Posted on April 21, 2008
Follow Your Brand Using Your RSS Reader
BY INGRID GETZAN
Online your brand is defined by what people have to say about it. One of the most valuable things you can do in order to 'capture the conversation' surrounding your business requires knowing the most efficient way to manage your reputation through your RSS Reader. I've become a Google Reader junkie and can't go very many hours without checking multiple readers for multiple clients, but you can of course use your reader of choice. Here are three quick tips covering what I've learned to be the most valuable to help get you started:
- Monitor Google. I've read that if you only monitor your brand through Google, you'll receive 70-75% of the conversations surrounding your business. That's a lot of chatter that you might be missing that involves your brand and/or products. You will want to do a Google Blog Search for your company name, prominent keywords for your business, name of your products, name of executives, and other important factors you find relevant, but make sure to start with at least those four. Grab the RSS feed for these and you'll be on your way to getting the latest and (hopefully) greatest things consumers, clients and potential customers have to say about you on their blogs. Don't forget to do the same for Google News.
- Tweet Scan. I just started Twittering myself and will no longer question the power of Twitter. Someone might mention your product in one quick update and it could spiral into a conversation among dozens of people. After subscribing to the Tweet Scan feed revolving your business, keywords and products, make sure to set up a Twitter account for yourself so you can follow the people twittering about you.
- FriendFeed. Another new tool that I've grown to love. If you just want to set something up that will simply do work for you, FriendFeed is it. Although you will want to eventually be tracking SumbleUpon, Technorati, digg, Tumblr, del.icio.us and other social media sites, FriendFeed is a good starting point.
Now organizing your reader and subscribing to various blogs that are important for market research, customer interaction, product ideas, industry trends and other insightful conversations and learning what to do with those conversations is another post for another day.
