support that approach?
Many companies have Sharepoint, Yammer, Slack, and other social intranet tools where they can share company news and blog posts. And your company must be active on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or LinkedIn, and those social media feeds can be embedded on websites, internal applications, and digital displays, too.
However, typically those examples only cover internal communication and your organisation’s content.
To make it easy for employees to follow the latest industry news and trends, you need a news aggregator app.
What is a news aggregator app?
A news aggregatorhelps you combine news feeds from multiple sources in one place. Those sources include popular websites, blogs, podcasts, and even social media feeds.
When searching for news aggregator tools, you’ll typically find a massive list of news aggregation websites.
Here, I thought I’d help you out, and I curated a list of appsthat your team members can use on their own and toolsthat help you build a news aggregator app for your company.
Here are the5 best news aggregator apps that your marketing team should know about:
- Google News
- Feedly
- Flockler
1. Google News
When listing news aggregator apps, it has to start with Google News. This app makes it easy to follow the news and stories you are interested in. It automatically shows news feeds based on your browsing and search history – and also personalises the feed even further with the help of your feedback via thumbs up and down buttons.
But what makes it really interesting for your company is that users can set their own sources, topics, and even local stories to follow. Google News is available via browser and downloadable apps on both iOS and Android, making it easy to access the curated list of industry news sources and topic feeds from anywhere.
How to get started with Google News:
- Create instructions on how to follow topics, sources, and local news.
- Maintain a list of interesting news sites, blogs, and topics to follow. It will help new team members get started.
2. Feedly
Whereas Google News relies on automation and their curated list of sources, Feedly allows you to create a fully custom mix of sources and add your favourite RSS feeds, too.
It is an excellent option for those looking to add a mix of news feeds and make it easy for team members to follow topics and share insights with others. In addition, the enterprise version has integrations to tools like Zapier and IFTTT, allowing your team members to push the curated articles automatically to third-party services like Flockler.
How to get started with Feedly:
- Set up feeds for your team to monitor.
- Create broader topics for your team to follow.
- Curate the best content weekly and send it out as a newsletter.
3. Flockler
If you are looking to take a step further and create a news aggregator website for your team, then a social media aggregator like Flockler comes in handy.
With Flockler, you can gather news sources and social media feeds in one place and categorise your feeds based on keywords and tags. For example, curate a list of RSS feeds and show them together with some of the best X (formerly Twitter) accounts and hashtag feeds. After setting up your feeds, new content is updated automatically, and you can use Flockler’s moderation tools to hide unwanted posts.
You can then embed your aggregated feeds on websites, apps, and digital screens. Based on the categorisation, you can create filtered views and show topic feeds in the right context, too.
How to get started with Flockler:
- Create a list of relevant sources and embed RSS feeds on websites, apps, and digital screens.
- Then, add X (formerly Twitter) and other social media accounts that you trust. You can also decide to filter their content by a hashtag or keyword.
- Optionally, choose a hashtag for your team to use and allow any team member to send curated articles to your news aggregator site.
4. Reddit
Especially if you are working for a B2C company, your team can’t ignore Reddit. Reddit helps you find emerging trends and market insights.
I’ll admit the service might feel a bit too much when first logging in, but start by following topics and communities relevant to your business. Reddit’s posts can be commented on, upvoted, and shared across the web, making it a genuinely social news aggregator. The service helps your company monitor and spot trends and participate in discussions to get authentic feedback.
How to get started with Reddit:
- Maintain a list of curated topics and communities to follow.
- Add Reddit feeds to news aggregator apps like Flockler and curate the best posts to show on websites, apps, and digital screens. I highly recommend moderation, though!
5. Pocket
Pocket is a useful read-it-later service. If you haven’t got Feedly or Google News in use, Pocket can help your employees to save content on the go and share interesting articles with others.
Also, it gives your team members a chance to create a personal archive of must-read content, highlight and tag content, and make all content fully searchable. The app can be handy if your team members need access to a personalised library of internal and external help documents or shareable marketing materials.
For personal use and news consumption, one of the great features of Pocket is the audio playback option, allowing you to listen to your favourite articles on the go.
How to get started with Pocket:
- If your employees benefit from a personalised content library, consider making the premium version one of the company perks.
- Create instructions on how to save content to Pocket via browser, iOS, and Android.
