No RSS Reader? You’re Fired.
Robert Scoble said website managers not using RSS feeds on their sites should be fired. Almost a year later we should extend that notion to marketing and communications executives and managers.
I talk to a lot of Fortune 500 executives about digital media and all its opportunities each week. I’m amazed at how few of them (or their teams) are using RSS readers to monitor what’s up with their brands on-line. I’d estimate more than 80 percent are NOT using RSS readers currently. More than 90 percent of the executives I meet do seem to use Google Alerts, which is an effective tool for monitoring news, and many feel that’s all they need.
But once they understand the potential of RSS to monitor searches, news, blogs, forums, etc., almost 100 percent ask for advice on “getting set up” which takes ten minutes. It takes another eight weeks, however, to fully incorporate RSS feed reading into their daily lives. Most aren’t willing to hang in there with an RSS reader for that long and slip back into their old media habits.
The good news is there is a battle brewing between three to four companies to make reading RSS feeds easier. I believe their innovations will bring a new wave of marketing and communications professionals — as well as mainstream users — into the RSS fold.
If you are currently considering RSS readers, here are the readers that should be on your shortlist:
- Google Reader — they released a new version this week that a lot of folks are buzzing about. I was not impressed with the last version, but I am evaluating the new one currently. I’ll let you know what I think.
- Bloglines — this is my current reader, and I really like the way it works. Its mobile version also works quite well on my Blackberry which is important to me.
- Internet Explorer 7 — I’m a Firefox user, but I hear IE7 replicates a lot of the functionality of Firefox and incorporates a nice RSS reader. IE7 will be released in October so we can all see for ourselves.
Newsgator probably should be on this list, but I find it difficult to use. They have reader that integrates with Outlook which I purchased and used for four weeks. Honestly, I already have more e-mails than I can answer. I want to keep RSS feeds out of my e-mail so I can actually read and enjoy them.
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