3 Things to Keep In Mind When Using RSS For Business
by Yolandi on 23/10/09 at 2:00 pm
No comments
Firstly, what is RSS? Basically RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is used to publish frequently updated content such as blog posts or news headlines in a standardized format. RSS content is published as a feed which is regularly and automatically updated with new content.
To understand using RSS for your business you need to look at it from your reader’s perspective first: As a reader of your website RSS saves me so much time. I can now get my information delivered to me from my favourite websites, saving me all the fuss of visiting the websites to check for new posts. All I have to do is decide what I want to read and delete the rest. I can also share the posts that I like with my friends on Twitter and Facebook. And the best part of it all … I get to stay anonymous!
So, for you as the publisher you need to keep 3 things in mind:
1. Creating RSS for your site as a publisher
If you are using Wordpress or Blogger you don’t have to worry about this too much. The advantage of blogs is that RSS is built in automatically. If you’re not using a blog, this task becomes a bit more complicated. You should speak to your developer about building RSS into your site. Here are some links to help you get started:
http://www.labnol.org/internet/create-rss-feed-for-websites/5470/
http://www.2createawebsite.com/traffic/create-rss-feeds.html
http://www.petefreitag.com/item/465.cfm
When offering RSS feeds it is important to offer full text feeds. Don’t worry about people reading your posts through their feed reader and not visiting your site, it’s not really an issue. Readers still visit your site to comment on posts and check out your set up. The problem with only offering partial feeds is that people might unsubscribe. Make it as easy as possible for them to read your content – it may sound too simple but it’s really important. If you are still worried about people reading your content and not visiting your site then you can add links in your posts that refer to other posts on your website. This would ensure that people are still exposed to your site and older posts.
2. Reading RSS feeds as a reader
An RSS reader is what enables you to read feeds from other sites. There are quite a lot of RSS readers to use such as Outlook, FeedDemon, GoogleReader and Bloglines. It’s a good idea for you to have a RSS reader as a publisher as well because you can spread your content through it. Readers will keep you up to date with blogs or website you like to follow.
Some RSS readers such as GoogleReader have the option to give its users the ability to ‘share’ posts on other social media sites like Facebook and Twitter automatically. This is known as autoposting. This is a very new development and will be covered in future posts.
3. Spread your presence on the Internet
You can also add RSS of other sites to your own. To see how this is done just visit my blog Autofemme.com and you’ll see an RSS of SACarFan in the side bar. Why do this? Well, this will generate traffic to the other site yes, but it will also add reader value on your own site. Perhaps you have a company website and some blogs on the side. Then you can add RSS’ of the blogs on your website and vice versa. You can also add your RSS on your Facebook profile. Encourage other websites to add your RSS on their sites as well.
You need to look at this holistically. RSS is just another way of spreading your content and increasing your presence online. Think of it as similar to posting your content on Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn. The more channels you make available for people to read your content, the more it will spread. So, after you’ve set yourself up a RSS that suits your needs, go and encourage people to subscribe to it. Do this constantly and you’ll notice the changes sooner than you think!
Yolandi Janse van Rensburg writes about social media, marketing, life and, of course, cars. We say “of course” because Yolandi is nuts about anything on 4 wheels. Besides moonlighting as the Heavy Chef girl at World Wide Creative, Yolandi runs Autofemme, a blog about cars, as a business on the side. View more articles by Yolandi.
Tags: Twitter
