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Recently I wrote about how you can focus the content coming to you from multiple sites using RSS and Podcasting technologies. In this article, I am going to share with you ways to utilize these technologies in your own organization. Some of this article is more technical, but much of it discusses free tools that do the hard work for you.

RSS and Podcasts are linked because in most cases podcasts are pushed (sent to client computers with readers/listeners) using RSS. I will talk about these technologies sometimes in the singular and sometimes as two separate entities. RSS has different versions – I like the explanation found in this RSS tutorial.

Who should use RSS and Podcasts?

Before we get into how to create RSS feeds and Podcasts, you will want to understand what benefits your organization can get from these technologies. Both of these technologies help you keep your cause relevant by providing new (so long as you update the content) information to your supporters, constituents, and friends without them having to remember to go to your site. These technologies also make your organization look like it’s efficient and able to move with technological trends that affect the community.

The thing about adopting RSS for text feeds or for podcasting is that you need to make a commitment to updating your site. Stale websites are bad, but stale RSS feeds are worse. When I started my blog (one simple way to create RSS content), I made a commitment to myself that I would write at least 4 articles a month. Your organization should want to keep your website up to date, but if you are not going to make this commitment, don’t use RSS.

If you are updating your content regularly, then at least some use of RSS is probably right for your organization. Even if you don’t think many people will read it, it's easy enough to implement that it is worth it. Plus in most cases, it's FREE.

Podcasts are a different beast when it comes to analyzing their worth. Podcasts allow an organization to share audio or even video with web users. Podcasts can be created by anyone with a microphone and an Internet connection, but you need to make sure that the content you are providing is something that someone will want to spend 5+ minutes listening to. If your ED puts out a monthly state of the organization or you do lectures that you want to share with the world, this is a great technology. If you are just sharing a little news, this is not the best technology for you.

United Way of King County, which I will cite often, uses podcasting to share information from their staff and content about their presenters. For example, this page advertising their speaker series uses Podcasts to introduce their speakers.

Podcasts do not require the commitment to updating that text-based RSS feeds do. Many organizations will only do one Podcast every six months or even every year, but they want to have it downloadable by software like iTunes for the convenience of their listeners. The Religious Action Center is an excellent example of this because they produce Podcasts when they have a big enough issue to discuss or someone to interview.

A Quick Note on Information on the Internet

Remember that anything you put on your public website is just that, public. Your content needs to reflect your organization and often acts as the first introduction someone has to you. Do not just create content for the sake of creating content. Your organization is doing exciting things; share them!

Speaking of sharing, keep in mind that when you put content on a public site, you lose control of that content. You can place © symbols all over your site, but if someone wants your content, it's theirs for the taking, with very limited exceptions.

A statement like this one from United Way of King County is good but does not enforce your rights management:

What are the terms of use?

RSS feeds on unitedwayofkingcounty.com are provided free of charge for use by individuals for personal, non-commercial uses only. All content obtained from a unitedwayofkingcounty.com RSS feed is protected by copyright and may not be used in any other form without the express permission of United Way of King County. For such permission, please contact us at webmaster@uwkc.org.

Using the Creative Commons licensing structure is another method. The CC licensing allows you to specifically state how your content may be used. I use the CC licensing on my blog (see icon on right hand side). I chose that particular license because I am fine with people reprinting my content for non-commercial uses, but I don’t want them changing it.

None of these options carry any kind of guarantee. By stating how your content may and may not be used, however, you'll give people a chance to respect your wishes rather than trying to guess what is allowed.

(Ed. note: Copyright is complicated! If you have questions, http://www.copyright.gov/ might help.)

Code-free and nearly Cost-free ways to generate RSS content

RSS content can be derived from anything you have on your site. Before we look at adding RSS content to your website though, let’s look at free sites to augment your site with RSS.

Blogs – Blogs can be hosted on a service like Blogger or LiveJournal, generally for free, and offer the simplest way to create RSS content. Thoughts.com not only allows you to share text and image content but Podcasts as well.

If you host events, you can create a group at Meetup.com (or use other services like Meetup to generate coverage about your events), and RSS feeds will be created for you. Another great thing about using Meetup is that it is very well ranked on search engines. For example, do a search for Steve Kessler. You will see that before you get to my company website, you see my profile on Linked In and my Meetup.com groups.

Often times combining free sites and the technologies they employ with your own site allows you to expand your web presence without a large investment, if any! I plan to write an article in the near future about using free (or low-cost) user interactivity (sometimes known as Web 2.0) tools.

Adding RSS to your own site – This is a bit more Technical

The easiest way to add RSS is to be using a Content Management System that will generate the RSS feeds for you based on the addition of new content. For example, in Mambo/Joomla you can define what content is added to the RSS feed based on things like category labels or when the content is created. This is a great asset because it means that you do not need to generate code yourself.

There are websites that will generate RSS code like RSS Feeds Submit and Web Reference. They will provide you with code that you can add to your website. List Garden is a free application that uses Perl to generate RSS for your site and in its newest version can even do podcasting. FeedForAll is a popular feed generator, but it is not free. There are more listed in this RSS Tutorial.

If you are brave and want to generate your own RSS, it is just a matter of learning the tags to do it. RSS is a derivative of XML and the tag structure works very similar to that of HTML. There are many web pages that will help you, my favorite being from Search Engine Watch. I also like the book Developing Feeds with RSS and Atom by Ben Hammersley (available from the Denver Public Library).

Here are some websites to look at:

• Making an RSS feed from Search Engine Watch
• How to Create an RSS 2.0 Feed
• Create RSS Feeds
• RSS for content publishers

When you make your own code, you will want to validate it to make sure that it will work. Web designers should also use the W3C Markup Validation Service when looking at their complete site.

Because RSS is a flavor of XML, there are many derivatives and expansions (known as modules) for the protocol. Modules add content to your feed, for example the Creative Commons module.

Creating Podcasts

The hardest part about creating Podcasts is actually creating the audio/video content for the cast. We are only going to look at audio casts in this article. This article is also in no way meant to be a comprehensive discussion on recording and playback. To create a podcast you will need:

• A quiet room to record in
• A computer with audio input capabilities
• A microphone - if you use a USB Microphone you do not need a soundcard
• An audio editing and converting tool. (For Windows, I know several people who like Audacity. GarageBand comes free with the Mac.)

Once you have created an audio file, converted it into the MP3 format, and edited it, you will need to post it online and generate your feed. Generating code for a Podcast is similar but not identical to generating an RSS feed. TD Scripts has a generator specifically for Podcasts.

Now that we have covered creating RSS content, we need to discuss how to share it.

Sharing Your RSS Content

You will need a page to share your RSS content from. Many sites use the RSS logo to link to a page. I like the way the United Way of King County has their RSS page organized, as they also include RSS subscription buttons with specific content.

You will also want to register with some of the major aggregators that help people find your feed. Look at:

• RSS Feeds Submit
• Syndic8
• Feedster
• News is Free

You may also find these aggregators useful for in your own searches for information.

If you want your podcast listed in the iTunes store, which you should, then this article is helpful, if somewhat cynical.

Conclusion

Whether or not you got this article from an RSS feed or by finding it online, I hope it will help you and your organization share RSS content.