Creative ways to connect with end users using RSS, how effective is it?
I'm rethinking the typical use of RSS. I want to create a better end user experienc and drive more return traffic. I am interested in creative ways to connect with end users using RSS. Is anyone using specific feeds for things like software upgrade notifications, industry news or tradeshow/event participation? Is having a multitude of feeds too much trouble or is there value in specific feeds to justify the extra work? Are there SEO benefits to have multiple feeds?
Clarification added 6 months ago:
I am working on multinational corporate brand websites. When I think of "traditional" RSS, I think about news sites, blogs and forums. When a new article is written or an additional comment posted on a blog or forum the RSS feed alerts subscribers to its presence. I use the LinkedIn Feeds to monitor certain Q&A categories.
Our websites are loaded with content and with the introduction of specific feeds we plan on increasing our information.
Our brands encompass safety, security and business management and I wonder how effective sharing sites like Twitter, De.licio.us, Digg, etc. work for corporate environments?
Good Answers (8)
Andrew F
Principal at Web 2.0 / Software Consultancy afpr.com
Best Answers in: Public Relations (2), Freelancing and Contracting (1), Internet Marketing (1), Business Development (1), Futures Markets (1), Branding (1), Market Research and Definition (1), Career Management (1), Computer Networking (1)
I know you are asking about RSS, but as someone who is personally very disappointed in the RSS experience ("not ready for grandma yet"), I would suggest a few different ideas outside the box... I have used both, and have been VERY happy with both;
1) Consider Twitter as a new form of RSS .... When your users register, ask them if they want to follow product updates,news,etc via twitter... You will be able to not only measure Twitter response, but you will find a tremendous click through on it.
2) Upon completion of any download/update,etc - Open a browser window letting the user know that whatever it is they were doing (download,update,etc) it was completed successfully... Use the rest of the page for any marketing messages you might want to show them...
I have architected these and other processes for many software companies ...feel free to ping me if you require more
andy (at) afpr.com
First, I have to disagree with twitter. As good as it is there are many people not using it and you are taking them away from your site to sign up with twitter etc... to me this is a possible costly distraction.
RSS to me is all about content. Simply, to drive people to your site you need to have the content that they are looking for a want to follow.
I do believe in multi RSS feeds, but not from a SEO point, but from the point of allowing the user to tailor there readership to what there want to read.
I do have a software notification feed and it works very effectively, for my customers and my sales team.
Twitter is a good way to spread the word about what is going on with your business. Millions of people hit twitter daily. Jaiku is another form of social blogging that is similar to twitter. But one thing to keep in mind is you can run the risk of being blocked by users who think your are spamming them.
I have a twitter account and get about 2 random "friends" following me.
If your content is good and the users find some value in it then you could possible do well. It's definitely something worth looking into.
FeedBurner (Google)is another service you may want to review. They serve up feeds for tons of sites and a huge advertising network. I found your question through a feed that I subscribed to through FeedBurner :)
As far as SEO goes. Getting your name out there via RSS s a great thing for generating traffic. It's like have redundant links on a website. The more links you have that lead back to your site the better. But the key to getting all that attention is relevant content. As I stated before, you have to have something that users will see as valuable. Without that, your feed gets lost in the sea of all the other feeds trying to be noticed.
Good luck!
Links:
- http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/about
- http://www.stephanspencer.com/search-engines/rss-and-seo-implications-for-s...
- http://rssdiary.marketingstudies.net/content/use_rss_to_increase_your_traff...
Clarification added 6 months ago:
I have a twitter account and get about 2 random "friends" following me about every week or so.
Aaron R
Manager of Electronic Communications at University of Chicago Law School; freelance designer and web professional
I guess my question in return is "what is the 'typical' use of RSS?" There are so many ways to use it.
For example, on <a href="http://lostcartographers.com">my band's website,</a> I put our updates feed through FeedBurner to update our website and through Feedblitz to use it as a mailing list.
On my <a href="http://design-intelligent.com/fordesigners/">freelance collective website </a>, I use feeddigest.com to aggregate feeds from all over the web into single feeds (one for jobs and one for articles). I also use Flickr feeds to populate our portfolio (though we may be changing that soon)
And on <a href="http://aaronrester.net">my personal website</a> I pull in feeds from Google Reader, GoodReads, de.licio.us and iLike to give visitors a snapshot of what I'm reading and listening to at the moment.
The SEO benefit will (I think) depend on how you're producing and/or presenting the feed; for example if you take a FeedBurner feed and use their BuzzBoost widget, it's just a Javascript and will not be searchable.
Links:
Clarification added 6 months ago:
Sorry, I thought I could embed links in my post -- see below for links to the sites I mentioned.
Jonathan L
Owner of Lyons Digital Media, LLC, the home of LyonsHost.com and MyWallah.com
I'm a cautious adapter of new tech even though others seem to think I'm on the bleeding edge.
With that said, I am a big fan of RSS. I've found steady traffic from aggregator sites when my content is fresh and relevant. It was said before and I will back it up, RSS depends on content. No content will yield no results.
RSS and social bookmarking make a power team. If you can add traditional media to the mix even better.
Art T
Principal, Logical Things - Graphic Design
Best Answers in: Advertising (1), Product Design (1)
I agree that to send folks off your site to register with another site (Twitter) is to potentially lose them. I use FeedBurner as well and it seems to do the trick for just about everyone. That said, I usually include additional links to allow experienced users to add to Digg, Facebook, Twitter, etc wherever relevant as an added bonus.
I also agree that RSS is hardly user friendly and have not personally come up with or yet seen a good enough metaphor for communicating its "ease of use" or benefits to end users. Until then, I'll just keep relying on FeedBurner to do that for me.
Cheers,
Art
Chuck,
I think the biggest question is how difficult is it for you to create (and possibly maintain) the feeds.
RSS feeds typically are just generated based on pre-existing content (as mentioned in your description). If you have an adequate process for generating feeds (maybe a centralized application/database) having multiple feeds/categories could be a boon for your company.
If you have a great centralized application/database for generating feeds, the next step would be to create your catalog. Make it easy for your users to pick the data they want.
The last step is mostly for directing your internal employees to use RSS. Get the fun stuff off of the web and emails and get them into RSS feeds. I'm talking about the Classified Ads (if your company has them)... the cafeteria, benefits announcements, job postings, etc. If you get the fun stuff into RSS... you not only make it easy for your employees to read the information (instead of wasting time on the intranet) you get them to understand RSS and the benefits.
I have found RSS an extremely effective channel, attracting even more traffic than some of our display advertising campaigns.
Being in the finance industry, the demand for upto date information is huge and we would miss out on this if we didn't implement them.
Feedburner is a good distribution channel, but there are many others available. Consider social groups such as Facebook where you are able to embed RSS feeds through a number of applications.
Good luck,
Marco