Not to let you too far into my early morning habits, but one thing that I can't live without is my RSS Feedreader...That's my thang...Without it, I get a little edgy...
So, when I saw this column from MediaPost today by Tom Hespos, I had to put in this reply. Here is my response to the column along with my views on RSS feeds and how it possibly can be utilized as a marketing tool.
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I often ask myself nowadays... "Was I that slow without RSS!?"
Because to address the value of RSS...It's all about speed, baby.
If you're job involves media content, you're going to have to be on it because the amount of time that RSS saves in terms of content consumption is nothing less than mind-blowing...Without RSS, surfing the web is like getting up to turn the dial on your TV, or if you can’t remember that, I’ll put it in NFL references, the time-comparsion is like putting Randy Moss against a retired Tony Siragusa in the 40…Simply put, it’s a big difference.
Now how long is “Joe Six-Pack” going to adopt it? (Question stemmed from an earlier post on the MediaPost board) This is a lot like podcasting… Maybe, we should ask Adam Curry to come up with a better name for it…;)
With those references stated, I do hope that more people get into RSS now because it will impact your online buying, selling, and more importantly, online viewing in a huge way.
And I don't think it's a complicated set-up process with RSS...Hell, I've actually was blown away at how easy it was not only to set a Feeder up, but how easy it is to add feeds to an RSS Feeder...What we may be witnessing in the lack of popularity is due to the age-old phenomenon surrounding marketers, who may not understand it enough to think of innovative ways to promote it.
In order to address the question of how do you position it? RSS is not similar to email...RSS is simply a tool, an aggregator, a mechanism...It's not content. How about devising the same strategies that marketers are thinking about or are utilizing for 'On Demand' features for DVR and Digital Cable users?
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Personally, my hope is that RSS isn't discovered by marketers and the mainstream...With the minimal use of RSS today, I'm along with the tech junkies are one step ahead of the game....Gotcha!...;)
Keep Feedin',
IronDog
2 Comments:
Unfortunately, RSS gives a lot of content away to users for free. I won't go so far as to say that publishers will need to clog up every feed with ads, but there needs to be some sort of value proposition for the publisher. It may be that many publishers find they earn enough ad revenue from RSS subscribers clicking on story abstracts and coming to their site. In any case, each publisher needs to figure out a monetization strategy.
Tom,
Thanks for the comment...
You are correct that publishers should figure out a monetization strategy. Especially, when it comes to devising tools for marketers.
Even though I'm not specifically aware of the open-source strategies that companies such as Feedreader and Feedburner are utilizing to attract marketers toward RSS advertising, I do believe there are ways to target readers via RSS through text ads through previews and fixed placements on a reader tool bar itself. (Yet, before I suggest that, I should be sure of the performances of similar fixed ad placements found on other tools like AOL IM)
The bottom line is that RSS targeting is so new that we need people to take risks in order to create innovative targeting. Now, whether that's through the form of new ad-publishing strategies or marketers creating new concepts to target users in this niche-oriented media world is up to how open our minds become when listening to each other's pitches and needs.
Great stuff, and I'm a major fan of your articles on MediaPost...Thanks for joining the discussion and visiting "The Irondog Chronicles."
Peace,
IronDog
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