Tag: rss

The Next Big Story…How You Can Be In On It
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I watch several news programs during the day. It’s my way of keeping up with the latest news and venturing into the minds of the public relations pros as they help shape the news. I may switch from NBC or CBS to CNN in the morning as I am preparing for work. I always check back to the national news during the day.

Two of the hot stories right now are the Martin/Zimmerman story and the “big wait” for the birth of the royal baby. All of the major media outlets are on both of these stories. Many have sent reporters and their media crews to London to await the royal birth. As of this writing, there is no word from the Palace that the Duchess is even in labor. However, media outlets have scurried over to get “the next big story.”

You are a business owner, and depending on what you sell or what services you provide – there has to be “the next big story” in your field. So, how do you get your next big story? How do you stay up on the cutting edge of new things? What measures do you have in place to hear the little whispers out there that “the next big story” will pop out at any given time?

A few ways you can get out the gate with “the next big story” is to use an RSS feed from all the blogs and news outlets that you regularly visit. Why get the news second hand from someone on social media hours after it has been published? Most Internet browsers have RSS built in.

All you have to do is look for “RSS” on the various websites, click it and grab the link – or click “sign up.” If you opt for grabbing the link, you can manually input that in the RSS in your browser or – if you use Microsoft Outlook 2010 or higher, you can add the RSS into your email system. The great part about having it in your email is that as soon as it is published – it is immediately delivered into your email.

You can take action immediately on that “next big story.” Whether it’s writing a blog about it and sharing it on your own social media accounts, or writing an email and sending it to your clients.

Staying abreast of “the next big story” in your field and getting that information out immediately – will make you and your business very important to your clients.

If you have never used the RSS feed, try it out. You will find that you can’t live without it.

Be More Visible – Your Information…Can Visitors Find It?
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I recently visited a website looking for a particular article. I looked throughout the landing (home) page for a “Search Box.” I looked in the header, footer, body, sidebars…nothing!

The site didn’t offer a way to search the website! A search box is extremely important if your website is content-heavy. If new content is added regularly, it’s very important to have a way for visitors to search for information not found on the landing page. Don’t depend on navigation for visitors to locate information. Unfortunately, I didn’t find what I was looking for and I probably won’t go back to that site to look for anything else.

If you blog or provide news, an “Archive Page” is a must.  The archived information is sorted by month and year. A good example would be someone who may remember an article from June. They may not remember an exact date, but by clicking June in the archive, they can quickly browse to find what they need. The archives can be added to the navigation or a jump box (drop down box) on one of the sidebars can provide easy access.

Another great feature is the Site Index or Site Map. A site index (or more commonly called a site map) is an outline of the structure of the content on your website. It’s laid out in a hierarchical form and offers branches from one level to the next. The site map serves three purposes:

  1. To help search engines crawl your website for new or updated content.
  2. To provide an “at-a-glance” view of the website.
  3. To allow visitors to use as a website navigation tool.

There are two types of site maps – one which is seen by the user on the website (HTML format) and one hidden behind the scenes, which is used by the search engines (XML is one popular format). I recommend using both as it also can assist with Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

One more great resource, which serves two purposes, is an RSS Feed. Really Simple Syndication is a way to publish updated content such as blogs, news, and headlines in a standardized format. Many web browsers and email programs offer RSS feed capabilities. You will see an orange feed icon when visiting a website. Upon clicking, a browser window will open up a page and ask if you would like to subscribe to this news feed. Once selected, whenever new content is added to the website, it will be sent to your news reader.

Another way to use RSS feeds is as a news aggregation service. For example, you have a favorite blog or news site you follow and would like to share it with your visitors. Some blogging systems offer an RSS widget to use to feed information into your site. By having an RSS feed available to your visitors, they too can feed your information into their websites.

The main purpose of your website is to have visitors see what you have to offer. Your information doesn’t stop at the home page. You have useful information on the inside too.

Your visitors should be able to find it.