Monday, June 18, 2012

Using social media to build current awareness: RSS feeds

What are RSS feeds?
RSS means Really Simple Syndication; by "syndication" we mean "sharing news stories".  RSS is used to allow us to subscribe to a website that frequently updates content, such as a blog or a news site.  When we use RSS to subscribe to a blog or a news site, the new posts on those sites are automatically shared with us, or "fed" to us.

Let the mountain come to Mohammed!
For instance, let's imagine that Kate is passionate about sustainable gardening.  Everyday she looks at her favourite blog: Sallygardens Smallholding.  Sometimes it has been updated, sometimes it hasn't. 

Recently, Kate has also started looking at other good blogs every day: Sustainable Garden and The London Vegetable Garden.  Checking each site regularly is starting to take a lot of time; however, she is worried that if she doesn't check them regularly she will miss something important!

RSS feeds are the perfect tool for Kate.  She can subscribe to each blog using RSS feeds, and whenever there is a new post she will be informed.  This means that instead of her looking for new blog posts each day, new blog posts will come to her! 


So, how does it work?
Kate needs to sign up for a Google Reader account.  This reader is the place in which she will read the new posts.  Instead of searching for three different blogs, Kate can log in to her Reader and find any new posts there!

  


And now for the last piece of the puzzle... follow this video to see how to subscribe to blogs using RSS feeds

1 comment:

  1. This strategy needs huge research to form interesting stuff for users they ever looking for!

    ReplyDelete