SEMpdx session: Web 2.0: Utilizing RSS Feeds as a Powerful SEO Tool

Since it’s been a couple months since SES Chicago, and since I plan to blog more session recaps next month at SES New York, I decided to keep myself sharp by banging out notes on my laptop from a couple of the sessions at Wednesday’s “SearchFest 2007” put on by SEMpdx in Portland.

Since this blog has grown dramatically since early December, here’s my disclaimer: These are my personal notes on ideas that stood out to me. They’re not necessarily everything each person said. Some of it may read like stream-of-consciousness, so consider yourself warned. Here we go…

Session: Web 2.0: Utilizing RSS Feeds as a Powerful SEO Tool

This was a pretty good session, although the material presented was more about “Web 2.0” and not strictly about RSS. That’s okay, although if the actual material presented had been significantly different from the session title, that would be a problem.

Speakers:
Dan Harbison, Portland Trail Blazers
John Hartman, Feedia
Doug Hay, Expansion+
Janet Johnson, SnapNames

Doug Hay

Benefits of syndication
– increases links
– drives traffic
– increases visibility and awareness

RSS feeds used by social media – blogs, podcasts, etc.

Dan Harbison, Blazers

Connecting to Your Fans
– fan base eroded in ’90s due to off-court issues
– revamped image with better character players, but how do we get people to know who these guys are?

Marketing today:
– blogs — broadcaster blog, game-time blog, Spanish blog, etc.
– RSS
– podcasts
– social networks

With RSS, Google News picks up our news within 15 minutes.

“Handshake with your fans electronically.” Let them be your marketers. Let them create more fans. Let them take message to places you may not know about — more authentic message when they do it for you.

Janet Johnson

– Age of marketing control is over
– Consumers are less brand-loyal
– Consumers are less reliant on experts; use word-of-mouth to make purchasing decisions

RSS
– writing well is very important; the text you supply must attract interest

John Hartman

(shares thoughts on IPTV, social networks, RSS)

[tags]semdpx, rss, web2.0[/tags]