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Using RSS Feeds for Economic Development Time Management //Derek Pillie

LEDOsuite.comtwitter.com/dpilliefacebook.com/dpillielinkedin.com/in/dpilliejust search for “derek pillie” or “dpillie”Project Manager – LEDO Suite

Using RSS Feeds for Economic Development Time Management //Derek Pillie

RSS Feeds // Why are You Here?

• You know that the success of your economic development organization means attracting new businesses and supporting existing business

• You know quality intelligence is one of the most important assets for an economic development professional

• You know there is a tremendous amount of intelligence available online• Information and messages about you

or your community• Information about what your

competition is up to

• You need a better way to gather and process all of this information without spending too much time away from your other responsibilities

RSS Feeds // What Will You Learn?

• What does RSS stand for, why does it exist and how will it help me?

• What information you need to find and subscribe to relevant RSS feeds

• What tools you can use to help process the inbound information from these feeds and turn data into actionable steps

• How RSS Feeds can have social media implications that will help improve your organization’s online visibility

• How to sort through information and make good decisions about the ongoing management of your RSS feeds.

RSS Feeds // About Cirrus ABS

• 15 Years Experience in Online Marketing and Website Development

• Hybrid company that offers the best of marketing and technology firms

• 25+ employees

• Full staff of technical & creative personnel

• Clients ranging from Fortune 500 to small local businesses

RSS Feeds // About Cirrus ABS

Cirrus ABS Core Competencies• Corporate Marketing Solutions - Strategic

Consulting, Website Development, Online Marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

• Platform Solution Development• Vertical Market Solutions• Economic Development,

Education, Insurance…• Corporate Solutions for

Distributor/Dealer Networks• Franchise Solutions

Website Leads// Cirrus ABS ED Clients

RSS Feeds // Other Cirrus ABS Clients

RSS Feeds // What does RSS Mean?

RSS stands for Really Simple SyndicationRSS is a standardized format used to

publish frequently updated websites like blogs, newspapers or media, etc.

The idea of syndicating or broadcasting website content is almost as old as our company!

The first actual RSS feed was developed in 1999

Feeds didn’t see widespread adoption by website users until recently

RSS feeds mean you can bring information from sites you visit to ONE source, processing the information on your terms without having to visit multiple websites!

RSS Feeds // What does RSS Mean?

How did RSS feeds develop?Netscape (an early browser)

developed a proprietary channel that was later replicated by AOL, Yahoo and Google

They needed to develop a format that could easily process and display information in real time from content partners

RSS 0.9 was born in 1999, but was primarily used by the media and their IT departments for web applications

RSS Feeds // What does RSS Mean?

How is RSS used today?The advent of blogging encouraged the

development of technology to read and manage RSS feeds

As Internet users were able to manage these feeds on their own, more sources started developing tech- nology to read these feeds

The first actual RSS feed was developed in 1999

Feeds didn’t see widespread adoption by website users until recently

RSS is an extremely useful too for website design, but can also be harnessed to dramatically improve YOUR productivity!

RSS Feeds // Where do I find an RSS feed?

The simple answer? Just about ANYWHERE!

Public awareness of RSS feeds really took off when Microsoft Explorer adopted the orange and white logo Firefox had been using for feeds

That logo is now ubiquitous, most browsers will recognize when there is a feed available on a website (see below for example)

If there is a website that publishes information YOU are interested in, more than likely it has a feed you can manage!

RSS Feeds // Unconventional RSS Sources

So you know the sites you frequent have feeds, but there ARE other uses!

Track your Newman!

Everyone has someone they compete with, that challenges them – for Jerry Seinfeld, it was Wayne Knight’s Newman

LEARN FROM THEM!

RSS Feeds // Action 1

1. Identify your target2. Perform a Google News search for your

target3. Google News will generate an RSS feed for

your search4. Perform a Twitter search for your target• Use http://search.twitter.com• Twitter search will generate a feed for

the query5. Enter your target’s website into

ChangeDetection.com• Set up an account• Create an RSS feed for your alert

You can now quickly and effectively keep tabs on your competition!

RSS Feeds // Unconventional RSS Sources

You can use the same tools for tracking your competition to monitor YOUR community’s reputation

Just change your search parameters, look for target terms or key community organizations that people might talk about online.

Use Google News and Twitter searches to monitor mentions of these events!

You can use Twitter’s advanced search capabilities to monitor all Tweets within a specified radius of a ZIP Code!

RSS Feeds // Unconventional RSS Sources

You can also use your RSS feeds to find content to write about or share on your own website!

Identify information sources that cover topics that might be of interest to your target audiences, odds are they’ll publish something you can comment on or add value to for your own audience!

Feeds can help to identify people you’d like to engage with via social media.

Content generation is one of the most frequent complaints we receive! Use RSS feeds to conquer this challenge!

RSS Feeds // Processing RSS Feeds

There are lots of choices out there!

Ultimately you have to choose the reader or aggregator that is going to best meet your needs if utilizing RSS feeds is going to work for you.

While you can pick any of these, we’re going to talk about Google Reader

RSS Feeds // Using Google Reader

RSS Feeds // Using Google Reader

There are many reasons why I choose Google Reader to manage my feeds.

(For the record, I started out as a Bloglines user)

From a value and productivity standpoint, Google Reader beats out the competition in a few ways:

1. It’s FREE2. It is easy to organize3. It is easy to move quickly from one article

to the next4. You can “quickly” bookmark items that

deserve more attention later5. You can work in an offline mode if you’re

not connected to the Internet

RSS Feeds // Action 2

Setup Google profiles for you & your organizationhttp://www.google.com/profiles

RSS Feeds // Using Google Reader

The keyboard is your friend!

Flipping through articles can move very quickly once you learn a few simple keystrokes – principally “j” and “k”!

You can use the keyboard to move from one story to the next, move from one folder to the next, bookmark an item for later viewing, and the list goes on. This simple innovation can actually save you a ton of time!

See the entire list at: http://www.google.com/support/reader/bin/answer.py?answer=69973

RSS Feeds // Using Google Reader

Social integration

You can easily track or subscribe to items people you know share via Google Reader, as well as see any comments that were made about the item

If you’ve used Gmail or Google Bookmarks, you’re familiar with the “star” system Google uses to save important items – this system lets you click items that deserve more attention so you can review them later.

You can very easily share items via Facebook, Twitter, Email, or through Google Buzz by using the like feature

RSS Feeds // Action 3

Make a group!

One of the great ways to manage your time reading RSS feeds is to group them into subject areas.

Going back to the earlier slide you’ll notice I had a series of folders that covered different topics. I rank these groups in order of importance so I don’t have to churn through 300+ articles in one sitting, I can pick and choose which groups I read.

Groups allow you to focus your time on the most important information.

RSS Feeds // Using Google Reader

Working offline

It seems people have no problem finding hotspots or connecting to online services via their smart phones, but offline access still has advantages

For folks that tend to travel often, until the airlines allow you better access to wireless signals, having the flexibility to access your feeds offline can be a productive way to spend the time you can use your devices on the plane.

If you “take your work home” being able to read and digest the events of the day offline might be a great way to keep you focused on work that can get done while you’re in the office.

RSS Feeds // Bookmarking Good Content

Where do you store all this great content you find?

There are many different services you can use, with varying degrees of functionality.

Each service has its own advantages and disadvantages – del.icio.us will automatically generate a blog post of items you save!

I prefer using Evernote because it lets me file items in “virtual filing cabinets” but also tag items so that I can find topical material easily no matter where it’s filed.

RSS Feeds // Use Content You Bookmark

You’ve found it, you’ve stored it, now what?

We’ve just reviewed a system that will allow you to consume vast amounts of information in a relatively short time, in theory saving time from your work day

You need to identify your own strategy for using this information in a way that will be most effective for your organization. Prioritize functions we described that are critical and figure out a process that lets you use this information to better position your organization.

You need to identify your own strategy for using this information in a way that will be most effective for your organization.

RSS Feeds // Manage Your Feed Profile

This isn’t a one-time thing, it’s a process, it MUST be managed!

You’ll need to evaluate the effectiveness of your system and the relevance of your feeds on an ongoing basis.

Google Reader does provide you with some tools to analyze the value of your various feed subscriptions

Just because you’re not reading all of the items in a feed doesn’t mean it has no value, evaluate each of these on a case by case basis

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