 Is your information getting lost on the World Wide Web? Think about it: does anyone surf the Internet anymore? Do you? Most users establish a routine for their online time: checking email, catching up on the latest industry trends and other day-to-day tasks. It is easy for your content to get lost or worse yet, never seen.
Many companies count on potential customers to engage in a Finding Nemo-like quest to find them through search engines, believing in the philosophy that "if they build it, they will come." Others faithfully distribute content by e-mail, which is also becoming a colossally difficult task due to tougher spam filters and frequently changing e-mail addresses (which create a never-ending maintenance nightmare to boot). A new tool can help transform a business' online presence from being isolated and adrift at sea into a connected, fast-moving trade route.
"RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is a new way to broadcast corporate news and structured information. RSS offers a quick, easy corporate communication channel. The RSS contents are published as a feed and the feed's content keep customers, partners and journalists abreast of corporate news and information," according to RSS-Specifications.com.
This technology is already used by the majority of the most reputable media sites, by a satisfactory number of corporations and by almost all bloggers (Web 2.0 terminology for publishers of web logs).
RSS content can be viewed by anyone with an RSS reader, which is already built into several web browsers (Firefox and Opera, plus the new Internet Explorer 7 this fall), in separate RSS reader software, in plug-ins for Outlook and other email clients, and through web-based readers (an RSS-equivalent to what Gmail or Yahoo Mail is to email).
In addition, RSS content can be delivered to other websites; such as search engines, specialized RSS directories, special content aggregation sites and other sites.
There are several advantages to publishing content with RSS:
* Added value - RSS easily complements most sites and e-marketing to build a relationship with a targeted audience, who want information from you.
* Timeliness - Subscribers get updates as they are published, not on the date a newsletter is due.
* Versatility - RSS can be used to communicate information directly to employees; track your competition; distribute press releases and product notices to media and consumers; and to distribute PDF documents, PowerPoint presentations, video, audio, images & downloads.
* Privacy - Subscribers never have to provide their personal information and it is not susceptible to spam because the source of each feed is known.
RSS is being revolutionized by businesses that are pioneering this communications medium. It has the potential to do more than just deliver monthly newsletter content; RSS is being adapted for many innovative internal and external corporate communications purposes.
As an integrated component in the communications mix, the power of RSS is that it is perhaps the most effective way to leverage the reach of the Internet to put the right information in the right hands at the right time.
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