Archive - RSS Feeds RSS Feed

Your RSS Feed is Part of Your Display Merchandising

By on July 30, 2010 in Blog Coach, RSS Feeds with 0 Comments

RSSImage via Wikipedia

The design of your site looks great (or maybe that mock-up is looking great). Glad you're on top of it.  But do you subscribe to your own RSS feed?

It's also part of your display merchandising — and you should be subscribing to it. You should be reading your feed (your inventory) along with all the others:

  • Does your headline slow down your scroll (or "next" clicks)?
  • Is there content above the fold that grabs you — or is there only ads above the click?
  • Is your name listed as author – or does "admin" write your site?
  • That image that took you way too long to find, is it above the scroll bar – and does it add to the story?

If you don't subscribe to any feeds (and you should), we have a whole 'nuther problem. And another post.

But today, subscribe to your own blog and see what your readers see. It's Display Merchandising 101.

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What the Heck? RSS, Google Reader & a Starters Kit

By on July 17, 2010 in Blog Coach, RSS Feeds with 0 Comments

What the Heck is RSS?
(click the icon)

Rss_logo

A Starter Kit for Your RSS Reading

TIPS n TRIPS (TNT): Learn RSS Feeds Top to Bottom

By on June 3, 2010 in Blog Coach, Education, Marketing, RSS Feeds, Social Media with 0 Comments

60513984 Here's a dynamite opportunity if you're looking to improve how you're using certain tools within the Social Media toolset towards reaching your bottom-line goal of the whole package (we'll always begin with the bigger purpose in mind).

It's what I'm calling Tips in Trips (TNT). What's TNT?

A triple dose of rigorous 60-90 minute sessions (plus a free 30-minute follow-up session) of:

  • one-on-one,
  • distance-doesn't-matter,
  • time-zones-don't-upset-us,
  • not-just-the-surface-but-well-below-the-tip-of-the-iceberg-deep-immersion-schooling

Each tool will have it's own set of three live sessions  — a deep-dive into using each tool (again – always with the bigger purpose in mind). We'll use some combination of Skype/Phone and CrossLoop.

These three-set sessions are designed to show business owners, association leaders, speakers, educators, or passion-into-profession folks how to use the tool in question

Normally, three one-on-one sessions totals $450. But this fireworks special is on the short fuse – 1/2 price. That's $225! But that's not all!

With this special summer offer, upon graduation of the sessions, you'll get a laminated cheat sheet for the tool. Everyone start with RSS Feeds. Ready?


Here's some of what you'll learn in the RSS Feeds set:

  • Google Reader vs Google Alerts
  • Search Once and Subscribe
  • Why Using Personal Pronouns is Imperative
  • Using RSS as a Relevant Signal Stream
  • Is Your RSS Radar Up
  • Monitoring Your Name, Brand, and Content
  • Smarter Infosumption
  • Pruning Down Your Feeds
  • How Feeds Can Create Your Credibility Customer Loyalty
  • Skim, Scan, Save…and Share
  • RSS as a Content Producer and Publisher
  • Filtering through the Echo Chamber
  • Using Feeds for the Fringe
  • Privatizing RSS Feeds for Premium Content
  • ….much*16 more!!

The RSS course is a prerequisite for all other courses, which are independent of each other. Upcoming Tools – a la carte

  • Blogging I – Within the Box (The Basics)
  • Blogging II – Outside the Box (The Advanced)
  • Twitter
  • Flickr
  • SlideShare
  • YouTube
  • Delicious or Diigo
  • Mobiel & Location-Based (Foursquare, Gowala, etc)

Let's Get started with RSS. An email will be sent to start you thinking about your purpose and scheduling of your three sessions of one-on-one immersion.


IDLFO Project: Sharing What You Read with Widgets

By on January 22, 2010 in Books, RSS Feeds with 0 Comments

Mybookdisplay Have you ever noticed how the attention of new visitors to your home or office is drawn to your bookshelf display? The titles and subjects provide a quick conversation piece, but also shows commonality — possibly even discovery.

Likewise, sharing what you read online can be a great sticking point in building community with new visitors to your blog. It also keeps your reading organize (knowing folks are looking in).

Two widgets I've put into play on my new I Dunno, Let's Find Out site are a Slideshare favorites and a Google Reader Shared Items list. I will probably do likewise soon with my Flickr favorites and a VodPod widget

Scott McLeod recently offered up what he shares on Google Reader, broken down by category, and boy did I had a field day subscribing to many sites I hadn't known about.

So, here are four reasons to use these widgets (or even your own FriendFeed widget to show all you read-write-publish):

  • Build community through commonality
  • Be a resource to your visitors by sharing
  • Keep Found things Found
  • It's easy to do

So, what's in your bookshelf?

Other IDLFO Project Posts:
 - Listen and Learn
 - What's My New Site About?

Photo on Flicker by myself

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RSS = Relevant Signal Stream

By on May 30, 2009 in Blog Coach, RSS Feeds, Social Media with 1 Comment

A few folks are still hesitant to use RSS as a way of filtering their infosumption. A bunch of us still hem and haw when trying to explain RSS (Really Simple huh?). Even when we keep it simple, the adult audiences are still trying to figure out the science or something.

While storyboarding a presentation, I thought of this acronym: 

RSS = Relevant Signal Stream 

That's all we're really looking for, yes?  For our feed reader to be a filter of noise and get us a clear signal.

Join in on this please … would RSS = Relevant Signal Stream put the not-so-tech-comfy at ease so we can get to the benefits of RSS?

Here's the storyboard I was working on if you're interested (the RSS acronym is slide # 5):

Storyboard

(and this is another reason why storyboarding is part of the Sansone Way: 1st 20 days)

Related Posts:
 - Search Once and Subscribe: Use Personal Pronouns
 - Can You Explain Exactly How a Microwave Works?
 - Even Your LaZBoy has Technology


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Sansone’s Way: The First 20 Days (Pt. 1)

By on May 26, 2009 in Blog Coach, Education, RSS Feeds, Social Media with 1 Comment

A lot of folks ask me if I have a schedule or lesson plan for clients. Below is a guideline of the beginning half of our First 20 days (adapted from Fountas & Pinnell's Guiding Readers & Writers)

Day Mini-Lesson Goal/Purpose Learning Outcome Task/Tool Benchmark

.1

 Purpose Driven Social Media Determine the purpose of engagement and the categories of messages Decide who the core audience is, which categories can be written about at least three times each month Pen and Paper; Storyboarding w/ Post-its Define between 6-8 categories, the core audience of engagement; three fringe fields

.2

 Blogging: Easy as Email Get used to the blogware by crafting practice posts Learn how to Talk Write and create a compelling Title Blogware (Typepad or WordPress) 5 practice posts in the next five days (not all five at once)
3 Listening to the Blogosphere Get in the habit of reading RSS feeds relevant to their interest/field Learn how to thin-slice a blog, decide whether to subscribe. Learn how to Skim, Scan and Save important posts Google Reader Subscribe to 10 blogs over next 5 days
4 Commenting on posts To extend our voice, engage in the conversation and create interest; tracking our conversation What makes a relevant comment; why one should comment elsewhere, how long should a comment be BackType, Disqus Comment on min. 5 posts per week (at least 5 different sites)
5 Blog Posting Mantra To craft a post that includes at least one link out and plenty of eye rests Learn how to find relevant posts to link to and images that punctuate the post; Creative Commons Google Blog Search; Flickr; Compfight At least one link out every post; at least two eye rests
6 Embedding Use of third party tools to use in blog posts Learn how to embed videos, slideshows, and documents within a post YouTube, SlideShare, Scribd Successfully embed a video or presentation into a post
7 Bookstore To catch a glimpse of why there's always room for another good voice; notice trends; look at which headlines sell; recognize value in different genres An open mind to new possibilities; think of your blog as a book rather than a journal Barnes & Noble or Borders Pick up a copy of either Purple Cow, Greater Than Yourself, Who's Got Your Back or Think Big Manifesto
8 Search Once & Subscribe Using search phrases, especially with a personal pronoun, to find relevant posts and bloggers. RSS=More knowledge in less time. Always know when someone talks about you and what's important to you. Google Blog Search (with a hint at other social networks for future use) Subscribe to searches on your name, brand and product or service and at least two relevant queries
9 Twitter Basics Guidelines of engagement using 70-20-10 as a compass; use of RT, @, and # syntax; Following other "tweeps" Being a resource to the Twitter conversation. Not about "What are you doing?" but rather "What are you adding to the mix?" Twitter; Twellow Min. 20 tweets in the next 5 days with 70-20-10 as guide.
10 Twitter Intermediate Finding relevant conversations on Twitter. Skim, Scan, Save & Share using Favorites Using the Search Once & Subscribe for Twitter; tracking conversations, merging RSS reading with Twitter conversations BackTweets, Twitter Search Starting to get your "tweets" RT'd

Notice that blogging, commenting, and reading feeds comes first. We don't start with Twitter, though many want to because of the presumed instant gratification. Blogging is the foundation of your social media footprint.

One over-arching theme is time management. We look at maximum 15-20 minutes with each tool use and need to build up (down?) to that time frame for each tool.

By the time the First 20 Days is done, we'll have Blogging, RSS Feeds, Commenting, Twitter, Slideshare, Social Network (Facebook, Ning, or LinkedIn), and Social Bookmarking in our quiver.

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Lunch n Learn w/ Sydney Eve Matrix & Lectures that Stick

By on May 25, 2009 in Education, RSS Feeds, Social Media with 0 Comments

With our 21st Century Literacies and Habitudes Workshop right around the corner, this piece by Sydney Eve Matrix seems like a great appetizer:

Sticky Lectures: Digital Tools You Can Use to Encourage Engagement & Retention

My favorite slide is # 16 (of 38), but I'm a big community guy.

Get Your Ears On with Lava Row Workshops

By on May 13, 2009 in Blog Coach, RSS Feeds with 0 Comments

My pals at Lava Row (and the NEIC) are kicking off Small Business Week next Monday and Tuesday with back-to-back lunchtime workshops on monitoring and engaging in the social media space. Here's the porch pitch:

"Your customers are talking about you online. This
workshop teaches you and your team how to harness listening and
monitoring technology (Google Reader, Technorati, Twitter Search, etc.)
for the purpose of scanning conversations in blogs, social networks,
user forums, message boards and online communities for mentions of your
business, competitors and other relevant topics."

Reservations are only $25 per person and you can save your spot with a simple registration. Tell them at the door that you came to learn how to Search Once and Subscribe, and you'll learn more than the others.

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Lunch n Learn with Louis Gray and Infosumption

By on April 30, 2009 in RSS Feeds, Social Media with 0 Comments

After yesterday’s Mark All as Read post (the gist: don’t buy into overload), I noticed that Andy Brudtkuhl posted something along these lines the day before. I’m looking forward to Andy’s future post on systems he uses to hack the heavy weight. (Follow Andy’s infostream on FriendFeed).

Then, by comment, I find that Louis Gray gave a presentation on the myth of Information Overload just yesterday. Some great talking/thought points and practices here (slide No. 11 is the money page for me):

There Is No Information Overload (Inbound Marketing Summit)
View more presentations from louisgray.

(Follow LG’s infostream on FriendFeed)

Just as a point of extension, I find myself using Mark All as Read once every ten days or so — normally on those 14 hour days away from connectivity or filled with workshops and meetings. It’s rare, but I think everyone’s point here is this:  Suffer from Info Overload?  There is no Info Overload of you’re a smart Infosumer.

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A Single Click Cleans Up Your Feed Mess (Mass?)

By on April 29, 2009 in Blog Coach, RSS Feeds with 0 Comments

Feedmess Our schedules can get so busy,  sometimes it's hard to keep up with all the feed items in our RSS reader. Today, I woke up to over 1,000 items unread.

Some folks avoid this problem by not subscribing to any RSS feeds ('scuse me, but ignoring something over and over makes one ignorant, no?)

Here's how I handle an overload of RSS items on my plate:

  1. First, I practice Skim, Scan, Save (and then Share) to avoid the infosumption overload
  2. Once my feed items get over 300 unread, I'll do the S-plan above until I reach items more than 24 hours old – and click on Mark All as Read for the others.

So this morning, though the items unread were over 1,000 – no fretting here.  I just have a 24-hour period to read through (probably about 200 items)…and remember, I Skim, Scan & Save (and then Share)  and get rid of the older ones- so it should take me about 15-20 minutes.

If something is really, really poplular (you know…that thing you don't want to miss?), everybody will be writing/talking about it — you'll catch up.

Photo on Flickr by RIPizzo (more by RIPizzo)


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