Five Easy Ways to Use RSS
As a business professional, there’s no doubt you’ve seen little orange buttons with a broadcast signal icon or the word “XML” popping up all over the Web. When you click on these buttons, you’ll see a bunch of computer code. Ever wonder what that’s all about? It’s an RSS feed, and it’s changing the way people access the Internet. It’s also redefining the way companies reach their customers online.
RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is a way of delivering or “syndicating” content from your company’s Web site and of retrieving it over the Internet via an RSS reader. These readers pull in “feeds” from the sites you are tracking and notify you when new information is in. Instead of wasting time visiting sites to see what has been added, RSS readers do the work for you and then report on the new content. The technology’s simplicity, ease-of-use and real-time response make RSS a highly attractive way to receive news.
Externally, RSS feeds allow readers to pull in information from their favorite news sources or competitive sites, track news as it is breaking or deliver your news to a great many sites. News readers, or RSS aware programs known as news aggregators allow readers to track competitive intelligence, alert companies when there is mention of their products, allow readers to keep abreast of important breaking information.
Used effectively, RSS can be a powerful marketing tool. By placing RSS feeds on your Web site, your customers or prospects can keep up with your latest press releases or company blogs. RSS feeds can also be used as advertising vehicles. RSS also has the hidden value of improving a company’s online presence and its ability to be found in search engines.
Almost any Web-based content – text, photos, video, audio files, even content from other Web sites – can be transformed into an RSS feed. The only real requirement is that the information changes regularly (this triggers the feed to send content to subscribers).
Wondering how you can use RSS right now on your business Web site? Check out these practical examples of RSS at work.
- Present News Headlines. The most common use of RSS is to present headlines and a short introduction to “newsy” stories. Create an RSS feed on your site featuring your company press releases and Web site updates.
- Promote Upcoming Events. RSS is a great way to let people know about events and activities that will be happening soon. It’s easy to turn an “events” page into an RSS feed.
- Post Commentary. Set up a blog where you regularly add your thoughts to on all sorts of issues – or just one issue – with the most recent post at the top of the page. Include these items in an RSS feed, and you’ve got a whole new audience for your pearls of wisdom. Check out how we’ve put RSS to use on our employee blogs.
- Publish Articles & E-Newsletters. Share your industry knowledge. This is a more “formal” type of writing, where you write a series of articles on a specific topic. Add a new article on that topic every week or so. Set up several topics and you’ve got several new RSS feeds to attract even more interest in what you know. If you regularly produce an e-mail newsletter, then consider converting it to RSS format as well as e-mailing it.
- Push New Products. Have an online store with new inventory added regularly? Add details about your new items to an RSS feed to let people know what’s just come in. Do you regularly make special offers on different products in your inventory? Again, RSS is a great way to tell people what’s on special this week or this month.
RSS feeds and readers allow your company to deliver media rich messages that make content more attractive and powerful. And they’re inexpensive and easy to deploy. Ready to touch your customers and reach out to prospective customers with RSS? Contact the online marketing experts at Softwyre today to get started.
