Real Simple Syndication (RSS) is what drives the blogosphere. It is what enables bloggers to be both the reporter and the publisher. It provides a mechanism for the bloggers at Council Blogs to have an avenue for publishing, a way to broadcast to the world. It also gives us bloggers a mechanism for readers to subscribe to our pearls of wisdom. From my speaking engagements I find RSS the least understood aspect of social media. The underlying programming techniques of RSS paved the way for interactivity, which in turn paved the way for social media applications to spawn and grow. With RSS, now instead of one AP wire, we have a million AP wires. With so much information at our fingertips, the challenge for future generations will be how to discern credible sources. As small business owners we should be happy that with the internet and social media we have the freedom to interact closely with our customers. We have a generally untapped resource at our disposal. During your Fourth of July holiday you may want to consider how the freely flowing information could impact a stronger relationship with your customers. At the cyber wigwam we would like to hear about your successes in using social media for your business. Feel free to comment below.
Freedom of speech in the blogosphere – the role of RSS
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Bloggers at the cyber wigwam ask, “When is the best time to publish your post?” The short answer is “now!” One of the curses of bloggers is to procrastinate on their thoughts as they put them to paper, or should I say, screen. The adage of Progress versus Perfection comes to mind. At Council Blogs we like to envision our blog as simply telling the story of our business. No one can start to understand it if we never start telling them. Develop the habit of keeping your thoughts short. Especially in today’s fast paced society, everyone wants a short read anyway. Also, when we broadcast to our other social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn they only have space for a short message anyway. So the moral is keep it short and get it published!
At Council Blogs we consider 2012 the year of Findability. Every week we highlight advances in SEO as part of our blogging club meeting. What can you do to make your site findable when people are looking for your talents or services? It’s easy for us bloggers - TAGS!! Here at the cyber wigwam the bloggers have all moved their Tags widget on the WordPress editing page up under the Publish widget so we don’t forget. Our three item list that Gayle has engrained:
As of April 30, 2012 the number of users on the internet was estimated to be 2,279,709,629. In the U.S., 80% of the population is estimated to be on the internet. We now have easy access to the growing number of potential customers on a global basis. The beauty of the internet is that it is relatively inexpensive to have the ability to get in front of those 2 billion users. Here at the cyber wigwam the bloggers know how much exposure you can get by appropriately tagging your consistent blog posts. Council Blogs has defined 2012 as the year of Findability. We are all working on and having great success with increasing our findability using various techniques. Generally, it is being smart about your title and tags on your wordpress blog. Read what the bloggers are saying here on this and their blogs. Feel free to comment and subscribe to the bloggers you like to hear from.
The benefits of business blogging are well documented in many places on the web. Here at the Cyber Wigwam we recognize the importance of consistently publishing blog posts. That’s why we have a council that meets every week. It is sort of like Laptop-i-stan, a term coined by David Sax of the New York Times (
Here at Council Blogs it is easy to have an accumulation of post drafts. With spring in the air it is time to review your list of posts and see if there are some drafts that could be published. At the Cyber Wigwam the Chief sent Running Tweet out to count the drafts on the Council Blogs list. He came back and reported 38 drafts out of 100 posts. Lots of cleaning!! Get the brooms out. Remember the blue button on the lower right that says “Publish.”
