Friday, October 10, 2008

RSS and Me: The Affair Begins


The biggest challenge for a PR professional is getting your message to the right people. Sometimes the right people are newspaper editors, current and potential clients, vendors, investors, or even event organizers. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a great way to filter information and tailor what news and blog posts you want to see when you log onto the internet. There are some great benefits to this new technology.

RSS feeds can *really* help if you are representing a client and want to make sure that any and all information out there about them is tailored to your specific communicative needs. For example, if Morningstar Communications in Kansas City had Boulevard Brewing Co. as their PR client, then just being able to subscribe to the blogs and news categories concerning the beverage industry or more specifically, beer, would be very advantageous and a huge time-saver. The keyword searches are a wonderful tool to have, and you even can see how many people have subscribed to a blog or website. Now that RSS feeds are in the mix of information dissemination, PR professionals have a new tool to relieve the information overload that comes with surfing the 'net. In fact, I’ve just subscribed to a bunch of RSS feeds for the first time just because I’m learning about them.
BUT -- what if your messages get filtered out? There's a saying for that: S.O.L.
The moral: We as PR professionals will have to think smarter about how to disseminate our information and make sure it gets into the right hands.

6 comments:

Susan333 said...

Margaret,

Excellent blog!

Susan

Natalie said...

Margaret,

I love the picture at the top of your blog! You are very creative. I agree with you, RSS provides a unique opportunity for PR folks. The most important thing is exactly what you said at the end of this post: we must make sure our info. gets into the hands of the right people.

:)

Jeff Norris said...

Margo,
I love the title of the blog, it is very interesting and makes people want to look at what you wrote. I also like the example with Morning Star and Boulevard Brewing Co. I really like how you have the "moral" of the story, it is great that you concluded the information in a new way.

maggie said...

Margot,
I love the photo, promise I didn't look at your post before adding it to my own. I agree with the usefulness of RSS regarding client communications as well. Great title!

AbLoG4U said...

Margaret:

"Filtering" of messges is an interesting idea...I guess this could happen on both sides... There is no real way to guarantee that your message will get to those who want OR that those who want is will get every message they want

Unknown said...

margaret,

i actually do work for Morningstar Communications, and while we don't have Boulevard as a client (i would LOVE to do work for them, so many fun possibilities), i can tell you that all of us here do use RSS to stay up to date on the news and follow our clients.

in fact, i'd say i spend AT LEAST one hour a day checking my RSS feeds for news about my clients, my clients' industries and other PR-related blogs.

feel free to get at me on twitter (@mdd044) to share any more thoughts, or check out our blog and join our conversation.