RSS for Marketers: Tips and Tricks

September 15, 2008

What the Heck is RSS?

RSS is merely a means to kind of transport data across the web just like HTTP works with browsers to publish and receive HTML pages. It’s more or less the same thing.

I first answered this question on the Entrepreneur Magazine eBiz Show and find it’s still a useful, simple way to put it:

“RSS is actually a family of Web ‘feed’ formats and the letters stand for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary… but that’s fairly irrelevant. RSS feeds are essentially streams of data. They’re specified in XML which is the extensible markup language. XML is simply kind of a schema that describes the data inside a feed.

What’s important here is that XML has become kind of a bit of a standard and I always tell people that it’s best to think of RSS as a sort of ‘Internet plumbing system’ and XML is just kind of a standard way to transmit and receive data through those pipes. And I say plumbing because RSS is merely a means to kind of transport data across the web just like HTTP works with browsers to publish and receive HTML pages. It’s more or less the same thing.”

Links:
Full interview transcript on how marketers can use RSS.
Listen to the interview on how marketers can use RSS.

C’mon, Jeff… Who’s the ‘RSS for Marketers’ Guru?

Ok, ok… so it’s not me. The hands down leading expert on RSS for marketers is Rok Hrastnik, a good friend. I’ve not yet published the audio interview but if you subscribe to my RSS feed!!! you’ll be alerted to its availability. You can also subscribe via email of course (see right column).

BUT here’s the full, unedited transcript of Rok spilling the beans on how to apply RSS throughout the organization / enterprise including marketing disciplines. It’s all material contained in his new, yet-to-be-released book (he’s already written the first book on RSS for marketers!).

Where Can I Get a Good List of RSS Tools?

Here’s one of the best, most comprehensive lists of RSS tools, by category, that can be found today. Thanks to Christina Laun! As an example, here are some categories.

Readers: Read your RSS feeds through these helpful programs.
Personalized Homepages (like iGoogle): Make an RSS feed part of your homepage by checking out these great applications.
Browser Extensions: These extensions can help prime your browser to work easily with RSS.
Blog Tools and Plugins: Those putting RSS feeds out there for their blogs can get the most out of these tools.
RSS Directories: Find every kind of RSS feed you could be interested in with these directories.
Mobile Tools: These tools allow you to take RSS on the go with you no matter where you are.
RSS Email Tools: Combine the power of RSS with email using these tools.
Feed Validators: RSS Feed Editors
… and more!

How Has RSS Changed Your Life, Jeff?

Well, the good news is that it has. Not like having my son, Nolan, of course but it has added to my ability to spend more time with him while commuting to the office. It’s simple, I use Viigo to read all of my most important news, information and entertainment feeds — everything I read on a daily basis. It’s all done on my Blackberry. No more scanning all those piles of email newsletters. What a feeling it was to un-subscribe from ALL the newsletters — replacing with RSS feeds on Viigo. If I see an item that’s worthy of my attention I simply email it to myself or my colleagues in a click!