Emily Chang will be speaking on a panel entitled, “Using RSS for Marketing” at this upcoming SXSW Interactive Conference. On her blog, she asks for feedback on insights & topics related to RSS.
This got me thinking (which, I know, is dangerous). Fundamentally, what is RSS?
Fundamentally, RSS is an XML-based stream of data. Or, as Wikipedia defines it:
A family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated digital content, such as blogs, news feeds or podcasts.
Okay, that’s not helpful at all.
Conceptually, RSS is a free way to share real-time information with the world. Cool, okay, now it sounds more like radio waves or television broadcasts. Analogies are good.
How can RSS be used?
Currently, RSS is most commonly used to distribute updates from websites like blogs, vlogs, and podcasts. This information is time-sensitive and archives can be just as important as updates. Other real-time information that can be distributed are weather, traffic, and stock prices reports. These are also time-sensitive, though archives are not very important.
Conceivably, RSS could also share non real-time information, like dictionaries and encyclopedias. Or non-textual information like maps and technical diagrams.
RSS readers are currently built to display chronological information, so this would not be a standard way to use RSS. Arguably, it’s not an effective way either. There are other ways to retrieve static information, such as using web services. But possibly, the RSS format could also be used as a web service?
So what is RSS and how can it be used?
RSS is a way to share information, with some kinds of information being better than others:
- Real-time information = blogs, vlogs, podcasts, news, weather, traffic & stock prices
- Static information = dictionary info, encyclopedia info, maps & technical diagrams (maybe?)
- Archivable information = blogs, vlogs, podcasts & news
- Non-archivable information = weather, traffic & stock prices
- Textual information = blogs, news, weather, traffic & stock prices
- Graphical/video/audio information = photos, video, audio, maps & technical diagrams
As a marketer, are any of these information formats useful to your business? Or rather, would your customers find any of these information formats useful?
Perhaps. In my opinion, RSS isn’t just for blogs, vlogs, and podcasts though. With some thinking, perhaps you’ll find more uses for it too.
Hi Mike,
I like the way you’ve explained RSS. I’m interested to hear what your readers think!
Best,
Emily