If you regularly surf the web and find yourself often revisiting sites with regularly updated content (such as news or sports sites), then you know how long it takes to browse to each of them in turn to check for new articles.
Wouldn’t it be good if there was a way that when new content was added to the website, it also arrived on your desktop, in one handy place where you could check for new content on all of your favorite websites at the same time?
Well, luckily there is – using a web technology known as RSS, which stands for Really Simple Syndication. (And we’re not just making that up!) Using RSS you can subscribe to a feed of content for as many websites as you want, using a program called a feed reader. Once you subscribe to a feed, every time new content is added to the site the feed comes from, it will automatically appear in your feed reader – no more visiting all those sites to check for updates! Then you can choose either to read the new content in your feed reader, or click through to the website to read online.
So, what do you need to start subscribing to RSS feeds? Well, the first thing you need is a feed reader. You can use an online feed reader such as Google Reader or News Gator , or download a program to read feeds on your desktop – some good free ones are FeedDemon (for Windows) or NetNewsWire (for Mac).
Once you have decided on a feed reader, you need to find a site that offers RSS feeds, which more and more sites are doing. You can often identify RSS ‘subscribe’ links by the (often orange) RSS logo on the webpage that looks something like this:
Many modern web browsers also do some clever ‘RSS auto-discovery’ magic – if you are on a page with a correctly set up feed, you can see a little RSS logo in the address (URL) bar, which you can click on to subscribe to that feed.
The actual method you use to subscribe to that feed depends on your feed reader and web browser – but often it is as simple as clicking on the RSS link or logo, and it will import into your reader. How easy is that?
If you wanted to subscribe to the VGroup RSS feed, for example, in a nutshell these are the steps.
1. Download a feed reeder, perhaps choosing from the list above
2. Visit www.vgroup.com/news and click on the RSS icon
3. The VGroup news feed should automatically load into your feed reader, where you can add other RSS feeds from other sites.
The exact steps for subscribing to RSS depend on your feed reader, your web browser and your operating
system etc, but this is the general idea.
Uses for RSS in Marketing
RSS is a great vehicle for keeping in touch with your customers and prospects – and it gives them control over what information they receive, and in a non-obtrusive way.
Using RSS feeds to help keep customers updated with new product or industry news can help bring users back to your site on a regular basis, without you having to do anything but add content to your website, via your Content Management system perhaps. If you would like to know more about how you can integrate RSS into your marketing mix, email interactive@vgroup.com
So go get yourself a feed reader, visit your favourite sites to grab their RSS feeds, and sit back and wait for the updates to come to you!