RSS: Really Simple Strategy
Unless you’re like me and you’re posting like a fiend to get your assignment done for your master’s class on time, you may not have as much of an opportunity to post on your website or blog every day.
On the flip side, are you overrun with blogs and news sites you frequent? For example, I just perused the Advertising Age Power 150 Blogs, and thought my head would spin with so many resources.
In either of these cases, why not consider an RSS feed?
Say what? If you’re not familiar with the acronym, you’re not alone.
More likely, you’re probably familiar with the little orange button you’ll see all over cyberspace.
The RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. According to its entry in Wikipedia (more on that below), “RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format.”
Pushing Data Out
The internet is hungry for fresh content. One of the simplest ways to get traffic via RSS is to use a blog. Each time you update your blog, the RSS feed will give readers a sample of your content and a link to your blog for more information.
Blogs sites (such as WordPress) are fairly user friendly tools, and can be a quick way to publish RSS feeds. By categorizing your blog by date and topic, RSS directories can be used to promote your blog.
Streamlining Data In
What about the information overload from so many newsources and blogs? RSS feeds allow you to choose to get update notifications delivered directly to you through a news reader of your choice (Google, Yahoo and Microsoft all offer these services).
You then select the Web sites from which you want to receive information and the content will be delivered automatically to your RSS reader.
Either if you are a reader or a marketer, RSS offers an efficient means to build an effective means of two-way communication. Companies are using RSS for a variety of reasons, ranging from public relations to one-click product deals
For a brief tutorial on creating an RSS in plain English, here’s a great YouTube video:
A word about Wikipedia:
Wikipedia is the free online encyclopedia that is open to the public for editing. The site was launched in 2001 and has grown to include millions of articles in a variety of languanges. There are significant concerns about the quality information that has an open architecture for editing. However, Wikipedia has become one of the most popular resources, and is reported as being the eighth most-visited Web site in the United States.
With real time editing, Wikipedia does not have a formal review process. As a result, every article can be called as accurate as those who have taken the time to write or edit it. Although Wikipedia (and the growing number of individual “wikis” for specific topics) continus to grow, research from an extra source is always a good idea to get your facts straight.
