Are RSS Feeds Dead?
Time to Read: 2m 50s
[caption id="attachment_3121" align="alignleft" width="170"]
Photo credit: Chesi - Fotos CC / Foter / CC BY-SA[/caption] In 2001, the RSS feed seemed like the perfect information-gathering solution in the modern technology era. The little orange widget was going to change the way we got our newspapers, gathered information from our favorite websites, received breaking news updates, read our latest favorite blog posts and absorbed information as tech-savvy humans. We wanted information and lots of it. What did the RSS feed look like? Picture your Facebook News Feed but instead of your friend Steve from high school complaining about being at work on a Monday morning and being ready for a beer, you got to scroll through all the news and information that you’re actually interested in. Sounds perfect right? #notsofast. Fast-forward to 2014. Who needs to receive information anymore when all you need to do is go to Twitter or Facebook and get all the latest breaking news and updates? These news outlets give you news so fast it makes the RSS feed seem like a smoke signal. Social Media has killed the RSS feed. The first victim was The Google Reader, which was pronounced dead on July 1st, 2013. Social Media is essentially the largest RSS feed on the planet, but instead of subscribing, you simply get all the latest news no matter what, oh and hey you might just find something else that catches your interest such as CandyCrush, Farmville, Puff Daddy is now P-Diddy, the list goes on. RSS feeds didn’t stand a chance once this new instant central information spot rolled into town. How Does This Affect My Marketing? Well, now you have to actually come up with unique content that interests people, without being able to prequalify them. The job of a digital marketer just got tougher. In the RSS feed days, you had a list of loyal subscribers that you could rely on to read and pay attention to your content. Now you have to use analytical information (as well as creativity) and determine what “people” or more specifically your target market will be interested in. Now you are competing with your friend Steve from high school and Farmville to grab your former RSS subscribers’ attention through social media. According to IBM, 90% of today’s existing data has been created in just the past two years. People no longer sit down at their desktop and surf the web for an hour a day. Instead, they are constantly creating, searching for information, and retrieving content from all types of devices – smartphones, tablets, e-readers, and laptops. What used to be sought after news from your website or company to your loyal RSS subscriber is now junk mail in a saturated market. Is there an alternative to RSS feeds? Yes, social media web sites such as Twitter and Facebook have the potential to take over many of the functions of your old RSS feed and Google Reader. Social media web sites are becoming much more than places to keep in touch with friends, family and colleagues online. They’re becoming major hubs of information consumption as well as distribution. It’s important to understand how this trend is playing out on some of the more popular destinations on the social web. If you need some help parting with the ways of the RSS feed we are always here to help!
Photo credit: Chesi - Fotos CC / Foter / CC BY-SA[/caption] In 2001, the RSS feed seemed like the perfect information-gathering solution in the modern technology era. The little orange widget was going to change the way we got our newspapers, gathered information from our favorite websites, received breaking news updates, read our latest favorite blog posts and absorbed information as tech-savvy humans. We wanted information and lots of it. What did the RSS feed look like? Picture your Facebook News Feed but instead of your friend Steve from high school complaining about being at work on a Monday morning and being ready for a beer, you got to scroll through all the news and information that you’re actually interested in. Sounds perfect right? #notsofast. Fast-forward to 2014. Who needs to receive information anymore when all you need to do is go to Twitter or Facebook and get all the latest breaking news and updates? These news outlets give you news so fast it makes the RSS feed seem like a smoke signal. Social Media has killed the RSS feed. The first victim was The Google Reader, which was pronounced dead on July 1st, 2013. Social Media is essentially the largest RSS feed on the planet, but instead of subscribing, you simply get all the latest news no matter what, oh and hey you might just find something else that catches your interest such as CandyCrush, Farmville, Puff Daddy is now P-Diddy, the list goes on. RSS feeds didn’t stand a chance once this new instant central information spot rolled into town. How Does This Affect My Marketing? Well, now you have to actually come up with unique content that interests people, without being able to prequalify them. The job of a digital marketer just got tougher. In the RSS feed days, you had a list of loyal subscribers that you could rely on to read and pay attention to your content. Now you have to use analytical information (as well as creativity) and determine what “people” or more specifically your target market will be interested in. Now you are competing with your friend Steve from high school and Farmville to grab your former RSS subscribers’ attention through social media. According to IBM, 90% of today’s existing data has been created in just the past two years. People no longer sit down at their desktop and surf the web for an hour a day. Instead, they are constantly creating, searching for information, and retrieving content from all types of devices – smartphones, tablets, e-readers, and laptops. What used to be sought after news from your website or company to your loyal RSS subscriber is now junk mail in a saturated market. Is there an alternative to RSS feeds? Yes, social media web sites such as Twitter and Facebook have the potential to take over many of the functions of your old RSS feed and Google Reader. Social media web sites are becoming much more than places to keep in touch with friends, family and colleagues online. They’re becoming major hubs of information consumption as well as distribution. It’s important to understand how this trend is playing out on some of the more popular destinations on the social web. If you need some help parting with the ways of the RSS feed we are always here to help!