Choking on Data, Drowning Bit by Bit? Write for RSS Readers
There was a compelling article recently in ClickZ by Pete Blackshaw, called “Repeat After Me: We’re Still In Control!”
Smart marketers realize consumers are increasingly in control of their messages. Especially those who get their information delivered to them in RSS feeds (define).
People turn to RSS to help them filter information and make it convenient to read - news and information is delivered to their PDA’s, to their Outlook inboxes and online.
The sheer amount of information available to the common consumer is stunning. Gone are the days of simplicity in finding relevant information. (As much as I know about improving “find-ability” online, I’m guilty of making it hard for people to find smart, relevant keywords in my own posts…)
Pete’s point in the article:
Consumers have ultimate control over their attention, but we have the power to drive retention.
How? By being thoughtful and by making everything we create be relevant to both people and search engines:
- Create interesting, useful information - write well, write to the point
- Tag (categorize) your posts thoughtfully - this post will be tagged using my categories:
- RSS - really simple syndication - a technology that allows people to subscribe to your information
- Attensa (they provide RSS feed servers and readers, and they’re a customer of mine)
- Search Engine Marketing (or SEM)
- Marketing Technology (a general category that I really should break out and be more specific about)
- Use smart, relevant keywords (so when people search for your topic, they’ll find your posts)
- Finally, help people know why they might rely on you with a simple positioning statement that describes what you write about the most - mine is “the art of marketing” although I think I should refine it to be “the art and science of marketing…” (what do you think?)
Consider this: if a search engine spider can’t easily categorize what you’re writing about, how will people who subscribe to RSS feeds find you?
