I was wondering whether RSS
could become a daily tool for PR Pro in the management of our PR campaign. I
feel there is a lot of potential applications for it but wanted to hear an
expert giving me his vision on this topic.
Fergus Burns, CEO of Nooked has kindly accepted to answer my
questions, knowing that the goal is to determine if RSS is to become a must for
our industry.
(Nooked is NOT one of our
clients….)
Below is the interview:
Can you
explain RSS in few words for people who never heard about it?
RSS stands for Really Simple
Syndication. It’s a relatively old technology, that is now becoming the
de-facto standard for the publishing and subscribing of web content.
RSS is published in feeds or
channels, and read using a new category of software called news aggregators –
check bloglines, my yahoo, newsgator and feeddemon for good examples of news
aggregators.
RSS is gaining broad industry
adoption, particularly from its strong association with weblogs. RSS is an
extremely efficient way of consuming information – it enables better
productivity for everyone.
At Microsoft’s Annual CEO
Summit, Bill Gates advocated RSS, by saying
“Getting
away from the drawbacks of e-mail – that its too imposing – and yet the drawbacks
of the web site – that you don’t know if there’s something new and interesting
there – [RSS] is about solving that”
The easiest way to explain
RSS is to start using it – sign up at www.bloglines.com
to start subscribing to RSS channels.
What main
difference do you see between RSS and email or newsletter ?
RSS is not a replacement for
email or newsletters. RSS is a complimentary communications channel.
There are many benefits that
RSS gives you over email and newsletters. For example, RSS is not subject to
spam blockers and email filters and users get news when its news – no checking
websites or waiting for monthly or quarterly newsletters.
It’s also private and secure,
with the potential for reuse and syndication.
Finally RSS is been
recommended by many journalists as the preferred way of communicating with
them.
For example Dan Gillmore,
technology Journalist with SiliconValley.com, has said
"I wish public-relations people would get with the program, too. If
they'd only start creating RSS feeds of releases, journalists and the public at
large could see the material they want, and the PR industry would be able to
stop blasting huge amounts of e-mail to people whose inboxes are already over-cluttered.
Of course, there will continue to be a use for e-mail in PR, but the volume
could be cut substantially."
How can PR
people create added-value thanks to RSS for their client campaigns?
Given that PR agencies handle
on a daily basis corporate communication material for their clients, such as
press releases, media coverage, events, analyst coverage, etc, they are in a
great position to provide a value added service by re-using this content.
The PR agency can manage
their clients RSS channels, and provide the monthly RSS measurement information
to demonstrate the business value of such an initiative to the client.
It also demonstrates to the
client, that the PR agency is at the fore front of providing unique value added
services, which can act as a differentiator in client pitches.
Nooked are investing time and
effort with PR agency partners in building relationships, which is bringing RSS
to the agency clients, whilst a viable value added business is bringing
additional revenues into the agency.
Can
you generate RSS feeds by category/type of information or is one feed
supposed to
gather
all information?
The number and type of RSS
feeds used by companies is primarily based on their business needs.
For example, a large company
such as Cisco provides many RSS channels based on content type and target
audience. A smaller company such as
Rococosoft or Traventec may use an RSS channel for a single purpose – all
corporate communications in one channel, newsletter channel, etc.
Nooked provides the ability
to create numerous channels of content.
Do PR
boutiques need the help of webmaster/developers to implement/generate RSS
fields,
or does Nooked provide specific tools?
Implementing and deploying
RSS channels is made easy by Nooked – all that is required is that the
webmaster places 2 lines of HTML code on the client website ONCE.
The RSS channel content is
managed independently, thus avoiding the requirement of the webmaster to
constantly change items on the website, thus lowering the total cost of
ownership on the client to Nil.
It
is easy to follow emails and to know if they are read or even only received by
the target, but how is it possible to track subscription to RSS feeds?
RSS measurement is
acknowledged as a challenge by the industry – however Nooked are one of the 1st
to provide detailed RSS measurement information for their users, through our
Nooked.com service.
This measurement includes the
level of traffic to the RSS channel, the level of click through on specific
items, the IP address of the source, with the information capable of been
plotted from a daily to a yearly basis.
Nooked also recommends the
use of Bloglines as the RSS reader of choice, which provides information on the
number of subscribers, with personal public information provided on
subscribers.
Nooked also provides built in
support for services such as:
- Technorati - Technorati
is the authority on what's going on in the world of weblogs
- PubSub - PubSub is a matching service that instantly notifies you
when new content is created that matches your subscription
- Feedster - dynamically monitors the world of RSS
- Syndic8 - place
to come to find RSS and Atom news feeds on a wide variety of topics.
- My Yahoo
These services enable Nooked
clients to extend the reach of their RSS channels.
What
kind of information are you able to provide to PR agencies that have to give
feedback/statistics
to their clients on their campaign using RSS?
Nooked provides a monthly
report on all RSS measurement benchmarks based on the Nooked account. Nooked
subscribers have the capability to export their RSS measurement data into CSV
format for more detailed analysis.
PR agencies can also
demonstrate via 3rd party tools, that by using RSS they are
enhancing their search engine optimization.
Could
RSS be seen as a tool to be better informed, and if yes, why?
Given the growth of RSS
adoption by the technology industry, especially industry influencers, it
enables people to subscribe to more sources of data than was possible before.
Keith O’Brien of PR Week
defined RSS as follows:
“Brings websites to the user, who otherwise would have to chase the
website”
Other innovative products
such as Technorati, Feedster, Yahoo, Syndic8 and Moreover.com make it easier to
track and monitor web commentary related to your client – this has been made
possible by the adoption and growth of RSS usage.
What
is the main strength/advantage of RSS?
RSS has many benefits -
- RSS is a complimentary communications channel.
- RSS is not subject to spam blockers and email filters
- Users get news when its news – no checking websites and waiting for
monthly or quarterly newsletters.
- RSS is private and secure
- RSS is reusable
- RSS is measurable through Nooked
- RSS is been recommended by many journalists as the preferred way of
communicating with them.
What
is from your point of view the next evolution in the use of RSS?
RSS is a technology standard
that is packaged into solutions and services by vendors.
The evolution of RSS will
come from the vendors of RSS solutions – these companies are delivering
innovative services that are making a difference in many industries - corporate
communications, community building, information consumption, web monitoring,
etc.
For example the mainstream
technology vendors are now supporting RSS:
- Apple have built RSS right into a new version of Safari called
Safari RSS
- Microsoft have announced and provided demos
of RSS within Longhorn, Outlook and Explorer
- Yahoo now supports RSS within its My Yahoo
offering
2005 will be the year of RSS
adoption growth – with Nooked assisting PR agencies and their clients joining
the RSS movement.
Good interview. This is a good pointer for people. Has RSS grabbed on, finally, in the PR world, and is it spreading fast? Seems so...
Posted by: Alex Williams | 20 November 2004 at 09:08 PM