The Importance of RSS (in a Nutshell)

It's been around for a while now (really taking off around early 2006), but it's still a mystery to most web users — so what is the big deal with this RSS stuff anyway?

There are two reasons you should care. First, if you're a web person, information junky, or just someone who likes to read the news from more than one source -- it makes your life easier. Second, it makes it easier for your customers, friends, and anyone else interested in your blog/news/information to keep on reading and keep up to date with your content.

There is a third, less often mentioned reason that may overshadow everything else: the almighty web search. If there is a set of data that a computer can easily use to figure out that "oh look, this has been updated since I was here last," it makes things like Google's indexing a lot easier. This is why many blogs and news services with RSS feeds see their content indexed almost instantly by search engines.

It may seem extraneous ("my content is already up and public, why do I need RSS?"), but the machine-readability of RSS can only help the search engines understand what you're writing and how fresh it is. This means RSS will help people find your content, as well as stick with it over time. If you have a site you want to monetize -- or are just looking for world domination -- you need RSS.

Save the date

A quick thought for push-based marketing. If you are trying to market for a specific event, do you:

• Keep the date of the event in front of your customer from the beginning, possibly losing immediate interest (because they feel like there is time to shop around or just not enough urgency yet), but providing a useful reminder that the event is coming up?
  
• Mention the event, but don't tell the customer a specific date (to create a sense of urgency -- "oh no, I should buy something now for Father's Day!")?
• A combination of the two (assuming you have multiple opportunities), for example not mentioning the date until it is imminent (again, all about urgency), mentioning the date initially but not after the first e-mail or flyer?

Not being in E-commerce, my opportunities to test this are limited, but it seems like something that could be a significant factor. Now is the time the ridiculous Amazon customer base would come in handy. Test away!

Old, but Good

A little marketing joke to start the week.

The Best Advertising isn't Advertising

When you watch or experience something that makes you grin, laugh or even cry — does it matter that someone is paying for it to promote their brand? I say no. Just because the experience was carefully crafted to have that effect does not diminish the effect, nor cheapen it.

The subtle, logical inclusion of people taking videos and speaking on their cell phones sends the message in retrospect, but it isn't obtrusive -- it makes sense. The branding value of this (hello viral) is enormous.