Chapter 9. RSS Technology: A Really Simple Tool to Broaden Your Reach

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) technology is as easy as it sounds. According to Wikipedia, RSS is "a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines, or podcasts." RSS feeds enable online audiences to keep up-to-date with content from their favorite Web sites in an automated manner that removes the task of checking a Web site daily for new content.

As a result, more and more consumers are opting to receive their news and information through a news or media Web site or a portal (Yahoo!, AOL, MSN). RSS is a great way to receive an abundance of information, on a range of topics, which can be easily organized and reviewed. RSS is also the best way to stay current (in some cases up to the minute) because it gives consumers timely information and keeps them "in the know." When you decide to set up an RSS feed for your brand, you're choosing a direct-to-consumer approach—an effective and straightforward means to reach the public, different from older PR practices that typically go second-hand through the media (the influencer) to distribute news to customers.

The benefits of RSS feeds are unmatched. To put this into perspective, think about how much time each day you spend weeding through interesting and sometimes not so interesting content in your e-mail box. You probably have the same amount of time to visit all your favorite news and information portals to read about what's going on in your industry (or to stay abreast of the world around you). Very little time indeed. If you have an overwhelming sense of information overload, you are not alone and certainly can apply this same scenario to what your audience experiences.

You Can Cut Through the Clutter

RSS is an excellent way to reach your audience during the course of their busy and information-saturated lives. Without RSS, your brand's audience might be missing out on important information they are not able to access; whether it's from a lack of time or because your important announcements were intercepted by an overzealous spam filter and never made it to your customer's inbox. RSS feeds help to alleviate these concerns with a mode of communication that offers the ability to go beyond e-mail, e-newsletters, and HTML blasts. With RSS, you enable your audience to select and receive information about your company.

In this chapter, through perspectives offered by various professionals, you will come to understand that RSS is a powerful tool. As such, it should be included in your marketing arsenal. Keep in mind that RSS is:

• Spam free—your customers choose to receive it and you don't have to worry about spam filters that deter messages from reaching them.
• A communication tool that enables you to update, target, and control the frequency of your brand messaging.
• An excellent resource for companies that have readily available content and are willing to share a great deal of information with their audiences.
• Available to companies who have smaller budgets.
• A means to reach your customers directly and to drive traffic to content on your Web site.
• A tool that enables you to extend your branding—brand messages can be top of mind through an RSS feed.
• Measurable through the use of monitoring impressions, click-through rates (CTR), and Cost Per Measurement (CPM).

Increase Your Marketing Arsenal

If you are willing to spice up your marketing arsenal by including RSS feeds, you don't have to be a PR 2.0 guru to get the job done. The first step is making sure you have enough content on a regular basis. Next, you need to set up your content or RSS document in Extensive Markup Language (XML). To create an RSS feed by hand would be a tedious task and require some knowledge of XML and the RSS protocol. So, one option is to use an RSS feed creation program like ListGarden (www.softwaregarden.com), or FeedForAll (www.feedforall.com). With these programs you simply input the title of your announcement, the URL where it resides, and a short description that will be seen on the feed. Once you have put in this information, the software generates the RSS feed, which you then place on your Web site for users to subscribe to your program.

The best and most common method of implementing RSS is to use a Blogger or Content Management Software (CMS), one that uses RSS. These products do all the work for you. You create a post on the Web site and the software automatically updates your RSS feed. All the major blogging and CMS products support RSS; examples include TypePad (www.typepad.com), Wordpress (www.wordpress.com), Blogger (blogger.com), PostNuke (www.postnuke.com), and Drupal (www.drupal.org).

To view an RSS feed, you need software called a "feed reader" or "aggregator." You subscribe to a feed by entering the feed's link into the reader or by clicking an RSS icon on your browser, which initiates the subscription. The reader checks the feeds regularly for new contact and downloads any updates that it finds. Most major e-mail products now have feed readers, as well as most Internet portals.

Many companies have set up their own feeds, including IDC, Macromedia, and Deloitte & Touche, to name a few. But remember, as you familiarize yourself with RSS and learn more about the technology, you need to keep in mind that RSS is available only if there's a customer base that wants to receive the information. It makes sense that many of the larger companies were among the first to develop RSS feeds and to build to a customer base. A good example of a company that has instituted RSS distribution early on is Deloitte & Touche, which has an extensive RSS program.

Bill Barrett is the global and U.S. marketing director for Deloitte's Web site, www.Deloitte.com. He leads teams of marketing and communications professionals who develop and deliver various aspects of online marketing campaigns designed to drive market growth, build awareness, and strengthen strategic relationships with clients, prospects, and influencers. Since joining Deloitte in 1999, Barrett has focused on developing the Internet marketing channel, which serves as the hub for many of Deloitte's integrated marketing programs. Prior to joining Deloitte, Barrett held strategic marketing communications and information technology roles at companies such as Compaq Computer, JP Morgan, and Nestle Foods.

Barrett, who has been with Deloitte for approximately eight years, discussed the company's most popular RSS feeds which include (http://feeds.feedburner.com/DeloitteGlobal), Deloitte US (http://feeds.feedburner.com/DeloitteUS), and Deloitte Insights podcast (http://feeds.feedburner.com/DeloitteInsights). He attributes the RSS popularity to the real-time updates on latest information. These feeds are all syndicated via Feedburner, so that aggregators, blogs, and portals can pick them up.

According to Barrett, the benefits of using RSS feeds to an organization are the low-cost content distribution, and syndication of content to other sites, which leads to more exposure for a company. In addition, the end user isn't spammed as with e-mail. They can receive what they want and consume via their own browsers (no plug-ins or anything of that nature), IE7, Firefox, Safari, or leverage popular feed readers such as Google, Yahoo!, and the like. "RSS is a useful addition to a company's marketing arsenal as it extends your content beyond your own Web site. You receive more impressions and it's easy to manage and update, all at a minimal cost," Barrett explained. He added, "RSS feeds also help companies to build better awareness. If managed properly, just like your own site's content, the feed needs to provide content that appeals to the audience. With RSS, users control the information flow. Therefore, if your content provides them with little or no value, they'll turn you off."

With respect to increasing traffic to your Web site, Barrett believes that the nature of RSS certainly has that potential. Because your feed items link back to your site for full stories, video or audio content, and so on, appealing topics that are clicked-through can certainly increase site traffic. The syndication and viral nature of RSS feeds can open up content to new audiences that normally might not visit your site. For example, the Deloitte Insights podcasts have been picked up by many podcast aggregation sites, and they've also been picked up by university professors and used as course content for their programs. Professors finding this content off the Deloitte main Web site on their own is unlikely. Apple's iTunes store (to which Deloitte syndicates its podcast feeds) gave them that extension into the marketplace.

Deloitte measures the traffic from an RSS feed in several ways: Web site analytics (downloads and page visits) as well as Google's (newly acquired) Feedburner product that provides subscriber numbers, reach, and the like. Since the start of Deloitte's RSS program, the feedback from online visitors has been slow. Barrett feels that RSS is still a bit of an unknown to most of the firm's site visitors. The adoption of RSS has been slow, and in some cases users aren't even aware they are using RSS (iTunes, portals, and so on). Barrett expects that with IE7 and its built-in RSS reading capabilities, RSS will become more popular and they'll see a greater adoption rate. After all, he commented, "I don't see RSS as just a tech fad. I see it as the future for distributing content across sites (present in some cases). The biggest challenge, I think, is making it easier for users to leverage, as well as educating them as to what it is and its value to them."

What It Means to Be in Charge

If you are the communications professional in charge of brand communication, your responsibility extends far beyond understanding initial setup of an RSS feed program. RSS has a few different meanings for you. The technology might be the next logical step in the way a brand distributes its news announcements directly to its stakeholders. However, it's also a method, similar to the SMR, which is direct-to-consumer. Many PR service providers (Business Wire, MarketWire, PR Newswire, and PRWeb) caught on quickly by providing companies and marketing/PR agencies the ability to have RSS feeds through their sites in addition to the traditional PR newswire services. Suddenly, the ability to reach a targeted customer base without the need to go through the media was present and easily accessible. However, this new direct-to-consumer process is different for the communications professional. The change in distribution makes some PR professionals feel uncomfortable, once again, because you are bypassing the media or an important third-party endorser. Suddenly, you're no longer selling the credible third-party endorsement as a part of your PR tangibles.

With RSS, no journalist is writing about your brand, saying why it's so great or supporting your brand's cause with written or spoken word. Because consumers are continually seeking and demanding more information from their brands, you can't fight what your customer wants in an information-saturated world. If customers need to have as much information as possible, at all times, RSS (although you are bypassing the "typical" influencer) should be considered an important part of your communications planning. After all, your customer is still receiving newsworthy information that comes directly from your brand. The basics of public relations are credible and newsworthy information, which should make you feel more comfortable about a new social media tool that broadens your distribution.

The Pros Take a Stance

Hearing what other professionals are saying about their use of RSS technology is reassuring. Michael G. Schneider is Vice President of Public Relations for Success Communications Group (www.successcommgroup.com), a $60 million national public relations, recruitment marketing, traditional advertising, association management, and Web development/interactive agency in New Jersey. Schneider had a great to deal to say about the value of RSS feeds for his communications clients.

Schneider recalls when RSS-enabled news kits started to become commonplace in 2004. He envisions this as the standard, not the exception, across the industry within the next five years. To Schneider, the ongoing challenge of making client messages more visible, digestible, and user-friendly, coupled with the simultaneous explosion of Web sites, e-newsletters, weblogs, and traditional news outlets putting more and more content online, made RSS a helpful tool in keeping pace with information in an automated manner. "The days of checking sites manually, scanning a few major daily newspapers, and chatting around the water cooler about last night's news as a way of staying informed has gone by the wayside," recalled Schneider.

Schneider discussed how RSS is not just useful in receiving information. Ever since his agency started producing more robust online news kits that enabled them to upload photographs, video, and content from both in the office and out in the field, they have constantly been looking for ways to make their clients message more "media friendly." Putting news kit information in RSS formats is just one of the tools that Success Communications Group has embraced to help accomplish this.

According to Schneider, RSS is relevant and can add real value across all industries and client types (nonprofit, corporate, governmental, associations, and the like). All subjects and interest areas can be broken into syndicated RSS-enabled information. After information is in RSS format, an RSS-aware program called news aggregators can pick up your information. Conversely, RSS enables any special interest group, advocacy organization, or company to "keep tabs" on a greater amount of information in a much more efficient manner.

Schneider discussed the other benefits of RSS feeds for his clients. "Speed and efficiency!" he stated emphatically, "Speed and efficiency!" When he began his career years ago, he worked in the corporate public relations department of a Fortune 500 company that would create a daily report of news coverage, what competitors were saying about issues and topics, and other news of corporate interest. This was pre-RSS. The process of generating these reports was time consuming and the information was old by lunch. "Today, RSS solves the problem for companies that regularly use the Web as a resource for information. They can easily stay informed by retrieving the latest news and information from sites and blogs that they are interested in. This is a big time saver," he explained. Scheider also mentioned another bonus of RSS: You can maintain your privacy by joining e-mail newsletters without providing your name and contact information. The number of sites offering RSS feeds is growing rapidly and includes big names like Yahoo! News, The New York Times, USA Today, and more.

Schneider believes that RSS feeds should be viewed as another tool that communicators can consider when disseminating information. If broad information dissemination to the media and direct to the public is your goal, creating an RSS-enabled news kit is something that might help get the word out. However, although Schneider places a great deal of value on RSS feeds, he stated, "I don't consider it the Holy Grail of awareness building and overall communication. Wire dissemination services are also useful. Today news releases are being keyword optimized to be more visible to Web search engines like Google and Yahoo! Many technological advances are taking place within the field of communication. RSS is but one arrow in the quiver of professional communicators."

For Schneider, technology is only part of this equation. He stressed how communications professionals need to remember that the content and quality of your message is really the key element. The old adage "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink" is something that he thinks about with regard to information technology. Companies, causes, and associations can do a lot to lead customers, supporters, and others to their Web site, but the relevance of their message, product, and information will ultimately keep them engaged, make a sale, or complete a call to action.

With respect to third-party influencers, Schneider realizes they can add a lot of credibility to your message. They can also disagree, not cover, or misinterpret your message. Moreover, it is becoming increasingly difficult today to determine who the third-party influencers are. "Citizen journalists, new media sites like Rocketboom.com, large national blogs, and e-newsletters can have larger audiences than many traditional news outlets. With this explosion of media, there's the ability to reach out directly to the public with your message. RSS-enabled news releases, news kits, and other media tools are one method of doing this," stressed Schneider.

According to Schneider, RSS is also not the only direct-to-the-public method that communication professionals are paying attention to. Social networking platforms such as YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook have created environments where messages can go direct to the public in mass capacity. Schneider explained, "Then once your message gets a foothold in these environments they can spread via viral marketing. RSS, social networking platforms, and other new communication methods make this a really exciting time in the communication field."

Last, Scheider discussed how many large, traditional media outlets have embraced RSS. The New York Times, USA Today, and others have RSS enabled Web sites. "With more and more information and news options offered today, RSS enables information to be tracked, shared, and collected in a method that is very efficient. Will RSS be replaced with something else? Perhaps, but the basic concept of what RSS offers is something that is here to stay," claimed Schneider.

Communications professionals who use RSS feeds daily see the value and endorse the social media tool. David Walton, Assistant VP of Marketing at JVC, is an Early Adopter of technology. He began experimenting with RSS and viewing feeds in 2004, then finally implemented them on his Web site in 2006. Walton uses RSS to keep track of everything from breaking news to the Netflix movies being sent to his home.

When asked how he felt about RSS as a useful addition to a company's marketing arsenal, Walton responded, "With major Internet portals integrating RSS viewing capability into their news pages, RSS can be a valuable tool to keep interested parties up-to-date about a firm's activities provided that it isn't turned into an advertising mechanism. News must be current and relevant. Headlines must be attention-getting, and most importantly must not have a commercial 'look.' If the RSS headline begins to look like an advertisement, it will likely be deleted—permanently."

With respect to Walton's company, JVC, they currently are providing RSS feeds for technical support information. Engineers and 'techies' have been the first to appreciate the RSS feeds. Walton explains, "I have the most recent questions posted to our FAQ site appearing at the top of my Yahoo! home page. Another division of our company has just started offering RSS feeds of news releases." Walton believes that although there is a tremendous interest in RSS, he doesn't think many magazine writers and editors will be interested in receiving the feeds on the JVC site. However, their dealers and resellers might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for their own Web sites. Additionally, special-interest Web sites might use the feeds as an automated way to provide content. Walton stressed that if the material being fed is newsworthy and interesting, it will get republished.

Overall, Walton relies on RSS feeds to help him get the information he is most interested in receiving. "It is not a substitute for trade publications, newsletters, or Doppler radar. But, it can tell me what movies will be waiting in my mailbox when I get home," he explained. For Walton, RSS is not a tech fad. In his words, "No more so than the Internet, WWW, or e-mail, RSS is a simple, but effective tool that can put tremendous publishing power into anyone's hands. It's also a cool way to have a truly customized Web browser."

A Publisher's Point of View

Today, RSS is an integral part of our favorite media choices, from Yahoo! and MSN to online publications, including CNET, Broadcasting & Cable, and InformationWeek. You might remember that several years ago it was difficult to find the media outlets that enabled companies to sign up for RSS distribution. And once you did find the outlets that provided the feeds, it was almost impossible to find a live person to discuss how the feed worked for your client or what type of opportunities existed. Not anymore—RSS technology icons are popping up on both consumer and professional Web sites.

Reed Business Information (RBI) makes it easy for their Web site readers to find and take advantage of their RSS feeds. RBI provides business-to-business information in the form of printed magazines and online Web sites. The company has more than 75 brands across multiple industries, including entertainment, television, engineering, construction, manufacturing, publishing, printing, gifts and furnishings, and hospitality. Jennifer Wilhelmi is the Director of Online Marketing & Development at RBI. Her current role encompasses the online efforts around audience, business and fresh content development, as well as all marketing efforts, including SEO, SEM, internal promotions, viral marketing, and branded/direct response marketing campaigns. Prior to her position at RBI, Wilhelmi developed expertise in the online advertising space, having managed Strategic Operations for DoubleClick's International Media division.

Wilhelmi discussed how RBI approaches RSS Technology and the importance of its use to their magazine brands and to their online audiences.

Q: Discuss how your brands are using RSS technology.

A: Broadcasting & Cable (B&C) is one of the brands within the RBI portfolio, based here in New York. I focus primarily on our 57 online Web sites and I work across our portfolio of brands to grow our online presence. We recently relaunched the Broadcasting & Cable Web site (www.broadcastingcable.com), which made RSS an even bigger part of our offering, but the features you see on the B&C Web site are consistent throughout our portfolio. We're going through the process of improving and relaunching many of our Web sites. I'd estimate that more than 60 percent of our Web sites are getting redesigned and have recently launched or are on the dock to launch sometime this year.

Q: Do most of them include the ability for the RSS feed?

A: Absolutely, that's a standard feature now for all our Web sites.

Q: Was that as a result of your customer base?

A: Well, it varied on a brand by brand basis, depending on the audience of our Web sites; some were actively looking for RSS feeds, others were a little slower to adopt RSS feeds depending on their comfort level and usage of the Internet. But, what we're seeing is that this trend of staying informed via the Web is definitely increasing. It gives us a lot of flexibility for getting our content out there for users to find or for users to leverage through their RSS readers. Beyond that, it is a great tool for driving users back to our sites.

Q: Are companies opting in to your RSS program?

A: They don't need to opt in. Basically, the way we set up our RSS feeds are around our discrete channels and blogs on the Web sites. So, if we're choosing to cover a company's news release, let's say something in consumer electronics, and it was on our TWICE Web site, then the TWICE editors choose to include it in their stream of articles for the day. Whichever category that article fell into, it would automatically be included in that RSS feed. The only content that wouldn't be in an RSS feed is something that's not ours or wasn't sent to us to be included in our news. If it were licensed content from a third party, we'd only include it in our RSS feed if we had permission to do so. It's pretty much our original news and the content, whether it is stories, product releases, or trade show information, depending on the type of Web site. Our sites house many different types of interactive content, but anything that's not in a PDF format that would lend itself to RSS feeds, we turn into RSS feeds.

Q: When did RBI begin offering RSS feeds?

A: We've had RSS for quite some time, but we've been expanding our RSS reach extensively this past year with the site redesigns and relaunches. B&C, for example, relaunched earlier this year and now they have RSS feeds around every single channel and every single blog. Blog feeds are new, but are now a standard element throughout the site.

Q: And you feel your subscribers have really grasped RSS quickly?

A: Some of them have, some of them haven't. It depends. We use it also for our partners. So, let's say a Web site approaches us and says, "B&C, we'd really love to have some of your news on our Web sites," and what we'd say is, "Why don't you grab our RSS feed and we'll send you our logo and you can include our news on your Web site because it's relevant for your audience." From our perspective, not only is it branding, but it drives the interested users who want to learn more about our Web site or news back to our Web site to see the full article. So, we find it a valuable tool not just for users who understand RSS, but also for our partners, as part of our bigger marketing effort.

Q: Is there a fee for associated partners receiving your RSS feed?

A: Typically, no. We get a lot of requests from people who want to have more news on their sites, but we wouldn't charge them for headlines and they wouldn't charge us to do that either. It's usually something that's free because we get benefits, we get branding and traffic back to our Web sites, and they get the benefit of offering more news or content that's relevant to their users on their Web site.

Q: Does it matter if the partner is large or small?

A: We look for partners who have a relevant audience to the types of people we're trying to attract. We probably wouldn't have an RSS feed for a construction company on an entertainment Web site because the audiences don't match. Providing must-have, relevant content to our users is a primary goal.

Q: Give me your own personal perspective on the benefits of using RSS feeds, and then also apply it to RBI.

A: Well, from a user perspective, I personally use RSS feeds to cut through all the information I'm bombarded with each day. I choose Web sites or feeds that are interesting both from a work side and a personal side. I customize them in a Yahoo! reader. Many sites out there offer readers that you can either download or customize on a Web site. It's interesting because a lot of people use those types of readers and don't even realize they're using RSS feeds. The terminology can sometimes be confusing to people because they actually do use them, but don't know what they're called.

From an RBI standpoint, that's even more important when we're dealing with the business community rather than consumers. Most of the people in our audience are business decision-makers. They're busy and they're inundated with information, and this is a way for them to get all their news and information in one place rather than necessarily having to visit ten different Web sites that are interesting to them. They can bring everything into their RSS reader and then follow up on the Web site if they need deeper information.

Q: Do you feel that using RSS is a useful addition to a company's marketing arsenal?

A: Absolutely—not only for the example I provided in terms of people putting it into their RSS readers, but for partnership opportunities and getting your content out there. You can be found in places the user would expect to find you. If, for example, you have relevant information about the broadcasting industry, then a user going to another Web site outside of B&C might still expect to find the most relevant news, which might be from B&C if they're the ones that broke the story.

Q: Do you feel that RSS is becoming part of your communications planning, not just an add-on?

A: We're realizing that more and more users are finding information from RSS feeds and search engines. We're more conscious of that when we write articles for the Web. We're really writing for that audience and for the mechanism in which they're going to find the article. We try to make sure that the headlines for these articles are straightforward and easily understood by the user because they're out of the context of our Web site. Where Variety, B&C, or Publishers Weekly might have inside industry jargon or terms, a user getting this into an RSS reader with a thousand other articles needs to know it's an entertainment article or a publishing article or a broadcast article. So, we try to put those types of keywords or triggers around it so that a user doesn't get confused. I can give you an example. I saw an article recently that said, "How to Run Your Business Like a Spartan," and it was off the 300 movie and was very eye-catching. But if that title was to be in an RSS feed, a user might not completely make the connection that it's an article for entrepreneurs about how to run your business. It's kind of vague. There might have been other key words they could have placed in the headline that would've still gotten the same message across but triggered "Oh, this is for small businesses" or "This is for entrepreneurs." We just want to make sure that when a headline is not within the context of our Web site, it's still relevant to users. That's how it plays into our editorial or content communications strategy. We try to think ahead about how the user's going to be receiving it.

Q: Do you think that RSS is helping companies or it's helping RBI to build better awareness and to drive traffic?

A: That is one element of it. We are doing many things to build awareness of our Web sites, and we make sure we are out there so interested users can find our info. Being a traditional print publisher and moving quickly into the online space, we realize that instead of having a controlled circulation, as we did in print, the users need to be able to find us online. And they need to find the answers to their questions really quickly. We're keeping all that in mind, and RSS is one element of that strategy.

Q: What kind of feedback have you received from your online visitors?

A: It's been positive, and like I said, it varies brand to brand depending on the sophistication of the industry, and whether they're using RSS feeds and readers. Some industries have been a little quicker to catch on than others.

Q: And will you continue to do formal research or just proceed based on feedback?

A: We'll absolutely continue to research and test and probably put more of our content into an RSS type format, and just XML in general, so that it can be used in different types of applications. That will really be based on what the users are looking for. And they will ultimately drive this. If it turns out they're not using RSS feeds and they're receiving information in another way, like through in-page widgets or through mobile, then we'll look to get them the information that way. But, our RSS feeds and XML effort in terms of making all our content into a format that can be read in multiple ways, that's kind of a combined effort for us. We want to make sure that if there are any applications outside an RSS reader we'd want to drop our content into, we have it in the most flexible form possible.

Q: Do you have an area set up for people with questions regarding RSS?

A: It seems as though most people have really responded to the little box symbol we're using around RSS. Online audiences seem to understand what that is at this point in time. We don't get a ton of questions, but what we do have on the Web site is a description of what RSS is and what they need to do to use it, as well as what it stands for, which is Really Simple Syndication.

We try to answer questions in our RSS feeds section where we explain RSS feeds and why you need them, but if a Web site or company wanted to partner with us, they would usually come to my team. That would be the marketing and development team. If they had a question about the actual content within the RSS feed, like, "Why did I receive this article, it doesn't seem like it's relevant to your Web site," they could go to our editorial team with their questions.

Q: Do you think Media Bypass is an issue with RSS feeds? Is this being blown out of proportion? What do you think about RSS as a direct to consumer tool?

A: I think it's fine. I think it helps us have that relationship with our end audience. What it makes us think about is the role of a brand online and how we translate that. For example, for B&C, our print audience knows us, loves us, and is a very dedicated audience. The ones who bookmark our Web site or come to us through an e-mail, we know they're very loyal to the brand. That's great because they have great brand recognition. However, users who find us either through a search engine, receive our RSS feed, or maybe encounter us on a partner Web site, might not have that connection with B&C that we'd like. They're consuming information on an as-needed basis. They're thinking "I need to see this news release" or "I heard about something that happened with the fight on HBO," and they type that into a search engine and somehow they get to our feed. In this case, they don't have that recognition around B&C. Without them going and clicking on the article and getting back to our site, we don't have a chance to really brand to them. Of course, we need to keep that in mind in terms of making our content relevant and useful and making it able to be found because our role might be different as the Internet evolves. Perhaps the fact that we are B&C down the road won't be as important, it's just that we have the most relevant news or we have the fastest breaking news or we have the best editorial spin when it comes to the Broadcasting and Cable industry. It's not a cause for concern; it's more of an evolution.

Q: Do you think RSS is more than just a tech fad?

A: I do. I think it's moving us forward toward something completely different from what we're used to today in terms of getting content into open standard formats like XML. Look how in-page widgets have taken off on sites like Facebook. I would put this in the same genre as RSS in terms of providing information to users when they are not necessarily on your Web site. RSS and other formats enable us more opportunities to get our content in front of interested users and it helps put the user in control of their customized content experience while saving them the time of having to go to multiple Web sites. I think some element of RSS or the underlying kind of open coding XML will still be prevalent in what we see going forward. It might evolve from the simple readers that we have today into more complex applications, but by building out our sites with XML feeds and essentially RSS feeds, we'll be ready for those types of transitions in the future. I don't think RSS is necessarily a fad; it will just facilitate more applications coming down the road.

Moving Ahead with RSS

As your customers require more information about your brand, you need to have the information readily available. Using an RSS feed is an excellent way to satisfy their hunger for information, in a manner they can review and organize easily. As you rely on RSS content feeds to distribute your important announcements direct to consumer, keep in mind the following:

• RSS is a straightforward means to reach your audience. Although it's a different approach for the PR pro, it is unmatched in terms of its effectiveness.
• With the ability to distribute targeted information and announcements, you reduce your audiences overwhelming sense of information overload when e-mail newsletters and HTML e-blasts pile up in their inboxes.
• RSS setup is simple by using software programs that guide you through an easy process without having to be a technology expert.
• Although RSS technology bypasses the "typical" influencer, it should still be considered an important part of your communications planning. After all, your customer is still receiving newsworthy information that comes directly from your brand.
• RSS will add real value across all industries and client types (nonprofit, corporate, governmental, associations, and so on), and a variety of subjects and interest areas can be broken into syndicated RSS enabled information.
• RSS content feeds might get your information directly to your target audience, but the content and quality of your message is really the key element.
• Customers might find tremendous value in your RSS feeds; however, it's yet to be determined the number of journalists who sign up for feeds to find interesting information for story ideas.
• RSS keeps your brand top of mind. The more interesting, newsworthy information you make available, the more your audience will immerse themselves in your brand.