HOME OBSESSIONS - Media/Comm - Writing - Education - Music FAQ HEROES CAREER BLOG - RSS CONTACT This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. arch emisou panton
	Phil's Blogservations Saturday, August 13, 2005 Posted by philgomes 12:39 PM RSS And PR: The Discussion Continues RSS And PR: The Discussion Continues Over across the pond, Stuart Bruce talks about how publishers are taking to RSS, while PR folks continue to lag. He also points to some helpful services. I've always referred to RSS's strength as being "incorruptibly opt-in", that is, no one can force an RSS feed down one's throat. If a feed starts to suck, folks can unsubscribe. Simple. Elegant. When I originally wrote "Using RSS For Corporate Communications" for MediaMap's ExpertPR letter back in April 2003, I remember it was intro'ed by the editors with something like "Don't worry. We didn't know what it was either." Granted there are folks like Tom Murphy who got multi-channel feeds going in the Cape Clear newsroom early on, but I'm wondering if the PR industry's attitude toward RSS has changed substantially in the two years since. Of course, we PR-blogger folks (or, in my case, "PR-people-who-blog"... big difference) have been singing RSS's praises for years now. Truly widespread use of RSS in PR is going to happen quietly and, one day, you'll log on to your computer and see that it's all over the place and has been for some time. In fact, I predict that people won't even be conscious of (or particularly care about) the fact that they are consuming RSS or some other syndication form. Once the new Windows ships — which is supposed to support RSS right out-of-the-box — subscribing to web content (from journalistic, corporate, personal, or other sources) will be viewed in much the same way that you operate other functions that have been just kind of absorbed into the OS. Of course, it's our job as PR folks to understand the inner workings of such things now, which is what I believe Mr. Bruce is rightly challenging the industry to do. | HOME | OBSESSIONS | FAQ | HEROES | CAREER | BLOG | CONTACT Note that the views expressed on this site do not necessarily reflect those of Phil's employer, its business partners, its clients, or anyone or anything that doesn't come from Phil's demented imagination. Hell, to be perfectly honest, even Phil disagrees with what he thinks sometimes. This site has virtually no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Clicking on a link doesn't automatically send a 1/2-cent donation to UNICEF. You can't buy, sell, auction, swap, find a date, win friends, influence people, cross the chasm, or decode the human genome using this site. You won't get free email. You won't win a free video game console. This site will not end world hunger, foster peace in the Middle East, help you smell better, teach you how to swing dance, or move the global economy from petroleum to hydrogen fuels. You'll learn a lot about this site's master, though, which amounts to a haphazard collection of strange and useless facts that pretty much won't help you at all.	ABOUT THIS BLOG This is the blog of Phil Gomes, SVP with Edelman Digital and senior advisor to the Society for New Communications Research. This blog not only discusses PR and media matters, but Phil's everyday observations about a variety of topics. Phil currently resides in Chicago, IL. EMAIL phil[at] philgomes.com View my page on PROpenMic SYNDICATE Feedburner ARCHIVE YAHOO! IM SKYPE WISH LIST PITCH POLICY MY PHOTOS www.flickr.com Photostream RSS Enter your Email Powered by FeedBlitz COMMENT AND TRACKBACK POLICY Comments and trackbacks are unmoderated, though I will delete the patently offensive ones. Any comments and trackbacks are the opinions of the individual writer of those comments and trackbacks, and not those of Phil Gomes, his employer, its clients, or its business partners. If you have a bone to pick, bug the people who wrote the comment or trackback.