March 14, 2007

You're Not in My Sphere

The way that many people - especially younger people - use the Internet is fundamentally changing the marketing landscape.

Essentially the broadcast model is dying and it is being replaced by what I call customer-controlled spheres of influence.

To give you a concrete example:

If you have a dance blog, I probably read or skim all of your posts on a daily basis.

If you have a website for promoting your dancing or dance company and you do not have a blog, it is very unlikely that I have any idea what you're up to.

Why do I follow dance blogs and not websites?

My answer is that I subscribe to the "feeds" of every dance blog that I know about. I'll explain what "feeds" are below. But for now, here is a screen shot similar to one that I included last week of Google Reader - an online application that allows me to easily read all blog posts in a central location. I don’t have to visit every blog individually to read the latest posts. Click for larger image:

So Google Reader acts as my customized sphere of influence. I choose which blogs to read, and I can add or remove feeds any time I wish.

To exaggerate the point a bit, if you don't have a dance blog, you don't exist in my world or my sphere. You can have an informative, engaging and helpful website but websites are not the primary way that I gather information and communicate with others. And there are millions of other Internet users out there who consume content in the same manner as I do.

Feeds Described

All software programs that are used for creating blogs automatically create what are called RSS feeds or syndication feeds (See popular blog platforms: Blogger, TypePad and WordPress). One definition for "RSS" is Real Simple Syndication. But just about nobody refers to this definition.

The important thing to know about RSS feeds is that they offer a great way for you to syndicate the content of your blog. Just as a newspaper might syndicate an editorial column by one of its writers to hundreds of newspapers, an RSS feed lets you syndicate your blog to a large Internet audience.

On most blogs and Internet browsers, you'll see a variation of this button:

This icon means that you can subscribe to the RSS feed for the blog or web page you're currently viewing.

If you are using a Firefox browser and you visit my Great Dance blog, this is what you'll see at the top of your browser window:

In the above screen shot, I clicked on the orange icon and a pop-up window opened with three options representing different types of feeds. It really does not matter which of the three options you click on to subscribe to my RSS feed. If you do select the "RSS 2.0" feed, this is the page you will see. You are now viewing my feed. At the top of this feed page, there are instructions that you can follow to subscribe to this feed.

You may choose to collect and organize the feeds you subscribe to in many ways. You can subscribe within your browser ("live feeds" for Firefox), use a feed reader such as Google Reader, or use a customized home page application such as NetVibes.

Once you start subscribing to RSS feeds, you will always be presented with the most recent posts automatically.

If you create a blog and want to improve and publicize your feed, a good place to start is with FeedBurner. Actually, if you sign-up for a free account, one of the FeedBurner tools under "Publicize" is called "Chicklet Chooser." In this Chicklet Chooser, you'll see a list of the many different ways that people can subscribe to your feed. Here's a screen shoot of these options - click for larger view:

The number of subscriber options gives you an idea of the popularity of RSS feeds and how important it is to have a feed and encourage people to subscribe to it.

I'm going to write a number of posts about the importance of being in the customized spheres of influence of your customers. In these posts, I'll discuss social bookmarking, social networks, multimedia content, embeddable widgets, online fundraising tools, and other important ways to promote yourself online.

At the heart of all these marketing strategies is the importance of entering the world or sphere of your customers and not forcing your customers to enter your world - more to come.

Posted by Doug Fox on March 14, 2007 10:40 AM

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