Recognise these?
An "XML" or "RSS" icon is there to advertise the fact that a feed is available to subscribe to, the BBC Telegraph and IT Analysis all have great feeds to subscribe to. Note that these aren't supposed to look good in a web browser but to be viewed using a special reader or aggregator (more about these later).
Since World War 2, public relations in Europe has developed from a “public information” approach adopted by governments where press releases are the sole point of contact with the media to a more interactive relationship. This push of information is still common, but the inquisitive journalist will seek the information they require. With the RSS aggregators [readers] available today, they can search recent news headlines and open up the information that they require.
The internet has revolutionised communications, new media re-writing the rules for public relations. For the first time, anyone with an internet connection can actively seek information on a topic. For us, RSS the natural evolution from an information push to the provision of timely and relevant news.
When I upload PR to our BCM virtual press office, it is automatically pushed onto the relevant RSS feed for clients or editors to view.
Clients love RSS, because they can keep their distributors and their own internal marketing team updated just by getting them to subscribe to the relevant RSS feeds. They can also add up to date news to their website without wasting valuable time maintaining their own press room. I have used our test website Engineering News to demonstrate this. Ugly, but neat I would say.
RSS feeds complete our system, now the news that is sent to editors also pops up on the first page of search engines like Google during the same week. What use is a press room if your “news” is only updated every 6 weeks like typical web pages?
More about this and podcasts later...