I have been studing the demise of the newspaper for some time. It is more of an interest then anything else. My degree is in Journalism (by the looks of this blog, I could use a refresher course) so it has a soft spot in my heart.

Instead of jumping on the bandwagon and talking about the death of the newspaper, I want to talk about how to save it. I am offering you my passion for good journalism and my experience as an entrepreneur. I worked in newsroom and ran a small paper for a few years so I speak with a bit of knowledge on the subject.

Over the past years, I have been reading the opinions of all the greats - Jeff Jarvis, Alan Mutter, Jay Rosen, etc. They are the experts. They are attempting to make a difference and offer their thoughts on saving the newspaper. You can read their blogs. Too good to paraphrase here.

On to solving the problem of print. First, admit it, the actual print paper is declining in circulation. Nothing wrong with that. We don't drive horse and buggy today. Why? Henry Ford gave us a better way of getting around. Don't look at the decline in your print circulation as a problem. Look at it as an opportunity. The paper isn't going away because your journalism is bad, the paper is going away because we found a better way to consume your content. Let your ego and fears go. Your print addition is a horse and buggy. The car is the future.

I know what you are thinking, "But, Bill, we generate the most revenue from our newspapers." For how long? Is it a dyeing asset or growing one? Your strongest asset is your skilled writers no matter the medium where they write (paper, phone, internet, on a napkin.) Cultivate your strongest asset. Funnel their passions.

Ten ideas to save the newspaper (no particular order)

1. Think locally! If you are local paper, STOP covering World news. This is not your sweet spot. I want to know about the local sports team, 4H, or how the local economy is suffering from the global mess we are in. Your customers of tomorrow know how to find national and World news elsewhere. They are aggregating content from multiple sources.

2. Set your content free. The future is syndication and aggregation. I don't know if the Huffington Post has the right model of the future of the news as Michael Hirschorn points out but I can tell you one thing from my vantage point, content is becoming mobile, untethered from the website. Your future customers are mashing, widgeting, twittering and friendfiending your content.

3. Think like a database marketing company. Your online revenue model should be focused on helping the local merchant generate leads. Are you helping him capture leads? You are not in the advertising business you are in the lead generation business. Create a database of your customers. Mine their attention data. You know what they read. You know what they like. Help your local merchant succeed. You are in the best position to succeed at local advertising. There have been many failed attempts at local advertising online with few success. You have a sales person in every county, city, and town in the US. You have the potential to beat Google in this market. Even they cannot be everywhere. Stake your position before it is too late. Create a place where local merchants can create a profile on your site. Become THE local source for special offers, announcements, coupons from the local community.

4. Outsource, outsource, outsource. You are in the business of creating great content. You are not a technology company. Just because you are on the Internet doesn't mean you are a technology company. Keep your writers writing.

5. Digitize your content. Your future customers are getting their news online. They are blogging, friendfeeding, widgetizing, twittering, feeding your content (if you don't know what the means, learn quickly.) How are you embracing the real-time web? Study the new media landscape and NOW!

6. Embrace your customers. Publishing is in real-time now. It is getting more competitive to break news even in your local market. Now that we all have phones with cameras or video we can shoot, write and post in real-time. You have to think about writing differently. You will need to create a balance between shorter stories published more often and in-depth investigative stories. Be know for quality journalism first and foremost. Engage with your customers too. Create a place for them within your content. Have them submit news under your brand. Yes, this is a risk and they are not trained like a journalist. Use them as a source of real-time news and have your trained professionals follow-up. Hold regular meet-ups at your office with your customers. Ask them what they want, ask them to volunteer, train them for what to look for.

7. Hire the right people. This is a big one. Look across your organization. Are you bringing in young professionals who grew up with texting, Facebook/Myspace, digital music etc? Do you have the right ratio of young and experience based on your future business and revenue status? Is anyone on your editor staff using Twitter? You need to start building products for your future customers. Simple business principle.

8. Aggregate. Aggregate content from bloggers writing about the local market. Find out who they are and embrace them. Most would be delighted to have their content appear under your brand. Ask them to add geo tags to their posts to make it easier to find their content so you can aggregate it.

9. Partner. Do you have business development person in house? Your business is writing and distribution but think like a business that creates a product or service. You are not an island. What is our online distribution model? How are you embracing local merchants? What about coffee shops? People go there everyday to read the news - great place to hold a meet-up. Is there a penny saver in your community? Are you working together. What about online coupon sites? How are you working with them? What about online classified sites? Are you THE resource for them in the local market?

10. Network Spend a hour or two ever week at the local hang-out. You will be surprised what you might learn from the locals talking about the news, the weather or whatever. Are you holding regular networking events at your office with local business people? Why not?

Remove your fear and anxiety. Print is going away. That is ok. The paper is NOT your strongest asset. Your journalist are.

And while we are on the subject, maybe we should drop "paper" from your name. Report on the news no matter what medium carries it.

Let's stop talking about the death of the newspaper. That is so easy. Let's collectively think how we can save a profession. We need great journalism. We need investigating reporting. What are your thoughts?

However, the real excitement in the report is the fifth most searched "what is" question - "What is RSS?"

Top "What Is" questions according to Google.

1. what is love
2. what is life
3. what is java
4. what is sap
5. what is rss
6. what is scientology
7. what is autism
8. what is lupus
9. what is 3g
10. what is art

More people want to know about RSS than scientology? You have to love that if you are an RSS junkie. Think about all the "what is" questions one could ask Google and RSS is number 5!

This does make sense. A Razorfish study revealed RSS grew 153% in the first half of 2008. This also maps well to the subscriber growth our publishers are seeing in their RSS feeds.

Look for continuing growth in the use of RSS in 2009 as more and more consumers turn to content-on-the-go as the way to stay connected to the content they love.

According to eMarketer video ad spending will rise 45% in 2009 counter to the overall market conditions. The product fulfills the need to cost-effectively access a highly engaged audience that is increasingly spending more of their time consuming content away from websites. Subscribers spend on average 30 minutes per day consuming RSS-enabled content and watch nearly 3.8 hours of video online monthly.

Now marketers can leverage Pheedo's latest enhancement - RSS video content and video ad syndication platform to reach millions of users who choose to consume content via RSS. The video ads are syndicated to premium publishers' feeds including the New York Times, CBS, Huffington Post, PCWorld and hundreds of niche content feeds, communities and news readers. Universal Studios, Fox Searchlight and National Geographic are just some of the advertisers to jump on Video Ads for Feeds to reach their fragmented audience.

We continue to push RSS advertising into new territories and evolve our platform to serve the growing needs of publishers, advertisers and the community. Marketer's thirst for quality inventory to syndicate their videos translates into new revenue opportunities for Pheedo publishers.

The video ad platform integrates with our existing RSS analytics and ad serving tools to provide deep insight into user engagement and ROI. With double-digit engagement rates, advertisers have been pleased with the results.

Benefits of the new service include:

Controlled Syndication
Easily establish rules to effectively syndicate to a variety of distribution points including niche audiences.

Measure Performance and ROI
Analytics provides access to dozens of performance and behavioral reports.

Simple Deployment
Use your current video assets to get started easily.

Viral
Users can engage with the video content by sharing it with friends or bookmarking it for later viewing.

Intelligent
Video player automatically detects the end user's device and adjusts content delivery accordingly.

The chrome of the player can be customized to increase the immediate branding experience. Users can click on the chrome to be immediately directed to a destination page.

RSS had a fever and the only cure was more Cowbell.

Registration

Location:
The Media Center TV Studio
900 San Antonio Rd
Palo Alto, CA 94303

Time:
Wednesday, December 16, 2008, 6:00pm

Moderator:
Pamela Lenz Sommer, GABA Media & Entertainment Co-Chair

Panel:
Alex Barkaloff, Executive Producer, Digital Media, Lionsgate
Cynthia Francis, CEO, Reality Digital
BIll Flitter, CEO/Founder, Pheedo, Inc
Ron Eigen, Partner, Diligent, LLC.
Robert Daniel SVP, Sales and Publisher Development, ContextWeb
Robert Sherretta, CEO, International Investor, LLC
Brett Wilson, co-founder and CEO, TubeMogul

Hope to see you there.

Being a new concept, there was some questions about what it is.

What it is
- A flow of aggregated brand content used to create a relationship with a fragmented audience while delivering a consistent brand experience.

It is also important to note what it isn't.

What it isn't
- Spam.Brands have to be invited in for it to work. It is opt-in and the tools used to consume Brandstreams are themselves opt-in. It is finally a way for consumers to choose what brands they invite into their Lifestream or discover new brands that are related to their Lifestream or their friends' Lifestreams. The content has to relate to the individual or they simple will not participate.

- A Conversation. It goes much deeper. Marketers need to establish something much deeper in such a personal medium. Marketers need to strive for "something that gets them truly in sync with their customers' needs and desires," as explained by Drew Neisser from Renegade in reference to offering users a meaningful service.

Well, with one important addition...

Pictured above (seen from the "Mayors" window), and featured seven times in 'The Dark Knight' is the new Pheedo office - opened today in Gotham City (Chicago.)

Two new superheroes, Tom Kavooras and Vivian Busch, will oversee the region's efforts to deliver active readers and revenue to publishers and advertisers.

More and more advertisers are learning that their content can be consumed in a distributed fashion throughout the ecosystem of the web. For some advertisers though, the distributed content world is a scary and unfamiliar place.

Tom and Vivian are now in place with their knowledge about the new reality, deep experience with advertisers and local roots to help shine a light in the darkness.

Welcome Tom and Vivian to the Pheedo Team!

Through the use of RSS feeds, individuals can receive content that reflects their lifestyles, values and curiosities -- in essence, a snapshot of their unique profile. This Lifestreaming allows individuals to tailor content to suit their interests. Not only do people want the ease of bringing information to them rather than going out and seeking it, the social transformation of the Internet is about building relationships and connecting people and ideas in a customized way. Never before has there been such a priceless opportunity to understand the consumer.

In a recent article, Mike Troiano wrote, "users not only want content, they increasingly want control of the context in which that content is delivered. And technology is giving it to them. Responsible marketers ignore these trends at their peril." The context has moved from publishers' websites to content aggregators that are customized by millions of online users worldwide. Universal McCann has reported (pdf) that globally, RSS subscribers comprise 160 million active Internet users, and that the adoption of RSS technology has reached a tipping point at a 153% increase in the last nine months. The transformative beauty of RSS in bringing content to readers in a single stream of information is what Troiano calls the "RSS revolution."

What, then, is the effect of this RSS revolution for advertisers? It is unmistakable -- advertisers will have to rework their ads in ways where their content relates to the relevance of consumers' interests -- to step into their social worlds where their lifestyles unfold online. This content should be socially-enabled, allowing the audience to save, share and interact with the content. Because readers are no longer going directly to websites and publishers' pages to access information, marketing attempts that have been placed in the context of those origin sites must now adapt in order to keep up with the migration of consumers to their socially-driven content aggregators. In Web 1.0, we built micro-sites and expected everyone to come to us. The distributed Web is the new micro-site, and the sum of all of your distributed advertising campaigns is greater than the micro-site. Brand marketers can no longer expect consumers to come to them -- they need to go to the consumer with a consistent brand message, on the consumer's terms.

The media-buying landscape is changing as a result of the widespread use of RSS to feed and build content in the social technology sphere. Advertisers can use the content that is being accessed as a vehicle for promoting their brands. RSS advertising -- or placing ads in feeds -- is one way advertisers are reaching their audience. This is an opportunity to connect with their audience in way that is relevant to their lifestyles -- in essence, to become a part of people's Lifestreams.

For advertisers, engaging with people's Lifestreams will require concentration on aligning their campaigns with content that consumers are reading and sharing with their social networks. Universal McCann's research has shown that "the environment is now perfect for creating and distributing branded content." Avenue A|Razorfish advises: "Think about how search, advertising, social media sites and the blogosphere are related to your digital marketing efforts and invest appropriately." This trend welcomes an opportunity for advertisers to both place themselves in consumers' online sphere and engage in conversation that is of relevance to their Lifestreams. Lifestreaming shares content within online communities in a vetted way -- articles, videos, podcasts and music that are interesting to your friends arrive to your content aggregator. This content not only is likely to be of interest to you, it is coming from a trusted source, as the connections made by Lifestreaming are made by people, not technology -- it's about the people, not the page views. Lifestreaming, through the engine of RSS, brings out the greatest potential in the Internet.

Lifestreaming and Brandstreaming are becoming the human-powered search and discovery tools that both individuals and brands will rely on in the future. If you are not participating in these changing dynamics now -- as Troiano says -- you are losing an incalculable opportunity.

Stay tuned to find out how this trend impacts media buying.

With content moving beyond the website into widgets, start-pages, RSS readers and social environments - advertisers want to know where and how their content is being consumed.

Pheedo, the distributed media advertising pioneer, now measures user engagement with news feeds (RSS) for advertisers distributing content through social media environments including facebook and MySpace, start-pages, widgets, lifestreaming applications and leading blogs.

The FeedPowered Analytics Dashboard(tm) provides advertisers with comprehensive intelligence about where their content is being consumed as well as a deep understanding of how the content is being consumed beyond their website.

Some of the exciting Dashboard features include:

* Active User Analysis - Track the number of feed subscribers and feed subscription growth trends.

* Content Engagement - Track the number of views and clicks on editorial items. Determine which content is most popular with your readers. Track interaction rates to social media environments like Digg, Reddit and Facebook.

* Advertising Stats - Monitor ad impressions, clicks and CTR on feed content ads.

* Social Media Distribution - Track the consumption points where subscribers are receiving and interacting with content.

* RSS Subscription Page Optimization - Page dedicated and optimized to increase RSS subscribers.

* Subscription Options - Enable readers to subscribe to RSS feeds via email. RSS/Email subscribers and actions are tracked.

* Feed Management API - Create and update settings, export data via an API.

President of Connect Direct Inc, Howard J. Sewell states, "The Pheedo platform provides a unique engagement map that enables our clients to interact with prospects, customers and partners in a more meaningful dialogue within a social media setting."

We are excited to be bringing Pheedo's technology in helping create the standard in Social Media analytics while providing advertisers a way to evaluate the ROI of distributed media.

For more information, you can read the official press release or contact Pheedo directly.

So - as a company - how do you market yourself when you are no longer driving your own communications? Marketers and brand champions have to look for new and innovative vehicles to reach audiences with relevant content that is meaningful to the consumer, where they are consuming media. This is where Brandstreaming comes into play.

A Brandstream is a consistent flow of content created by a brand. This information is used to engage a consumer or prospect typically within news feeds. A Brandstream includes (but is not limited to) blogs, podcasts, videos, press releases, product reviews, pictures of the company picnic, whitepapers and customer feedback vehicles. Consumers receive a company's Brandstream via an RSS News Feed. However, Brandstreaming is not simply pushing information out to consumers however. A Brandstream shares and communicates a company's ideas, beliefs, passions, thoughts, and values - it defines the company - while it communicates the brand and engages.

Social Media is providing brands a new way to connect to their audience and to define their brand. And, just as Social Media and RSS News Feeds are changing the way people connect with one another and how media is consumed it is also changing how people connect with companies. Lifestreaming is driving services such as FriendFeed that support this constant flow of content coming from the Social Web and in turn, companies are leveraging Brandstreaming to connect with these consumers. In turn, Brandstreaming is evolving as the next generation Social Media tool for companies to reach their audience.

A brand is a living-breathing organism. Brandstreaming is the life of a brand. It is the people within an organization and their communications out to - and with - their consumers (and prospects) online. By providing a new online medium for people to interact, engage and meet with a brand, in real-time - Brandstreaming is changing the face of communications between companies and consumers. Brandstreaming is creating new ways to engage social connections and information sharing between companies and their consumers. But be careful, Brandstreaming is not simply building and delivering a portal of information about a company.

Brandstreaming is organic - it offers the ability to hold a discussion with the consumer, to engage and to exchange information. This discussion, the constant exchange of information between the company and consumer builds trust - a relationship. Brandstreaming shares and communicates a company's ideas, beliefs, passions, thoughts, and values. But to truly take advantage of Brandstreaming, a company must maintain a constant exchange of information with the consumer.

An example of a company who is executing Brandstreaming is Cisco. Cisco was searching for a strategy that would enable them to engage in one to one discourse with their consumers and to promote their brand. The Cisco Brandstream was designed as an integrated Social Media ad network campaign with the goals of driving 1) traffic, 2) newsletter sign-ups, and 3) RSS subscriptions.

Effectively, Cisco's Brandstream strategy is built on content across multiple online distribution channels. This content - Cisco's brand life - powers the Brandstream. It shares and communicates Cisco's ideas, beliefs, passions, thoughts, and values - that defines who Cisco is. But how did Cisco engage in discussion with their consumer? Cisco accomplished this by leveraging their consumers' Lifestreams as a lead nurturing technique via content advertisements in RSS News Feeds. For more about Cisco's strategy and results, you can find the case study here

As companies design and build out their Brandstreams they are connecting with their consumer's Lifestream via content ads in RSS News Feeds that access the Lifestreams. For a company to participate in their consumers' Lifestreams is critical to becoming a part of their inner circle, to enter into a discussion. And - Lifestreaming is growing as evidenced by the rise of RSS usage alone. According to the Avenue A | Razorfish Digital Consumer Behavior Study, fifty-six percent (56%) of online consumers now use RSS News Feeds. Smart marketers and brand champions are leveraging RSS News Feeds to engage, interact and exchange information between a consumer and a company.

Cisco's Brandstream includes video, press releases, customer stories and product updates all delivered to their consumers and prospects through their Lifestreams via RSS News Feeds. Throughout the strategy, design and execution of its Brandstream, Cisco stayed true to their mantra "sell the offer, not the product." This is critical to success when invited into a Lifestream - the Lifestream user is pre-disposed to relevant content - aren't we all? And, to ensure their success, Cisco's agency worked closely with Pheedo to build and deliver Cisco's Brandstream within Pheedo's network of News Feeds.

Why is this so critical for a company looking to reach and engage consumers and prospects alike? RSS News Feeds and the resulting explosion of Lifestreams are dramatically on the rise. RSS News Feed use is growing faster than all other Social Media platforms, including social networking and video sharing as evidenced by the 153% increase in RSS users in less than a year. (Universal McCann Study, March 2007 - June 2008) Tapping this key communication and information exchange vehicle, Cisco designed an RSS feed strategy tailored by channels (ex: IT Professionals, Consumer Technology) and specific feeds (ex: Wired, Dr. Dobbs) that were most relevant to their target audience, offer and product category. Cisco's RSS ads and content powers their Brandstream strategy while gaining them access to their consumer base's Lifestreams.

A practical example of how to do this is by placing advertisements in News Feeds that reach the Facebook audience. But it is more powerful and further reaching than Facebook. News Feeds are consumed via Twitter, FriendFeed, Google Reader, Bloglines, Netvibes and more. Mike Rich, senior vice president of AOL Entertainment states:

AOL, has embraced a "distributed content" model: It can no longer rely on consumers coming to it as a destination, but now must distribute its content, pushing it to online users wherever they happen to be spending their time.

Through Brandstreaming specific audiences can be targeted wherever and whenever they are consuming content. But more importantly, Brandstreams communicate directly with consumers already interested in a company's services. One to one marketing achieved.

Brandstreaming fosters interaction between people and companies. Feedback is immediate - encouraging discussion between companies and consumers that in the past relied on traditional market research methodologies - lengthy, expensive, dated results. Valuable feedback can now be heard, collected and acted upon in real-time. The consumer has the power to influence messaging, products and communications. Companies can truly engage with their consumers who will be heard and as a result will feel heard - the opportunity for a real conversation unfolds.

While Brandstreaming provides the opportunity to reach and hear from people in new and engaging ways it also comes with high stakes. Leveraging the right platforms, tools and messages is critical to success. Brandstreaming is uniquely positioned to alter the world of media. Actually - it is already happening.

However, the true power of Brandstreaming will only be realized when marketers and brand champions design integrated online strategies across Social media outlets to speak with, engage, listen to and respond to their consumers - in real-time.

A Lifestream is only limited by the content and sources each person defines. People typically choose a few online services that track their activities such as Flickr (photos they take), Last.fm (music they like), and Del.icio.us (bookmarking). These online services provide RSS feeds of a person's activities - these feeds are enabling Lifestreaming. Lifestreaming is the aggregation and merging of multiple RSS feeds into a single point of entry. Once the feeds are setup, the data is added automatically to a Lifestream. The output is a concentrated unique stream of information comprised of a person's ideas, beliefs, passions, thoughts, and interests - that defines who they are.

Thanks to the popularity of sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Myspace and FriendFeed, the act of Lifestreaming offers a new way to keep people informed - whether for business, friendship or family. As a result, each Lifestream has its followers, the audience. Lifestreams make recommendations and keep followers updated and informed. People now have the ability to self promote and re-broadcast content and online media services via a single point of access, which they control, out to their followers. And - critical to the value of a Lifestream, is the ability to leverage this content for search, discovery, and networking. As a result, Lifestreams become human powered recommendation engines.

With Lifestreaming, people now have the ability to subscribe to people they trust who have already chosen and filtered content for them. Followers of Lifestreams are by default, leveraging a human filter to access information. By selectively following Lifestreams people are changing how they access information - people vs. technology - acting as the filter and search engine mechanism. Lifestreaming can be understood as the ultimate human filter.

So, what does this mean to publishers, advertisers, and brands? Lifestreaming is causing a paradigm shift. Just as RSS feeds have changed how users consume their online information, Lifestreaming is evolving as the next generation of media consumption and social networking. The major shift going forward - people (their Lifestreams) acting as the online information filter. Why is this? Because people will subscribe to people (to Lifestreams) to access information - information that has already been filtered. As a result, publishers have a key opportunity to leverage Lifestreams as a new traffic driver. Advertisers have the potential to communicate with this new channel - talking to a captive and trusting audience. And brands have a new model to leverage when defining themselves.

RSS feeds are one of the critical building blocks of Lifestreaming. Brands who have an understanding of what is RSS and how to effectively use it are positioned to best leverage this new channel. Analytics are the key to understanding the Lifestream audiences and needed to target appropriate effective messaging. This is also why it is critical that content pushed through this channel informs, educates, and entertains if the messages are to find success being seen and heard. This is one of the first times; publishers and advertisers alike are being invited into their audiences' personal and private online conversations.

Think of a Lifestream as an interactive digital diary. Then you will understand why Lifestreaming is gaining momentum within the social networking community and changing social media advertising. People are very excited about aggregating all of their information in one place. With all the different sites available - this just makes sense. Whether advertisers and publishers will learn quickly enough how to leverage this captive audience who is choosing them, choosing their content and influencing their followers - well - only time will tell.

RSS growth surprises many when the hear the numbers. It is used by over 50% of online users according to AvenueA/Razorfish. RSS has been growing under the radar for some time. According to a 2008 study from Universal McCann, RSS use is exploding, growing faster than all other key social media platforms, including social networking and video sharing. According to the study, the number of RSS users jumped 153% between June 2007 and March 2008. Publishers today recognize that their content is increasingly consumed away from their website by their most loyal, dedicated readers. For many top publishers, their page views consumed outside their domain are greater than their website page views.

The growth is not going unnoticed as a source of revenue for many of the top online publishers including Gawker Media. Inline with the growth in RSS usage, Gawker Media has seen their RSS revenue grow nearly 300 percent in the first quarter of 2008 using Pheedo.

"Gawker Media has always made full content feeds available from the beginning, believing that the RSS channel was a valuable and under-levered distribution channel for marketing our content," stated Christopher P. Batty, Vice President of Sales of Gawker Media. "As such, we're highly committed to helping our marketing partners reach our readers thusly."

We have been pioneering RSS advertising since 2003 and were extremely happy to be the source of Gawker's tremendous growth in Q1.

"Outsourcing the RSS feed monetization scheme made more sense than having our sales people focus on it," said Erin Pettigrew, Ad Operations and Research Manager at Gawker. "In the first quarter we saw tremendous growth after the Pheedo implementation. Pheedo was the best solution when we needed it the most."

So hats off to Gawker Media for proving the business model for RSS and syndicated content.

B-to-B marketers have know this. They have been talking about prospecting and lead nuturing for years. They are engaging prospects through whitepapers, webinars and today, RSS Feeds. Content is no longer anchored to a website. It can flow freely around the web.

We worked with Cisco's agency, Connect Direct, to leverage Cisco's content to engage users across the Pheedo RSS content network.

Connect Direct's President & Founder, Howard Sewell, explains how he leveraged Pheedo's technology.

Working with Pheedo, CDI is now able to:

• serve client ads within a network of RSS feeds, tailored by channels (ex: IT Professionals, Consumer Technology) or even specific feeds (ex: Wired, Dr. Dobbs) that are most relevant to the client's target audience, offer, or product category

• develop and place so-called "feed-powered" ads, either in-feed or on traditional Websites, in which the client's ad is populated by dynamic content powered by the client's own RSS feed

See Howards' full explanation on how B-to-B marketers can leverage RSS to engage prospects throughout the sales process.

One thing to keep in mind, growing your RSS list is one of the challenges. Keeping subscribers active is what really matters especially if you are intersted in generating revenue from your feed. Activity means opening your feed, reading, sharing or clicking to your website.

More on that later...

The concept is a solid one but how does a marketer encourage Microsharing? I discussed the 'how to' earlier. Virally-enable your content. MicroSharing starts by make it easy for users to share pieces of your content with their peer group.

Recently, a client shared their success of Virally-enable content. The results were outstanding. They added up all the traffic they received from digg, del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, RSS etc, it nearly was half of the traffic Google delivered. If you think of the size of Google compared to the cumulative size of these sites, that is a successful outcome.

However, there is a deeper impact that is occurring. Why are these sites able to drive so much traffic? Think about it as a product review. Very similar to what you might find on Amazon. A user - not you, said this piece of content is worth sharing. According Bazaar Voice, 78% of online consumers have more trust for brands with reviews.

So what should a marketer do?

1. Virally-enable your content to create consumer reviews
2. If you are producing content, studyDigg, digg, del.icio.us, StumbleUpon to understand what content is important to users
3. Heavily promote your RSS feeds to encourage viral syndication
3. Write what works. Apply your learnings from 2 above and start creating content that resonates with your target market.

Not a new concept but consumers will trust other consumers before you. By Virally-enabling your content, you are letting users decided what is worthy of sharing and reading.

As I said before, viral campaigns are not created. However, there is a simple thing you can do to cure an ailing viral campaign. The solution is quite simple. Virally-enable the creative. By virally-enabling the creative you increase the opportunity for any ad campaign to take off like wild fire.

The power of any viral campaign is in the mass of people that embrace it. When we designed our FeedPowered technology, we had sharing in mind. Every content item is one click away from being shared (see image below) on various social media and bookmaking sites, and subscribed to via RSS and email. By virally-enabling the create, we increase the opportunity for our client's campaigns to spread

Try adding any of these tools below to any ailing viral campaign. You might be surprised of the outcome. A campaign that was not intended to "go viral" just might. These tools, with some effort, can be added to your blog, video, or even ad creative. The creators of these tools make it dead simple for any user to share your content and hopefully keep sharing, and sharing and sharing.

- Digg
- del.icio.us
- StumbleUpon
- Reddit
- Furl

It goes without saying, a fundamental principle still applies; you need a good product that is worthy of sharing in the first place.