What is RSS? And why is it useful?
RSS
In short RSS delivers information to you and enables you to disseminate your information to others. Although Twitter is getting a lot of publicity, I recommend that if you really want to get to grips with social media marketing you should at least experiment with RSS feeds.
Benefits of using RSS
- It delivers specific information (e.g blog posts and news headlines and specific sections of newspapers)
- Information can also be read offline on for example an iPod Touch or on an iPhone if there is no signal
- Easily stay up to date on topics of interest
- Saves time as you only need to read relevant information (have a read of Stuart Bruce’s post on feeds)
- Avoid advertising (mostly)
- Enables readers/customers to follow your information (e.g. by subscribing to your press releases). It supplements other news distribution methods.
How I use RSS
Initially I started using RSS on my laptop. For example I subscribe to the digital media section of The Guardian. To do this click on the RSS icon and then subscribe to the feed. The section will then be available in your “Favourites” in “Feeds”.
Next I started using RSS on my iPod Touch by downloading the free RSS Reader from the App Store. I then manually input the feed urls of the feeds to which I wished to subscribe. I update the news feeds on daily basis simply by pressing the refresh button when I am either at home (I have a wireless router) or in a Wi-Fi zone. I can then read all the newspaper articles and feeds to which I have subscribed on my way to work. There are several other RSS reader programmes such as Bloglines which you can use to access RSS feeds.
How you could use RSS
- Add an RSS option to your press release page. Take a look at how Merton Council has done this.
- Follow relevant industry news or competitors’ news by subscribing to their feeds.
- If you have a blog or are considering setting one up add an RSS widget to your page so that people can keep up to date with your news.
RSS is only used by a small percentage of people, but if you wish to appeal to early adopters, bloggers, journalists or web savvy audiences you could benefit by providing an RSS tool on your blog or website. See for example the icon on the top left hand section of my blog.
Finally this short video produced by Commoncraft explains “RSS in Plain English“.
