Using RSS Readers To Stay In Touch, Make An Impact
by kristina b on flickr
BE AN INTREPID MARKETER – Recommendation No. 31
I was at a TweetUp just the other night. And a friend came up to me and expressed sincere thanks that I had recently commented on her blog.
It really felt great that it meant so much to her. Made me realize that it doesn’t take a whole lot of effort to make someone appreciate even the little things. And as we know, the little things matter. All it took, really, was a determination on my part to keep my eyes on the ball…
But then I was thinking more about this, and I realized that a significant majority of people aren’t taking advantage of this same opportunity.
A vast majority of the people I run across are NOT using a RSS reader to scan and review blogs. And personally, I think this is criminal. When I ask people in my workshops if they are regularly scanning multiple blogs, most answer no.
I think I know the reason why, and it’s because most people feel it takes too much time to review more than a small handful of blogs over the course of a given day. And I still think most people are visiting these websites directly.
Let me give you some simple, but profound, advice. Start using an RSS reader. There are many you can use, but I recommend Google reader. It is simple to use.
Most blogs of any note, and most web browsers, enable you to subscribe to their RSS feed. Once you indicate an interest in subscribing, you are asked which reader you want to use. Select the one you want. Once you do this, you can quickly scan all the blogs you want to keep an eye on, with your reader letting you know when there is NEW content to see. You can scan the content directly from the reader, and you can click straight through to the blog if you want.
As of this writing, I review 81 blogs a day. And I am adding to this every day. To many of you, that may sound like a lot. But to be honest, two-thirds of those blog do NOT post new content every day. So I am really not reviewing all 81. And of the blogs that do post new content, I can quickly review the posts and determine which ones I want to spend time with.
From there, you can identify posts you want to share with your Twitter community, for instance. Or you can submit a comment on someone’s blog. Easy. And fast. And as you know from my friend above, it means a lot to people when you take the time to check out their content – and contribute.
Now you know that it really isn’t that difficult, or time consuming after all. And it can have a very positive impact on your community…
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