Part One: Introduction to RSS and Content Syndication

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication.

Also called web feeds, RSS feeds are a content delivery vehicle - a method of getting new content out on the Internet and sharing it with others.

Originally created by Netscape, the technology behind RSS is well tested. Its a format that describes different types of information. RSS feeds (or files) include some basic information about the content, such as the title, description, logo etc, and the actual content you want to deliver

RSS is a simple technology that allows you to easily get your new content updates delivered to your target audiences (subscribers, bloggers, journalists, employees, investors, other key influencers), websites looking for good content to publish, specialized search engines, directories and other online systems.

More than 20 percent of permission-based commercial email gets blocked or filtered before it reaches the inbox. (Source: iMediaConnection ) RSS on the other hand, gives you 100 percent guaranteed delivery. In essence, RSS is the key enabling technology that stands at the forefront of the new world of marketing and PR.

Syndication, enabled by RSS, is the process of making your online content available for republication by other websites and actively distributing that content to any website of relevance for your business.

It makes your content more visible online, and at the same time helps you to better conduct your business intelligence activities to quickly adapt to new market situations.

"Online visibility and online traffic are, quite naturally, of paramount importance to everyone and anyone marketing or conducting business online, period. While RSS may not be the key tool to improve your online visibility and traffic, its importance in helping you do this cannot be disputed," says Rok Hrastnik author of Unleash The Marketing Power of RSS.

Why do people use Feeds?

Like TiVO, with RSS you get only the content you want, when you want it. It can be pulled into your email inbox with a reader like Newsgator, you can install a desktop reader to keep your news content in a separate space or you can organize and keep it in a web-based service like Bloglines.

With the overwhelming amount of new content available online today, a system like RSS and feeds makes it possible to stay abreast of the news, information and research you need to keep your finger on.

There is no possibility of spam. You only get the content you subscribe to and you can organize it, file it and read when you are ready to do so.

Who is reading RSS?

Is this still a techie application that most businesses need not worry about yet? Not at all. RSS adoption has moved way beyond that point.

Firefox, Safari (the MAC browser) My Yahoo, MY MSN and the personalized Google pages all offer an RSS reader. Earthlink just added one to their personalized pages. This means millions of ordinary people are using RSS feeds to gather and read their news and information online. And its not only the 18 - 34 year olds. Even the AARP uses feeds to update their members.

A Yahoo! survey identified people who were RSS users by their clickstream, yet when they were asked about RSS 82 percent did not even now they were using RSS feeds! They just know they use the Add Content feature to read their news online.

Microsofts IE 7 has a built in RSS reader and when this is released broadly it will be a tipping point. In the same way as the background technology of email (SMTP) is not known to most people, the acronym RSS will drop out of use as more and more people use the feeds in browsers and personalized pages. News feeds or web feeds will become a part of our everyday online reading experience. "Even if it is something as simple as putting your press releases in an RSS feed, marketers will benefit from early exposure to distributing information via RSS feeds." Forrester Research

But dont restrict your content syndication to your press releases - a web feed can be used for any content that gets updated on a regular basis on your website or blog.

About the author: Sally Falkow is founder and co developer of PRESSfeed, an RSS service for marketing and PR use. She is co-author of The Power of Online Syndication in Public Relations. For more information on RSS visit http://www.press-feed.com.