News feeds allow you to see when websites have added new content. You can get the latest headlines and video in one place, as soon as it is published, without having to visit the websites you have taken the feed from. Feeds are also known as RSS.
There is some discussion as to what RSS stands for, but most people use the 'Really Simple Syndication' definition. Basically, the feeds themselves are just web pages, designed to be read by computers rather than people.
In general, the first thing you need is something called a news reader. This is a piece of software that checks the feeds and lets you read any new articles that have been added. There are many different versions, some of which are accessed using a browser, and some of which are downloadable applications. I prefer the latter version.
Browser-based news readers let you catch up with your RSS feed subscriptions from any computer, whereas downloadable applications let you store them on your main computer, in the same way that you either download your e-mail using Outlook, or keep it on a web-based service like Hotmail.
If you click on the RSS button you can subscribe to the feed in various ways, including by dragging the URL of the feed into your news reader or by cutting and pasting the same URL into a new feed in your news reader. Most sites that offer feeds use a similar orange button, but some may just have a normal web link.
Some browsers, including Firefox, Opera and Safari, automatically check for feeds for you when you visit a website, and display an icon when they find one. This can make subscribing to feeds much easier. I tried using the built-in Explorer reader but didn‘t find it convenient enough. It could be just me, but once I had tried using Google Reader I realized I had found my RSS-tool of choice. Simply brilliant.
It is possible to create your own feeds, by using the search engines of particular websites. The first step is to choose a search term, and type it into the search engine as normal. You then review the results and if they accurately reflect the topic you have chosen you can now use the orange feeds button to add the selection to your news reader, or to your website.
PS. I know this post exceeds the ideal length but I just found it too complicated to explain the RSS-features in fewer words!
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
rss feeds – a tool of real convenience
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6 comments:
I think the RSS feed can be a useful tool for PR professionals in several ways. 1) As a pre-emptive crisis monitoring tool, to be alerted of when specific web-pages of interest are updated; like a rough/critical site of your clients organization. 2) As a client monitoring tool; immediately being alerted of online information updates from clients/publics, which effect your job. 3) As a way of making it easy for journalists or other publics to pull/receive your information without you having to push it to them; like offering an RSS feed of your (social media) news releases or news in your online newsroom.
It is probably important to be very selective in one’s RSS feed choices though, it is quite easy to be overwhelmed with information if the feeds are updated often. Also if you expect people/journalists to subscribe to an RSS feed of your (social media) news releases or online newsroom posts, it becomes even more important that they are well written and has something news-worthy to say.
So like all online tools; if used in a relevant way, I think it can be a useful tool for the PR professional in his/her practice.
I totally agree with you, Mattias. This is exactly what I am talking about in one of my posts.
Mattias (comment) and Sherry (blog post, see my comment there as well)I really like the your approach to the RSS feeds as tools for PR practitioners spreading the gospel.
We've come to realize how useful RSS feeds are for monitoring the environment but they can also be used effectively the other way round as you rightly indicate.
Yet as always we come to the basic point of communication skills. If your message is badly structured and written it will not catch the desired attention.
Siggy to tell you the truth before your presentation i had no idea what RSS means. But now i believe it is one of the most useful tools for PR practitioners. I believe that time is considered a limit in a PR practitioners life. With RSS they get all the news they are interested in, any time they want from any place. With this way they are constantly informed, they are ahead of competition and they can predict a crisis before if appears.
To end the discussion it is easy to join an RSS because the steps that you have to follow are easy and they don't cost. Correct me if i m wrong!!
Thanks for the compliment Giota. But just like you I had no knowledge of this feature until I started digging into it.
I agree with you wholeheartedly that RSS is probably one of the best - if not the best - single tool of technology available to help you do your PR job properly. And I completely agree with our teacher, Mr. Hodge, that it is vastly underrated.
Whether you can predict a crisis before it happens...I am not so sure about that but it can definitely help you detect a crisis in its early stages and address it before everything boils over.
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