When it comes to reading RSS feeds, maybe both – probably neither.
A successful restaurateur was recently asked if he greeted every customer every time they came in the door. The answer was no. He’d like to, and he greets every one he sees, but sometimes his his work keeps him in the kitchen. But he still loves each of his customers.
A friend who is an avid reader and collector of books, and a fan of Barnes and Noble, confessed recently she didn’t go to the bookstore everyday. Sometimes, she visits without making a purchase. But she’s still a loyal customer.
So here we have both sides of the business relationship coin. A business leader who cannot possibly greet every customer. A customer who doesn’t buy from one of her favorite companies daily.
Marshall Kirkpatrick recently shared a bit his feed reading habits with us (emphasis mine):
"I am subscribed to thousands of RSS feeds and currently have thousands of unread items in my feed reader – that suits me just fine. The secret is to organize those feeds so that the most important information is easy to access."
The Signal: You don’t have to read every item that comes into your feed aggregation. Recognize the important items. Delete duplicative or unwanted items. Save others for later.
Don’t ignore the tool and practice of Search Once and Subscribe because of imagined overload or time issues. Just think about it differently.
