2010-03-9
11 Concrete Ways to Make Use of RSS in Companies
Have you ever wondered why so many websites offer RSS feeds? Here are some practical examples of RSS at work.
Exploit Your Own Content
Almost ANY web based content can be transformed into into an RSS feed. The only real necessity is that the information changes regularly.
News Headlines
A lot of the time, the foremost use of RSS is to portray headlines and a short preamble to “newsy” stories. Create an RSS feed on your website featuring your company press releases, site updates, etc.
Upcoming Events
RSS is a significant means to let your community know of happenings and activities that may be happening soon. It’s easy to turn an “events” page into an RSS feed.
Opinion/Commentary
You’ve most likely heard of the term “blog” or “weblog“. It’s a page that shows (in chronological order) a series of writings on whatever the person responsible wants to put in writing. While a standard blog also allows others to add their analysiss to yours, you are not required to offer that function.
Set up a page where you regularly add your thoughts 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.
Articles
Share your 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.
Don’t forget to include a resource box in the article which allows others to reproduce your article on their site, with an obvious link back to you.
New Products
Got an online store with new inventory added regularly? Add details about your newly added items to an RSS feed to let people know what’s just come in.
Weekly/Monthly Specials
Do you regularly make special offers on diverse products in your inventory? Again, RSS is a great way to tell people what’s on special this week… or this month.
Newsletters
If you regularly produce an email newsletter, then consider converting it to RSS format as well as continuing to email it. After all, your newsletters ARE also shown on your web site… aren’t they?
New Links
If you have a links directory, considering creating an RSS feed of the new links added to your directory in the last week or so. If you have a category structure within that directory, with links added often, you can create a feed for each category.
New Members
Do you run a public membership site? Recently joined members could be listed in an RSS feed with links direct to their profiles. What a great way to welcome new members!
Ticker RSS Feeds
Do you have timely information, e.g. crucial stock figures, to put out to your customers? Systemitize the process with software and RSS can feed new critical information on an hourly basis (or more frequently if needed).
Note: Aim to have up to 15-20 items in each feedif you can. You can have more items if you want. Just keep in mind that most feed reading software will NOT display all the items. Many may only show the first 5 or 10.
Once you’ve got your feed going… remember to submit your feed URLs to the various RSS Feed Directories.
Using Content From OTHER Web Sites
If a site offers an RSS feed for people to subscribe to, you can maybe employ that feed on your site. Just check the terms and conditions on the site FIRST to see if you can copy the feed. If in doubt - send an email or phone them to ask permission.
What you should be trying to do in my opinion is to assemble loads of extra pages of helpful content on topics of value to your visitors. Don’t worry that the links in the feed take people off site (make that happen in a new window). The content is what is needed for search engines and people to devour!
