RSS has been the cause of great migraines for marketers as they struggle to “sell” the idea to mainstream society. In fact, Marshall Kirkpatrick reckons the market has died completely. Not that there was much of a market to begin with, especially in terms of small businesses and consumers using it. What blows his mind, and mine too as a matter of fact, is that people don’t comprehend the convenience of viewing multiple websites’ contents in a single program.

To businesses and marketers wishing to gain the edge over competitors, this is good news though. RSS is too brilliant to ignore, and while many still fail to grasp the technology, my plea is to soldier on right passed the meaning and head on to the good stuff…why you should use it.

What it is:
“It’s the glue that holds everything together”, I was told this morning when I ran the question by some people I know. And right on the button I reckon. If you use any of the following services in your business, then RSS could (and should) add substantial benefits to your marketing:

1. The internet (Expected something profound? Sorry. If you use the internet, you should use RSS)
2. E-mail (Again…expected something different?)
3. Blogs
4. Social Networking like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace or any of the other niche networking platforms.

Why use it:
Even if your clients / target audience have not the faintest clue what it is, how to spot it or what to do with it, syndicating your content is the ideal manner to make sure they can reach your brand through the medium of their choice. Head’s up for convenience. You may pat yourself on the back now.

1. If you’re using the internet, aggregate the content of your most important sites into your RSS Reader. It saves you time, keeps you up to date on current trends and helps you make quick decisions when devising new strategies for your business.

2. If you have a frequently updated website, a blog with industry critical information or latest product offerings, display this information on every single e-mail you send and have your recipients benefit from learning about your business every day. (While you sit back and marvel at the genius of e-mail branding. If you’d like to see this in action, pop me a mail and I’ll show you.)

3. If you’re a blogger, or content creator (for the vainest of the lot), then someone should already have stuck a gold star on your forehead. Now exceed your own expectations by implementing RSS to see your content pop up all over the internet. Oh yes, and also put it in your e-mails as point #2 highlights.

4. You might find yourself in what I label as one of the “sexy industries”: Wine & Food, automotive, music, technology among others. This is when your target audience hangs out in places like Facebook, OpenWineConcortium, MySpace, Twitter and what not. Make sure that every time you publish a new information piece on your products or services that your presences on these social networks display it automatically as well. With RSS of course, what else?

Conclusion:
How the technology of RSS works is irrelevant. That it does work and the advantage your business will gain by using it is priceless.

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This post was written by:

Henré Rossouw- who has written 41 posts on the Rocketseed Blog. Henré is the blog author and social media strategist for Rocketseed. His passion for digital marketing has taken him to the depths of marketing practices, both locally and internationally, enabling him to share his opinion on intelligent marketing and branding solutions with his readers.

Author's web site: Rocketseed

Read more in Digital Marketing, Marketing.

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