What RSS Can Do For Your Business
It is not a well-known fact, but using RSS can offer great benefits to your business. Below are some examples that are often used. Please be aware though, some of these techniques could possibly be abused. So please use carefully.
Twitter: Automatically create a new tweet when you have new posts. There are many ways to do this, a popular and free tool to use is Twitterfeed.
Facebook - like twitter, Facebook can also be updated automatically when you post. One recommended application to use is “My Blogs”, as using Facebook app’s can sometimes be unreliable.
Widgets - create a widget that updates with your blog, so others have the option to display the feed on their own blogs or even their desktop. Example applications include “Spring Widgets” and “Google Gadgets”.
File delivery: If you are already publishing a podcast, then it should be easy to start offering PDF documents or video downloads via RSS.
Create affiliate branded RSS feeds: Let affiliates display your blog content and let them be rewarded for it. I’ve created a custom feed for my affiliates, which contains the affiliate’s ID.
Deal finder: we all like to save money, especially when it comes to spending money on our business. Large online stores like Amazon or shop.com offer “deal of the day” or similar offers. These offers can be subscribed to your feed reader, so they will display as soon as they are available.
Package tracking: have your RSS feed update to alert you to the status of your deliveries. Use a solution like SimpleTracking.com.
Track latest questions on Yahoo Answers: Answering questions on Yahoo Answers can be very effective to promote your business. Subscribe to the RSS feed of the category you’re interested in so you’ll be notified when a new question you can answer comes in.
Track your own or other blogs’ comments: Sometimes email notifications quit working. But the RSS always does. If you are using a WordPress blog, your comment feed is usually: http://yourblog.com/?feed=comments-rss2 or http://yourblog.com/comments/feed/
Competitor watch: Find out what competitors or other marketers are doing on social networks, blogs, video and more using FriendFeed.
Track what’s going on in your industry: Do a search on Yahoo or MSN for a keyword or phrase you’d like to watch. Using Firefox or IE 7, an RSS feed icon will appear. Click to subscribe.
Advertise: While I personally have not done any RSS advertising, I have displayed ads in RSS feeds. The click through ratios for that one site performed better compared to web site click through. You can advertise on RSS feeds through Text-Link-Ads, Pheedo and FeedBurner.
Service status update: keep your clients and customers in the know by displaying your service status via RSS feed. This is especially useful for those that offer web hosting, shopping carts or payment gateways.