Dec
29
2006
Have you RSS’d yourself? A must-learn (easy) trick for 2007
Posted in the Category of New New Things
This little trick goes on your "must do" list for 2007. It's so easy that my techie friends will laugh at my simple explanation, to follow.
Forget them. This blog is for the un-cool, the rest-of-us, the "real people (who) don't blog" as my husband called them in the opening line of The Corporate Blogging Book.
He's wrong of course. We do blog, many of us. We read blogs, almost all the rest of us. But that's the whole point of the book and of Time Magazine's 2006 Person of the Year - You!
Why you should RSS yourself
This is not an exercise in vanity, BTW. It's your no-cost, real-time way of monitoring the blogosphere and then engaging where appropriate or as time permits. I love leaving comments on a new blog where someone is kind enough to mention my book. The blogger is always astonished that I "discovered" his/her blog. But really, it's so easy...
How to RSS Yourself
There are two steps to RSS'ing yourself:
1. You create persistent keyword searches2. You subscribe to those search results via RSS
The basic idea is that you use RSS (my RSS 101) to set up persistent keyword searches. You search on your name, your company name, product, brand, service, etc. And any keyword phrases related to your industry or your interests.
I have keyword searches set up on "debbie weil," "the corporate blogging book," "corporate blogging," "corporate blogging guidelines," "ceo bloggers," etc. You get the idea.
Then you have the results of those keyword searches delivered to you through your RSS newsreader. Technically, you "subscribe" to your keyword search results just as you would subscribe to a blog.
Set up persistent keyword searches using Google, Bloglines and Technorati
For starters, use Google news alerts (via Google News), Bloglines and Technorati to set up your searches.
For example, type your name "in quotes" into the Technorati search bar (as below). When the results come up, look for the little orange "Subscribe" icon on the right. Click (or right-click) the icon to copy the link. Then insert that link into your RSS reader of choice as a new "subscription."
I use Bloglines because it's Web-based and I find it simple to use. Some folks like Google's Reader. (Both are free.)
Below are what my keyword search results look like in my Bloglines account. The first screenshot shows you the RSS results for a Google news alert search on "debbie weil."
1. Google News Alert on "debbie weil" viewed through Bloglines
2. Technorati results on "debbie weil" viewed through Bloglines
3. Bloglines search on "debbie weil" viewed through Bloglines
Why three separate searches? They deliver different results
If you're wondering why I use Google news alerts, Technorati and Bloglines to do the persistent searching, it's because they deliver different results: mentions on blogs, in news articles, in other languages, etc. RSS searching is still an imperfect science. But hey, it's free. And it's useful. No more excuses... go for it in 2007!
P.S. Another useful idea
Anil Dash, VP and Chief Evangelist for Six Apart does something clever. He uses the HTML results of a Google news search on his name in the media/press section of his bio.
Writes Anil Dash on his bio:
"You can see a list of recent press mentions and quotes on Google News, and most recent articles mentioning Six Apart are available on the Six Apart press page."
Useful Links
RSS 101 (my 5-step guide to get started)
RSS: Should You Bother? (great round-up of links and resources by Mark Goren)
Untangle the World Wide Web With RSS (Reuters - Dec. 29, 2006)
Blogging, Podcasting & RSS 101 (my round-up of links)
Trackback URL
Comments
Dave said on December 29, 2006 at 06:22 PM
Have you figured out how to get Google Alerts into an RSS feed? I use them and would like them in a feed but I can figure out how to get them only via email.
Debbie Weil said on December 29, 2006 at 07:06 PM
Dave,
Once you’ve set up a keyword search in Google News Alert - for example, on the term “business blogging” - click on the “business blogging” link. Look on the left-hand side of the results page. You’ll see RSS as a little text link. Right-click on that to copy the RSS feed into your newsreader.
Brenda said on December 30, 2006 at 03:10 PM
I am one of those “astonished” bloggers after reading the comment you left on my blog today. And guess what? Now I’m using this little RSS trick to keep tabs on myself in the blogosphere. Thanks for sharing your wealth of information via hardback and online. Great stuff!
Mike Sansone said on December 30, 2006 at 06:46 PM
Great suggestions, Debbie. Taking it one step further, do these searches on clients, competition and other phrases important to your business.
Search Once and Subscribe.
Paul Chaney said on December 31, 2006 at 06:46 AM
Yes, we authors have to stay in touch with what our fans are saying about us, don’t we? 
Seriously, RSSing yourself is a great idea. Maybe a bit narcissistic, but useful nonetheless.
Rich Truman said on December 31, 2006 at 07:48 AM
Debbie,
First up, please excuse my ignorance - I’m jut starting to get up to speed with blogging and other social media.
Your book / blog have been interesting me of late, but I still feel that there is one key thing missing from much of the blog / social media debate.
These are very much ‘pull’ media, so how does one blog become well-read? And if blogs are so popular, just how many people are looking at the best-read ones? The reason I ask this is that I’ve noticed that Bob Lutz’s blog posts generally get less than 30 comments, which seems pretty poor for a top guy in one of the world’s largest (and socially and politically interesting) organisations.
Your thoughts would be appreciated,
Rich Truman
Debbie Weil said on December 31, 2006 at 11:30 AM
Rich,
30 comments on any given post is actually a huge number. I’m delighted if I get 2 or 3. As for how to get your blog noticed, there are different schools of thought on this. I subscribe to the “organic” school. Leave comments on other well-read or influential blogs with a link back to your own blog. Exchange emails with an inflential blogger, complimenting him/her on her clever entries. (Flattery gets you almost everywhere.) Write really useful blog entries: Top 10 lists, etc. Others will link to you; your readership will grow. Those are just a few quick ideas. Thanks for leaving a comment and Happy New Year!
Brad Mills said on January 10, 2007 at 12:56 AM
Thanks a lot for these great tips! I’m an absolute novice when it comes to blogging, and this tip is great! Thank you so much!
Tara Kachaturoff said on January 18, 2007 at 06:12 AM
Debbie, I set up some personal RSS feeds as soon as I read your blog. They are fantastic for tracking press releases for my television program. So convenient. Thank you for the valuable tip.
Dawud Miracle said on March 26, 2007 at 10:51 AM
I’m with Mike Sansone. Take this a step further and use RSS to track as much important information about your business and your competition as you can.
FOR RICH…
Comments are only one way to measure a blogs effectiveness and popularity. Feed subscriptions, traffic, backlinks, trackbacks, search ranking - all these, and more, provide metrics for your blog’s success.
I’ve found that it’s best to be clear in why your blogging and select a couple of metrics for measuring your progress. And one key is to know your readers and what they want to hear about.
I’ve got posts that have 30+ comments and I have posts that have 2 comments. If you look at my blog, you’ll see a pattern to what type of content encourages comments from my readers.
So figure out what’s important for you to be doing with your blog and then work to build that.
David Armstrong said on July 2, 2007 at 09:44 AM
Hi guys..first time post here. I found it via a persistent search. haha. My company makes this concept even better...we do search RSS too...video..blog..jobs....etc. Sorry for the “self-promo”..but I think you’d be interested...enjoy. Do a search on bouncebase..then export. Or if you don’t already have a simple newsreader..try bouncebase. thx..David
oh..we have a google gadget too...just search the igoogle directory for bouncebase.
Unsung Zero said on December 14, 2007 at 12:44 PM
We, too, are trying to utilize the powerful new world of blogging to drive more business. I am personally fairly ignorant, and that’s why I appreciated your article so much. RSS may be the missing piece to the puzzle that I am currently trying to put together.
Larry Johnson said on March 29, 2008 at 06:18 PM
Service based on RSS technologies. You can generate tons of RSS feeds from the list of your keywords out from more then 50 Internet sources including Google, Yahoo!, MSN, YouTube and others.
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