Has anyone told you that your “EVIL”? I was on the phone yesterday and for the first time ever someone told me I was “EVIL”. For feeding my twitter account with RSS from one of my blogs. Evil? I don’t think so. And you shouldn’t either. But the person I was talking to took it even further. They said that anything except typing into my computer while logged into ANY website was the ONLY way. Anything else was “EVIL”, Blackhat, underhanded. And that I should be ashamed of myself.
This just isn’t right. I think fully automated twitter isn’t good. As I also think fully automated “interaction” isn’t good. It isn’t real. But what is real is that I can’t be logged onto twitter, myspace, facebook, linkedin, etc., etc. all day long either. If Web2.0 has taught us anything it is that we can’t be everywhere all the time. We need to mix personal interaction and automation in strategic ways. And this is where RSS is my friend. And it’s your friend too.
Here’s the strategy of just one of my websites. A hosting company I own. Here’s the relationship map I built as part of the strategy to engage socially and broaden the reach of the hosting firm.
So, the big ole cloud is some of the other ways to attract people to check out the hosting company. And below you see a person (that would be me) typing, and the RSS symbol. Below that a number os Web2.0 properties. What does this visualize? Easy. the strategy is to feed content on the website (specials, offers, contests, blogposts) to the social sites via RSS. And then to engage with our fonline friends personally.
Does this seem evil to you? I didn’t think so. And its not. It’s not duplicating your efforts. I feed RSS to twitter, facebook, etc. so I won’t have to copy/paste, etc. I let that be automatic. Then I engage personally with my online friends, followers, etc. This keeps the personal touch intact while allowing you more time to interact and run your business.
How can you do this? Easy, get out a piece of paper and doodle yourself a chart like the one above. Define which Web2.0 properties work for your site. Add a couple more to test them out. Feed your promotions, contests, blog post notices, etc. via RSS and then plan your time well. I personally spend 30 minutes each morning and evening with at least four tabs open to the social websites I engage with. Interacting with my online friends, making new friends, etc. You know, being real. That includes the AffSpot Forum too (well, I am the administrator, so that tab is open all day). But just dedicate 15 minutes twice per day online at four social sites. Let RSS do the rest of the work for you.
In other words, don’t let RSS do all the work but use it to help you do business. It’s not evil. It’s real.
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