Some say RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. Others say it means Rich Site Summary.
But it could just as easily stand for Really Smart Searching. Or, Recognize Searching vs. Subscribing. Or, Really, Start Subscribing!
The words are right there in the first definition – Really Simple – so why haven’t PR folks jumped on the RSS bandwagon in droves?
It is a mystery to me, as I can say for my part that using RSS has drastically improved my ability to sift through the fire hose of daily news and online discussion and be on top of what is important to my clients and me.
It really feels good to be the first to spot a hit, important blog post or breaking news. Since I started using RSS several years ago, I have been able to impress clients and industry peers alike with this ability.
And isn’t that what being a NewsMaster Flash is all about?
In terms of RSS basics, a good place to start would be to check out the archive of a symposium I ran last year ago for the International Association of Online Communicators’ blog on the topic (Welcome to RSS Basics Week). Also, here is Wikipedia’s definition of RSS.
The reason I am an RSS zealot is simple: it allows me to get timely updates, sift through more information more quickly and zero in on what is important. It does this in two ways:
1) RSS cuts out the search middleman. By polling the feeds I have subscribed to on a frequent basis with my newsreader (see #2, below), I can get updates as soon as they are available; there is no need to wait for the content to be indexed by a search engine. Nor is there the need to
manually surf to each site to see what is new.
Better yet, I can combine the immediacy RSS updates with the wide net of search. Most search engines now offer the option of making results available as RSS feeds. By subscribing to such a feed with my newsreader, I can see what the search engines are finding for my search terms of interest.
2) An interface built for news consumption.
At its most basic level, the news reader allows you to subscribe to, browse, and read the content of RSS feeds. The better readers sport interfaces consisting of several panes, to give you an easy way to see what is new amongst your feeds, browse headlines, and read the content of each feed.
I have been using FeedDemon, from Bradsoft (a company that was acquired by competitor NewsGator). It is a desktop based newsreader that does the basics but also goes further. For example, I can define "Watch" channels that sift through all my feeds and collect the ones that match predefined search terms. I can also define search channels that use my key words to return matching results from RSS search engines like Feedster and Blogdigger.
I typically set Watch and Search channel terms to be the names of clients, their products, competitors, and technology key words.
FeedDemon lets me easily send emails or post to my blog about news items of interest. Its built-in browser prompts me when feeds are available at a site and gives me a number of ways to easily subscribe and build out my list of feeds.
Some feel that online newsreaders are the way to go, because you can access these from any system with Web access, and there are many good free ones out there.
TechCrunch had a great feature about the State of Online News Readers last March.
Others appreciate the advantages of desktop software – richer interfaces, and better performance that comes from using your local desktop processor to do the heavy lifting of sifting through the thousands of feeds required for intensive PR news monitoring applications.
I don’ have hard survey data but suspect, based on my discussions with other PR folks, that RSS has not been widely adopted in the profession. I am assuming that this is because people tend to be reluctant to try new things, especially when there is a learning curve involved.
Some might object to the investment of effort required to assemble a comprehensive collection of feeds. The fact is, this is not as hard as it seems. Most newsreaders come already populated with a good selection of feeds. And there are a number of OPML (Wikipedia’s definition) directories that are freely and publicly available that let you pick and choose from tens of thousand of feeds, sorted by categories, and add feeds in bulk to your collection. For example, Syndic8 and NewsIsFree are two good resources for finding feeds.
Finally, newsreaders like FeedDemon have built-in browsers that automatically discover the feeds that are available when you visit Web sites, and prompt you to select and add these.
In conclusion, if you are in PR and don’t start using RSS, you will be doing yourself and your client/employer a disservice. And that would be a Real Sad Shame!
