When you subscribe to a blog or podcast or use portal like iGoogle the technology that brings the information to you is called RSS. It is a way of publishing information easily making it available to subscribers in a central on-line repository. Just like getting your newspaper delivered to your door, RSS delivers your online content to you.

Why take advantage of RSS? There are many reasons:

1. Pull rather than push – articles come to users rather than them having to hunt them down;
2. Subscribers get the latest and greatest information as its posted;
3. An RSS link encourages traffic to your site;
4. Users can have a bunch of sources of info in one place – much like a newspaper;
5. RSS can be used internally to disseminate information too.

How to set up an RSS feed?

• First get your site set up to support RSS by adding a few short lines of code.
• Place code on your site that the RSS feed readers can find your info.
• Publicise your feed by telling the world and everyone you know in it at every opportunity.
• Add the RSS feed button to your site so visitors know you the can easily subscribe. Feedburner has widgets to support this on their site.
• Submit your feed to syndicators and search engines to make it easier for your audience to find you.

Once that’s done, your good to start publishing your own data feed over the web.

Another Friday Funny from the creator of Being Five.

Worried that your good work could be plagiarized or that someone’s going to steal your thunder on the Internet and not reference your writing appropriately? There’s a solution to every problem and this one comes in the form of Creative Commons. An offshoot of a US non profit organization , Creative Commons was founded in 2003 with the help of the University of Ottawa Law and Technology Program and theCanadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic.

The service allows you to license your work easily and at no cost. With various different license offerings based on how much freedom you want to give people to use your writing and in which forums, Creative Commons steps you through an easy process to find the right license and then you simply download some HTML to your web-site and your covered like so:

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License

People using the works are then morally and legally obliged to use them accordingly (or not at all if you so choose). Whether or not people act appropriately remains to be seen and there’s also the issue of the global reach of the Internet with different laws governing different jurisdictions but if this plagiarism is a concern for you then Creative Commons is definitely a step in the right direction to protecting your work.

These days building relationships online is as important to growing your business or reputation as networking in the real world. Not only can you be more effective using social media but you can also get more done in less time.

The Internet is a great way to expand your career horizons and get to know new and influential contacts. Here are a few pointers to bear in mind when using social media to network.

1. Don’t try to network in every Internet networking hub out there. Choose those where you get the biggest impact (i.e. those that your existing contacts already use, those that reflect your target audience, or those most applicable to your niche). The most popular are LinkedIn (Professional Network), Facebook (fastest growing) and Twitter but there are many networks that are industry or job specific (like Active Rain for real estate) too so take time to check them out.

2. Leverage existing on-line networks to grow new ones. I use the Out-Smarts’ Facebook Page profile to promote our Twitter account and vice versa and add more contacts in that forum

3. Promote your activity in your chosen forums by including it in business cards, profiles and on your website.

4. Use widgets. Most of the social networks allow you to widgetize a link to your profile. Add this to your site, blog etc and include widgets for other networks in your networking profiles.

5. Always remember to be professional in these forums – ask the Granny question and make sure your content is appropriate to your professional standing.

6. When you meet new contacts in the real world find then on-line and add them to your networks.

7. Trawl the friends of your friends and contacts and add those you know or those gurus in your business.

8. Don’t spread yourself over to many networks or allow them to suck up your time. Schedule it into your day.

9. Join groups. Facebook and LinkedIn both offer groups. Join applicable ones and gain access to more people in your field.

10. Participate in the right forums. These should relate to your industry or market and to those of your prospects.

11. Ask and answer questions and use your status to attract new contacts.

12. Blogs can be a great way to build your network too. If you have a blog, always follow up with people who leave comments to connect with possible prospects and peers.

13. If you don’t have a blog then use blog comments as a forum to connect with influential bloggers in your industry, to build awareness of what you do and to add value for their visitors in turn.

Blog comments are a great way to build links back to your website and are an important component of social media marketing.  I have said it before and I will say it again, links are like gold on the Internet, the more you have the higher your ranking will be.  However you should never comment simply for the sake of it.

When commenting on blogs, always:

1. make sure that the comment is relevant to the post
2. look to add value and enhance the information contained in the post
3. include your email address so that you can establish a connection and build a relationship with the blogger
4. make sure the URL you link back to is correct
5. comment on blogs with a page rank of 4 or higher as those links are more valuable then links from lower ranking sites
6. don’t simply post “great post” or ” thanks for this” – this has no value whatsoever and simply makes your company look unprofessional
7. use your real name or an appropriate nickname when posting (I often use “Outsmarts) to make it more authentic
8. don’t include links in the comment body that simply link back to your site.  If you do include links make sure, again, that they link to a page that is appropriate to the post
9. check spelling before posting – it looks more professional.  I’ve noticed that many spam comments contain poor spelling – its a tell tale sign that a firm is outsourcing their link building to cowboy SEO firms.
10. don’t comment on numerous posts on the same site at once, again this is something spammers do and will increase the likelihood that the blogger will simply delete your comments.

Here’s an example of some blog spam that appeared on our site recenty: someone called Elva Cohoon recently posted a comment on an old post  on this site called Sex and Babies for Sale on Craigslist.  Her comment was about real estate, the post had nothing to do with real estate.

Normally I would simply delete comments like this but I decided post a comment in response: hopefully Elva will get the message and avoid posting spammy comments on our blog in future.  The point here is that if you decide on a  spam link approach, your comments can backfire.  Bloggers are a fickle bunch and don’t like spam, if you don’t follow comment etiquette like the 10 tips outlined above your tactics will trip you up, your company will look unprofessional in these forums and you risk being called out in the public forum.

We all know how annoying spam can be but I realized recently that I hadn’t even given a thought to blog spam in months and yet when this blog was launched on our new website a few years back, it was the bain of my life.

In the first few days this blog was inundated with comments and posts that were downright disgusting and definitely not something I wanted our brand to be associated with.  Christine from Bluelime Media, one of our partners and our go to expert on all things web design and WordPress, suggested the Akismet plug in.  It was the very first plug in we installed and, quite frankly, the best so far.

Why, because to date our blog has been protected us from over 15,000 spammy comments.  If you haven’t already installed it, do it now.

In WordPress, go to plug ins, click on add new and find and install the akismet plug in.   To complete the process you will need a WordPress API number.  To get this you need to sign up for an account at WordPress.com or click here – you don’t need to get a blog, just click on the “just a username” option.  Once you have done this, your API appears at the top of the screen when you click on profile.  Copy and paste the API into the akismet plugin details on your blog and you are done.  Akismet will filter out all obvious spam and alert you to those comments that require approval.

Its a good idea to keep an eye on the comments and delete any that are irrelevant.

For many companies, posting a regular blog with informative up to the minute content is a daunting task. This is especially so for small to medium sized business who may not have the resources at hand to blog effectively and consistently.

Sound familiar? If  it is simply inspiration that you need then read this blog post about banishing blog writer’s fatigue. But if the thought of adding a blog to your corporate marketing arsenal makes your blood run cold, don’t despair: there are other ways that you can take advantage of the blogosphere with out having to.

Blog Learning

Blogs are a great way to keep abreast of what is going on in your industry, to learn from luminaries, peers and prospective clients as well as to keep ahead of your competitors.  Use tools like Technorati to find and follow blogs that pertain to your market.  If you are using blogs for this purpose, it is a good idea to bookmark or use and RSS feed reader (like Google reader) to keep track of the ones you like and to share them with others in your company.

Blog Comments

Links are like gold on the Internet, the more your site has leading back to it, the better and this is even more the case if links come from high ranking blogs.   When posting comments on blogs, always make sure they are relevant and add value in relation to the post.  In addition to the link love, posting comments on blogs can help you establish a relationship with the blogger or company whose post you comment on (particularly handy if you would like to do business with this company) and can spread brand awareness from the blog’s readers.

Blog PR

Blog PR or as it is sometimes called, blog outreach, is another way you can use blogs without having to have one.   Popular blogs often get many thousands of visitors every day.  Imagine the traffic that would bring to your site if the blog were to mention and link back to your page.  Blog PR is all about enticing the rock star bloggers in your industry to blog about you, your product, service or unique story.  Bloggers, like journalists with traditional PR, are on the receiving end of many attempts to get publicity every day so your message has to stand out from the crowd in order to get any attention.  To be successful with blog PR you have to be highly targeted and creative.

Internal Blog

Blog technology is very versatile.  Just because you don’t want the exposure an external blog might bring doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take advantage of blogs in house to disseminate information.  By doing so you might discover that you do indeed have the talent or resources within the organisation to make an external blog possible.  Read our post from last September to learn more about internal blog uses.

Conclusion

Blogging is often the backbone of a social media strategy but, to be successful, you don’t need to have your own blog.  In fact, if blogging isn’t right for your company then embarking on a blog and then abandoning it can be really damaging.  Instead, consider the options above in order to take advantage of blogs to build your online presence.

It has been ages since we checked in with “a boy and his blog” at Being Five.  Here’s a Friday funny all about product placement in blogs.  Enjoy!

The Olympics are in town and this city is all a buzz.  Following my post last week about how the Olympics use social media, I thought it would be great to follow up on that and take a look at how athletes are using these tools.

According to a Wired Magazine blog post, there is some confusion among athletes as to whether or not they are actually allowed to post during the games.  Here’s an excerpt from the article:

But there is no Olympic rule that sets up a blackout period for athletes according to Bob Condron, the Director of Media Services for the United States Olympic Committee.

“Athletes are free to blog during the Games,” says Condron. “And Twitter is just a blog that’s written 140 characters at a time.”

There are some restrictions on what athletes can do online during the Olympics. According to the IOC Blogging Guidelines for the 2010 Games, athletes and other accredited people must keep their posts confined to their personal experiences.

Despite this confusion many athletes are using social media right now.  Lets look at which social media tools they are using, how they are using them as well as how you can find, follow and lend your support.

Twitter

Lots of athletes are using Twitter to share their Olympic experiences.  One of the best ways to find them is to follow Olympic lists like these ones.

Canadian Athletes on Twitter

US Olympic Athletes on Twitter

Olympic Winter Sports

True North Media House

Huffington Post Athletes List

Olympians

Athletes are using Twitter in different ways.  Some are simply sharing their experiences in getting to BC and settling in to their new diggs at this point.  Many are posting their experiences in their final practices leading up to their events and all are  building their fan base. By finding and following our athletes on Twitter we have the chance to share in their Olympic experiences first hand as well as to give them our support.

Many national teams have dedicated Twitter feeds too, to keep fans updated:

Team Canada

Team Great Britain

Facebook

Whilst Twitter gives athletes a quick and easy way to communicate with fans, many also have fan pages on Facebook to build awareness of their endeavors, to post video content and share their Olympic aspirations.  Canadian gold medal contender in figure skating, Patrick Chan’s page links to video clips, fan photos and updates about the skater.

One of the best ways to find and follow athletes on Facebook is through the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Page.  Theyrecently asked the question “Hey any Olympic athletes out there? What is your Facebook page?”, here is the response.  Another way is to find the national team pages and check out who they are fans of – athletes are usually listed.  Here are a few – to find the rest search Facebook for “Olympic Team”.

Canadian Olympic Team

US Olympic Team

Swiss Olympic Team

Australian Olympic Team

Blogs

How these athletes find time to train and blog is beyond me – I guess that is why they are Olympians and I am not!  Here are links to athletes using these forums too:

Dustin Cook – Official blog of the Canadian Alpine Ski Team Member

Speed skater – Denny Morrison.

Good Luck To All Athletes

Good luck to all athletes competing at the games – thanks for keeping us posted on social media.  Welcome to BC and enjoy your time here: may it be golden!

Vancouver 2010

With only 11 days to go before the Vancouver Olympics begin, the excitement is building here and I thought this would be a good time to update on our last post about the Olympics and Social Media.

Since posting over a year ago, it would appear that the Olympic organisation has embraced social media somewhat and had some hick-ups on the way.

The Olympics on Twitter

In November VANOC was chastised for their poor response on Twitter when thousands were left waiting and eventually dissed because of a glitch in their ticket ordering system: rather than using Twitter as a customer service tool to let customers know exactly what was going on, their Tweets were ambiguous and erratic.

You can enjoy “timely Tweets from the VANOC communications team” at 2010 Tweets, where the organisation continues to push out information about itself with little interaction or true community building. The same can be said for their other feeds: @followthe flame, @code2010.

The Olympics on Facebook

They do rather better on Facebook, it has to be said. Both Vancouver 2010 and The Cultural Olympics are well represented there.

Again, fans cannot contribute to posts on the site but they can and do comment – most of them being positive.

The less publicised Canada Code page though is centred around community and collaboration. The Canada Code website encourages everyone to upload photos and text sharing their Olympic experiences. If you do, you could win a pair of those red mittens everyone is trying to get their hands on (or on their hands as the case may be!)  and if you are really lucky your content may be shared on public screens across Vancouver during the event. Now that is more like it VANOC! From their Facebook page:

The Olympics and Citizen Journalism

As for the Olympics embracing social media journalism, according to VANCOUVER ACCESS 2010, a collection of multi-media content; blog posts, pictures and videos covering the various winter/summer sports and cultural events, despite numerous attempts by prominent social media commentators VANOC seems to still be ignoring this vehicle:

“Over the past few years, as a group, we have spoken at various conferences and events about the impact of citizen journalism, social media and the internet on the various Olympics, IOC and “ANY”OC brands. We sent VANOC several letters over the past 18 months requesting to meet with them, and have a discussion about this change in culture… Without any replies.”

Seems a shame to ignore such valuable contributions.

Watch out for more on social media and the Olympics over the next month.