Feed The Need: 5 Ways To Use RSS To Boost Your Business Or Organizational Success

RSS (it stands for Really Simple Syndication, among other things) is a relatively new technology that allows anyone who creates frequently changing web content - news, blogs, current events, etc. - to deliver their messages to interested readers with no fuss, no muss and best of all - no spam!

Currently, RSS is being used by content-rich sites (mainly blogs and news centers) to keep readers up-to-date on newly published posts or breaking stories. But RSS can do so much more. Many businesses and organizations are failing to truly exploit the amazing properties of this technology - and in doing so are leaving on the table innumerable opportunities to create even greater value, sales and traffic for their company, product or service and the market share it represents. Below are just a few of the creative ways that businesses and other groups can tap into the power of RSS and create new streams of revenue and interest for their organizations.

1. Create An "Announcements And Special Offers" Feed

If your business offers classes, seminars, products, services, specials, sales - essentially anything that changes, updates or rotates throughout a cycle - then creating a dedicated RSS feed could save you (and your clients) time and money. By creating an "Announcements and Special Offers" feed and offering access to your clients as an alternative to emails and print mailers, you can keep your client base up to speed, plus send out limited-time and exclusive "feed only" special offers and discounts, thereby offering an incentive to "get on board." This not only saves you time by reducing the advertising cycle to the time it takes to update your web page/feed, it saves your clients money by enabling them to quickly scan through the offering headings and pick out just the one's they're interested in - while your savings on the cost and time of paper and digital mailings (with their appallingly low conversion rates and sporadic delivery) progressively increase as the feed readership segment of your client base grows.

2. Create A "Client of the Week" Feed

If you're in a business where this sort of recognition is appropriate, then this could be a big hit! Creating a feed that regularly highlights a different client, their business and any special offers that they might like to make available - exclusively to other feed members, of course - can be a great value-add for your clients, one that costs you little more than the few minutes it takes to create the "spot" and publish it on your site/feed. Include a photo and a business link and your clients will be singing your praises far and wide!

3. Create A Training Or Team Feed

If you are part of a network marketing venture or are in charge of a large sales force or other team and need a way to consistently and continually get training aids, updates, incentives, sales copy, goals, meeting agendas and other items to your downline or members, consider setting up a feed just to serve this function. Since the actual content is hosted at one central site (subscribers only receive a "teaser" that they have to click through to get the full message), you can upload any digital file of any size that you need at the site itself and be assured that everyone who gets the message will be able to retrieve the files - not always a sure thing when dealing with email attachments and text messaging.

4. Create an inter-office feed

Memos, presentation materials, files, announcements, new policies, schedules - all this can be gathered up in one central feed (or broken down into departmental feeds) that are then easily maintained in one central archive and easily accessible by anyone who needs them. Nobody is left behind or out of the loop because they didn't check their email (or because the message got filtered or bounced) and everyone gets just the information they need without dealing with a lot of cross-over communication from people replying and clarifying.

5. Schools, non-profits and other organizations - RSS works for you too!

Schools - Consider the possibilities of a student feed, updated with activities, exam dates, school closings, special "student only" offers from local businesses and so on. Or how about a special assignment feed in which class materials are uploaded by each instructor for students who are ill, away from home or otherwise unable to be in class?

Churches - A congregational feed can supply daily meditations, worship service schedules, prayer requests, special events and other such messages right to your congregant's desktop - a sort of ongoing, rolling newsletter that never has to wait for a full page or go out off-schedule due to mised deadlines (items go out as they come in - it's that simple). This could also be accessed by members who are doing missionary work overseas, to help them feel more connected with home and to allow them to contribute by sending in updates of their work to be added to the general feed.

Non-profits - Volunteer feeds could provide a running update of available positions and work needed, as well as featuring profiles of special volunteers and organizational wish lists; fundraising feeds might keep donors abreast of giving events and how their donations are being used; and inter-organizational feeds can keep board members and other involved parties up to date on meeting times, agendas and projects. All great ways of utilizing the powers of RSS for the common good!

Consider these options the next time you need to get information out to a scattered and diverse readership, or need to publish material that never seems to come in when you need it to. RSS is a new technology, surely. But that just means that it's true power to serve your needs is only now being discovered. One of the best ways to keep ahead of the crowd is to forge a path through new territories. Where will RSS lead you?

(c) Soni Pitts

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Soni Pitts is the Chief Visionary Butt-Kicker of SoniPitts.Com. She specializes in helping others reclaim "soul proprietorship" in their lives and to begin living the life their Creator always intended for them.

She is the author of the free e-book "50 Ways To Reach Your Goals" and over 100 self-help and inspirational articles, as well as other products and resources designed to facilitate this process of personal growth and spiritual development.

---

Powered by Feedzilla

Contact Us Today For Ad Information...

Ebooks, Scripts, Websites, and more...

Cheap Domain Names

How Yahoos Recent Facelift Can Mean More Traffic To Your Site

It even surprised me. Yes, even though I have... Read More

How to Make Money with Your Blog

-- What Is A BlogA blog (or web log as... Read More

Blogs and RSS - Why Do I Need This Stuff?

If you've been under a rock for the last year... Read More

RSS for Bloggers

While syndication has many applications, we will deal specifically with... Read More

4 Fail-Proof Ways to Increase Your RSS Subscribers

Using RSS on your website is a good way to... Read More

The 6 Top Reasons Marketers Should Blog

If there is a downside to blogging, I have yet... Read More

Could There Be A New Way Of hearing The News Stories We Feel Are Relevant In Our Lives?

Mainstream media has become a single-minded authority on how we... Read More

How To Use RSS Feeds In Your Marketing

It was Friday night. I finished reading a book about... Read More

Tips for a Better RSS Feed

Like anything else, a little work can pay dividends. Well-written... Read More

Fun Free Feed Tools For Both The Publisher And The Reader

As you've probably been reading, there are basically three problems... Read More

Avoid Bad Manners While Blogging

Blogging, the hottest trend in online publishing right now, is... Read More

How to Use Blog Exchanges

Traffic exchanges and blog traffic exchanges are a way to... Read More

What Is The Orange XML or RSS Icon I See More and More On Web Sites?

This question does not have a one sentence answer! If... Read More

Marketing With Blogs - Part 4

In the first three parts of this article series on... Read More

Top 10 Reasons to Start Blogging

"What's blogging?" you ask."Where have you been?" I reply...just kidding,... Read More

Blog Your Affiliate Links

Blogging is a relatively new form of communication, closely related... Read More

Comparing Free Blogging Software

With the increased interest in Blogging (web Logging), many web... Read More

RSS Works: Hard Metrics to Prove It

Marketers are constantly asking if RSS marketing works and if... Read More

Gentlemen Prefer Blogs

According to a recent survey, gentlemen prefer blogs to the... Read More

Displaying RSS Feeds on Websites

Displaying RSS RSS offers webmasters a unique opportunity to display... Read More

Why Your Blog Might Be Sabotaging Your Business

Many marketers were very excited when forum and newsletter discussion... Read More

How Weblogs can Help Realtors

What is a weblog, well simply put a weblog is... Read More

Introduction to Really Simple Syndication (RSS)

Really Simple Syndication is exactly what it's name states. A... Read More

Real Estate Marketing with RSS

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is an increasingly popular marketing method... Read More

Google AdSense and Blogs

If you have a blog, or are thinking about starting... Read More