RSS is a technology that allows for content to be delivered online automatically to those who subscribe to it. Blogs and microblogs(Twitter) utilize this technology to deliver content and updates.A 2008 study showed that only 11% of consumers had adopted the technology, which has steered many marketers away from really utilizing the technology.Despite these numbers, it’s important to note that on any given 15-minute surf through the world wide web, 100% of web consumers will at some point consume content served to them through RSS.On a recent visit to Mpls St. Paul Magazine’s health web page, I noticed that they were serving content directly from Mayo Clinic’s health blog utilizing RSS. In the PR world of trying to get stories placed in newspapers – that’s like a grand slam everyday. In my opinion, it doesn’t make much sense to ignore this technology simply because consumers haven’t latched on to it.To learn more about RSS and RSS readers, check out this video by Commoncraft:
Category Archives: Online Marketing
Strategic Social Media Marketing in 2010
December 21, 2009 – 10:15 pm
In 2009, I encouraged marketers with no idea how social media works to simply get out, create accounts and post information they are already creating.I hope they did that because in 2010 I think it’s time for marketers who were just getting acquainted to take things a step further by creating a strategic content plan.Creating a Content Plan
- Like a magazine, break your year down by months or quarters.
- Brainstorm subject matter and subject matter experts.
- Assign 1-2 main topics for each time period. Remember to assign them strategically, for example, if you are promoting clothing, you should promote summer clothing in the months when people are most likely going to be shopping for summer clothes.
- Determine the social media sites where you want to share your content (blog, youtube, facebook, twitter) and make sure you are familiar.
- Work backwards to determine the time you will need to produce content and start scheduling your time and interviews.
After completing those steps you should be ready to start creating content of interest that will increase your brand awareness and revenue. Along the way, don’t forget to listen to your audience and adjust your content plan accordingly.
Six Main Factors of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
October 18, 2009 – 8:49 pm
Given you’ve researched the keywords you want to target, the six main factors listed below are what I believe to be the most important for high rankings in Google. Obviously there are more than 100 factors that Google takes into account, but these are the six I believe to be the most influential. Number of Incoming Links – The more links going into a page, the more “respected” and higher ranking a page will be on Google. This can be taken one step further, in that a link coming in from a page with lots of links going into that page is worth more than a link coming from a page with very few links coming in. Incoming Links Anchor Text – Links with keywords as the anchor help Google decide what the page is about. Internal anchor texts are an easy way to influence this. Coding – Google spiders have only so much time to read all the pages on the Internet. If your pages have long backend codes, Google might not read all that is on your pages.Titles, Text and Descriptions – Whatever keyword you are targeting, make sure it is present in your page title, description, headings and page content. Visitor Behavior – Google tracks everything users do through the Google toolbar, web browser. If people click on your page, then go back to Google to look for another page with better information, Google will drop your pages in a hurry. Timeliness – Old pages don’t get much love on Google. That’s why search marketers love blogs.Disagree with me? I’d love to hear what you think I missed.
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