This post is by Michael Pollock, the original owner of Small Business Branding. Yaro Starak now owns and produces the latest content for this blog.
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Recently, Scoble suggested anyone who does a marketing site should be fired if they don’t do an RSS feed.
"Sorry, if you do a marketing site and you don’t have an RSS feed today you should be fired.
"I’ll say it again. You should be fired if you do a marketing site without an RSS feed."
Can anyone say . . . umm, duh. Yet, there are people who debate this simple fact of today’s marketing/business climate. People like Rick Bruner, who I really enjoy reading. Also Michael Gartenberg and Eric Peterson, both writing from the Jupiter Research blog.
Of course, later Eric Peterson seems to get it in this post when he quotes a Scoble comment regarding a Dave Winer post:
"No RSS on a site is a symptom of something deeper. It tells me the
site’s owner doesn’t care about traffic. Doesn’t care about users.
Doesn’t want to update often. Doesn’t understand Google. Doesn’t
understand how to get more inbound links (again, doesn’t understand
Google). And doesn’t care whether anyone with Google power links in."
The name of the game is relationship and authenticity. It’s not about the RSS feed. It’s not about the technology. It about what the technology enables. What it promotes. What it allows. It’s about the philosophy of blogging = show up, be real, be relevant.
The genie is out of the bottle. One year from now, if you are not CONNECTING with your network/customers in a very personal and authentic way, the way the blogging philosophy demands, you will be seen as out of style. Out of fashion. Behind the curve. Just another company trying to sell me your shit. Have as great a product or service as your budget will allow, but without the relationship thing, you can bank on declining market share.
Unless of course you have no competition and a monopolistic distribution strategy (and even then you’re not safe from relationship-based products).
You see, XYZ company, I don’t care about you. I care about me and my friends and my family. I care about how your products and services help all of us be better and live better. Show me that you care about the things I care about. Show me that you care more about me than selling me your shit. Talk to me like a friend rather than a target or a consumer. Make it easy for me to hear from you and talk to you. Stop hiding behind the marketing-speak and just be real already.
No RSS = no REALLY SIMPLE syndication. I like REALLY SIMPLE.
No RSS = technological ineptitude.
No RSS = more concern for marketing to me than relating to me.
No RSS = no respect for me, the customer.
No RSS = not enough content (soul) to keep me engaged.
No RSS = no personality. I love personality.
No RSS = you don’t get it.
If you’re Amazon, you don’t need RSS. Yet. If you’re ebay, you don’t need RSS. Yet. If you’re Apple, you don’t need RSS. Yet. If you’re any other 800 pound gorilla competing with monkeys, you’re safe for now. If not, get it together.