Walt Denny Inc. Blog

RSS: Real Marketing Value with Really Simple Syndication

Syndication is all about mass exposure. Really Simple Syndication - RSS - is indeed a simple, cost-effective marketing tool for sharing all that’s new at your business. Forrester Research notes that RSS is one of few web 2.0 technologies in a growth phase, while Jupiter Research finds nearly half of all Internet marketers now use RSS. Its greatness lies in allowing people interested in you to be automatically updated when you have information to share. 

Here’s how you can benefit from the real-time reach of RSS:

A Direct Focus: 
By making RSS “feeds” – updates on your new content – available to web users on your home page or blog, you communicate directly and regularly with your customers and prospects. Once they subscribe to your feed with any easy-to-use feed reader, they are immediately alerted each time you make new information available.  

In Touch, Often:
Whether you update your home page weekly or daily, or your blog several times a day, readers of your feed will constantly be aware of your business’ activity. They may follow you to stay on top of your business’ new product developments, personnel changes, general company or financial news, or also any advice, analysis or opinion you may give on the industry. Many web users use RSS to subscribe to podcasts and press releases.

Get Customers A-Twitter Over Your Company

As business executives rely more on iPhones and BlackBerries, monitoring social media is increasingly important. A recent entry is the micro-blogging site Twitter. A growing online community, Twitter provides a quick, easy way to reach current and potential customers. In fact, The New York Times calls Twitter “…one of the fastest-growing phenomena on the Internet.”

 

Twitter provides free social networking via a micro-blogging service in which users send and read other users’ updates (tweets) which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length. The posts answer the question, “What are you doing?”.

Managing Reputations:  With Twitter, you can often spot customer complaints right away and respond immediately. Monitor your customers’ tweets and get ideas for FAQs. H&R Block answers tax questions via tweets and Sarah, spokesperson for Home Depot, answers direct questions from happy and angry customers. The Wall Street Journal reported in an October 27th article entitled, “Twitter Goes Mainstream,” that Comcast Corp. often resolves dozens of customer-service issues a day over Twitter.

Powerful Business Tool:  Twitter can be a beneficial tool for event impact. At tradeshows, tweet from the conference floor to let followers know about events or offers. Pre-show tweet your booth number so you will easily be located at the event. Builder magazine says they will experiment with live coverage of home building conferences and events via Twitter.