Yesterday I published an article in MediaPost entitled To Roll Out RSS, Think Like A Newsletter, Not A Newspaper. It's not about interactive events specifically, but like much of the writing I do for MediaPost, it is about some of the core topics I program into events I'm working on.
The gist of the article is that subscribing to RSS feeds is not likely to cannibalize active browsing. Rather, it's likely to cannibalize e-mail. Why do I believe this? A few reason:
1. The inbox is rapidly losing its 'most favored nation' status among consumers.
b. Most of the content to reach the inbox is NOT news or information - it's marketing. Or worse, it's marketing thinly veiled as news or information.
iii. RSS formatting allows for excerpts, easier navigation, less burdensome archiving, and no confusion about the 'sender.'
Plainly, it's a better content delivery mousetrap. And from a publisher / marketer / other content creator or provider's standpoint, it's far simpler and far less expensive to implement. In the MediaPost article, I use Seth Godin as an example:
Seth Godin is one of the best known pundits in the blogosphere. In a recent entry in his blog he writes, "This blog has one of the fastest-growing RSS feed lists I know of, but it's still a scary-low percentage of my readership." He then appeals to his readership to subscribe to his RSS feed, and provides explicit, step-by-step instructions--for the second time in three months.
Why does Seth Godin want his readers to subscribe to his feed? Because he doesn't have an e-mail list. The author of Permission Marketing--the e-mail marketer's manifesto--does not have an e-mail list. Like many other authors, entrepreneurs, consultants, pundits and others whose opinions an audience is craving, he can't possibly have the time to write something, then rewrite or edit it for e-mail, manage a distribution list, create multiple versions for various readers and segments, and then answer the hundreds of responses he receives.
The implications for anyone reliant on email could be staggering - Event Producers included. I'm keeping an eye on RSS and actively working on ways to integrate it into the events marketing initiatives I'm involved in. I'll keep you posted.
In the meatime, subscribe to my damn feed, wouldja?
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