Do you know your RSS from your elbow?
You’ll have heard of blogs and blogging; you may even have read some. But what are they really all about, and more importantly, how can you benefit from them?
In this article we’re going to tell you everything you ever wanted to know about blogs, but didn’t know who to ask!
First off - some definitions. The term ‘blog’ is a contraction of ‘web log’ which originally was used as an online diary.
A ‘blogger’ is someone who writes a blog; and the pieces they write are known as ‘posts’ or ‘entries’. Makes sense really.
A blog is an interactive and frequently intimate piece of communication. The blogger expresses an opinion, and you read it. You may think to yourself ‘dead right - I’m with you on that’. Or you might disagree vehemently and want to respond. A blog allows you to post your comments, views or links in response. The most active blogs become online conversations about the topic in question.
Increasingly, people are beginning to realise the power of the blog and their use is expanding. You can read blogs written by MPs of all persuasions and get to see what’s on their minds. Radio station presenters blog about the music they’re playing and other related subjects. Then there is the inevitable rise of the celebrity blog so you can be in (almost) direct contact with the current flavour of the month (week?).
Businesses have discovered blogs are a great way to improve communication (both internal and external). If you work in a large organisation, you may know what your chief executive is concerned about on a regular basis. Companies can also use blogs to reach out to customers in a really immediate way, by talking about the latest product news or a new service they’re offering. As a reader of a business blog, you get this information quickly and succinctly without leaving your PC.
Depending on your type of business, you may be able to subscribe to a blog written by a particular expert in your field, which provides insights you wouldn’t be able to get elsewhere. Different businesses will use their blog in different ways, but the bottom line is you have direct access to the writer in a way that has not happened previously.
So why don’t people just put this stuff on a website? Many websites are highly structured pieces of work that reflect an organisation’s values and brand. They can be quite static. A blog, on the other hand, is a dynamic, snappy piece of work which people use to comment on the issues of the day as they impact on a business or industry.
How does a blog differ from a newsletter? Again, it’s a question of planning and focus. Newsletters are planned in advance, so the writers pretty much know what they’re going to cover. A blog can be an instant reaction to something that you, the reader, wants to know about, and will have a more informal tone.
OK, now for a bit more jargon… how do you subscribe to blogs? The easiest way is via an RSS feed. Huh? RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication which in plain English means “an easy way to send information”. It describes the technology behind creating “feeds”. You’ve probably seen this icon on websites offering an RSS feed.
If you use Internet Explorer 7 and Microsoft Outlook 2007 then you’re ready to subscribe to and read your chosen feeds. In your web browser, the RSS icon is displayed next to the home icon. If the page you’re looking at has an RSS feed, you click the icon and a drop-down list appears with a list of available feeds. Click on the one you want to subscribe to that feed. As a well known example, the BBC website offers a huge numbers of RSS feeds so you can keep up to date with your favourite bits of the site.
(Note, if the website you’re on doesn’t have any RSS feeds, then the RSS button is greyed out.)
Now you’ve subscribed, how do you read them? In Outlook, there is an RSS folder where your subscribed content is stored. Every time new content is posted on the web page you subscribed to, it will be emailed to you. You can move this folder around in your system and it still automatically collects the RSS feeds.
Open each message, to read the content. Alternatively, you might get a short intro with a link to a longer article on the web.
There are loads of blogs out there - according to the BBC, 112 million of them - so you’re find the one for you. Or you might be inspired to start your own…
Oh - I nearly forgot. The elbow, according to an online definition from Princeton, is the hinge joint between the forearm and upper arm and the corresponding joint in the forelimb of a quadruped. So now you know.
Happy blogging!
