Buzzwords: Blogs and RSS

If you've received one of my business cards, you've probably flipped it over and seen the tag-cloud of terms associated with Lift Development's capabilities. I feel it would be a good idea to give a basic explanation of each of the "buzzwords" that I included in case some are unfamiliar to you. Look for several posts about these buzzwords in the coming weeks.

Among these are the terms "Blog" and "RSS." This is a good point for starting out since right now you are reading a blog, which is short for "Web Log." It's essentially a content publishing platform where one or more people can post articles, ideas, rants, or whatever they want.

For example, I use this blog to talk about things relevant to the web field. My wife and I have a blog where we post pictures and stories of our kids for our friends and family to read. As a business, you can use your blog to talk about things relative to your industry, publish special sales you may be having, or publicize a new product or service. You can really use a blog for anything.

The most popular blogging platforms include Google's Blogger, WordPress, TypePad, MovableType, etc. You can choose whichever platform offers an interface to your liking. In the end they all offer the functionality of an RSS feed, which is how people can access your blog without actually visiting your site.

RSS, which stands for "Really Simple Syndication," is a way to push content out to the end-user. Instead of end-users having to visit your website anytime they want to check for new content, they can add your site's RSS feed to their feed reader or web portal of choice. They can even have new posts emailed to them through various RSS-to-email applications.

The advantage of RSS is that each day the user can open up a single tool, such as Google Reader, and view all of their feeds in one place. Instead of having to go to 50 different websites, they can have the feeds from all those sites pulled into their reader.

These tools are all over the web. Anytime you see an orange logo such as the one above, that means an RSS feed is available for subscription. Just copy the hyperlink of the icon and add the address to your reader.

If your organization would like to learn more about blogging and adding RSS feeds to their website, contact Lift Development today. I would be happy to help you set up and design a blog for your target audience.