DaveBirchall.com on Business Technology

Posts Tagged ‘Online Marketing’

Chances are (if you use the web) you have see the letters RSS splattered across the internet, but there is a supringly small amount of users actually using RSS. The last stat I heard said that fewer than 15% of internet users subscribed to feeds.

So if you don’t know what RSS is then your not alone and this may be your chance to do something different in your field that can make a big difference. RSS is based on XML and makes the transfer of information from one internet site to another easier.

For example, if a web page was regularly updated and you throught the information was useful, you could subscribe to the feed by clicking the RSS button. You simply need a feed reader or a piece of software with RSS built in to it… Here are some examples.

Outlook 2007

I am a new convert to Outlookand I see RSS is included as standard. This could be particularly useful if you like infomation to appear in the same environment as incoming mail and tasks.

Internet Explorer

The latest release has a RSS reader built in too. Click the star icon and find it between you favourite and your history listings

Google Reader

This is my preferred choice because I am usually signed into my account using my google apps and I can access the same feeds from any machine with out having to think too hard. As your would expect from google its free

click http://reader.google.com for more info.

So now you have a reader you just need to subscribe to the feed. There’s one at the top right corner of the page to practice on. As a worse case scenario, you may need to copy and paste the URL into your chosen reader.

Get it? Good!

So what can RSS do for your business?

Well think of it like this. If people can subscribe to your site you have the power to broadcast the content of your site immeasurably. Your content can form part of other peoples blogs, social networks and mash ups across the webiverse!

Remember the case of Corey the party goer who’s party got out of control? RSS feeds broadcast his invitation many times over without him knowing. If he were an online marketer he would be heralded a genius! So if you can master RSS your can reach a new audience in ways you never thought possible.

Not only that but as RSS becomes more popular you can appeal to an ‘opt in’ audience where email has become tired and less effective.

Enjoy!