RSS Appreciation Day

By Steve Rubel
Expert Author
Article Date: 2006-04-06

Ike Pigott, a public affairs officer with the Red Cross in Birmingham, Alabama, has a bright idea.

He's working to bring his organization's constituents into the RSS world by giving them a free Red-Cross branded RSS reader. The reader, powered by Newsexplorer, delivers relevant real-time media alerts to the community. It even includes audio updates. Robert French gushes about the program over here.

Those of us who work in PR and use RSS feeds daily need to take some responsibility in getting everyone else on our teams using a feed reader. RSS is the single most important information tool to land on a PR pro's desktop - or web-top - this decade. I can't think of a single technology since the Web browser that has revolutionized how I keep up to date with my world. Ike is taking this to a new level by bringing RSS to his constituents. Now it's our turn.

This isn't just a ball that PR pros should carry. All of us who use RSS daily and love it should encourage those around us to use feeds. What if we made Monday, May 1 RSS Appreciation Day? Each of us will commit to getting at least one of our friends, colleagues or family using a feed reader. Thoughts? Ideas?

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About the Author:
Steve Rubel is a PR strategist with nearly 16 years of public relations, marketing, journalism and communications experience. He currently serves as a Senior Vice President with Edelman, the largest independent global PR firm.

He authors the Micro Persuasion weblog, which tracks how blogs and participatory journalism are changing the public relations practice.

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