Mitch Wagner took the time to comment on my post last week on RSS. I think he raises an interesting issue.
He ponders “how is an RSS feed going to make you more effective at PR? Why should we assume that the RSS feed will contain content any more interesting to me than any of those (irrelevant PR) e-mails and phone calls?”
Of course the answer is RSS doesn’t mean the content is any better. The fax, the word processor and the Internet have failed to change the nature of PR information and how it’s delivered. However RSS does add one additional feature to the mix.
If there are companies worth tracking, news can be quickly and easily scanned in one place (the RSS reader). Furthermore, RSS is completely democratic. You decide if you want to subscribe or not.
So if I do a good job with a journalist (or a customer or a partner) they will add my feed(s) to their RSS reader and there’s a much higher chance of them seeing and even reading the news. That’s a big win for PR and can (when the majority of companies in a market are using RSS) help everyone keep up with breaking news in a far easier way than e-mail or even web sites.
As E-mail continues to die on its feet, then if a growing number of people begin to use RSS to keep up to date, every company must work hard to ensure the content they are providing is relevant so that people will remain subscribed.
I admit we are at the very early stages of RSS, however as it gathers momentum it should have benefits for the company and the media. Now if I send rubbish across my RSS feed I know I run the risk of people unsubscribing.
Will it stop stupid phonecalls? No.
Will it stop stupid irrelevant e-mail? No (in the short run)
Does it provide a far easier way of keeping on top of the latest news from hundreds of companies? Yes.
In summary, RSS is a tool that helps in managing the exponentially growing volume of data. Unfortunately it’s an addition and not a replacement for what went before.
Murphy's Law 