PR Agencies in Belgium & their RSS feeds - edition 2009.
Monday, August 10, 2009 at 20:05 ;)
It is that time of the year again where I check about 29 Belgium based PR agencies - or rather their websites - on the use of RSS feeds.
Again, this is nothing scientific; I just go to the website in question, see if an RSS feed is clearly active, clearly visible and tick off a list.
(This is edition N°5 - I started keeping track in 2005.)
Why bother you might ask...
Well, I do think that if you're in the "content business", the "external communications business", the "conversation business" then you need to have an automated feed that syndicates your content - or the content of your clients - to the online world.
As Public Relations professional you need to understand the full potential of really simple syndication and apply it to your website.
This year I also listed if the agencies in question had a clearly linked blog of their own... In some cases I had to search a bit further than the home page but when this is the case it is also indicated in the list.
Now, here are the top level results:
- from the 29 Belgium based PR agencies listed only 8 had an active RSS feed on their website.
- from the same list, the same number of agencies - 8 - have a clearly linked blog.
Some remarkable agencies:
- Outsource, a former client, has completely switched from "classic website" to a full blogging platform.
- RCA Group has no RSS feed on their website but do have a blog with RSS.
- Porter Novelli, a former employer, has a new blog but it is not linked to their website.
Again this year, I am not impressed...
While some agencies really do their best to get with social media and apply it to their day to day work, most of them seem never to have heard of RSS or any other change in online communications recently.
Even when they use RSS, most agencies do not explain what it is or link their feed to an email newsletter.
In most cases you really have to look for a way to subscribe to their content... Which to me is a bit of a contradiction for a PR agency.
If you want to know how you could use RSS, feel free to search my blog for several articles or at least read this one.
You can download the full list here (opens a PDF) and if you're not on the list, or if I oversaw something, please let me know.
As I said, this is nothing scientific, not designed to be, but a simple check up once a year...
PR, agency, belgium, public relations, rss Email Article in PR Agencies, Study/Surveys Permalink 
Reader Comments (6)
Offering RSS is one, having active RSS is another thing. I can understand not all agencies offer rss for all topics, but nevertheless I do think it is a missed opportunity. Whereas RSS seems to be seen as "open to all", RSS can also perfectly be used for internal services and already has proven to be very usefull.
Is there a file to your full report or research? I am very interested in reading since I am currently in the beginning of writing on this and other PR topics.
Thanks for this update!
All the best
PhiCo - Philippe Coppens
Thanks for your comment & reaction.
Yes the blog of H&K has a feed and they used their blogging platform as a crisis communications tool as well... However, I am tracking if PR agencies use RSS on their "corporate" website - to syndicate their blogposts for instance, or to promote their client content etc...
I think PR professionals use RSS (without knowing it) for monitoring purposes through services and solutions offered on the market. But I still think that you need to get a full understanding of this technology (without going into bits & bites) to get the full advantage of it.
RSS is such a powerful syndication tool that it can't be ignored by our colleagues.
A full report ? No really, the PDF file which you can download through the link in my blogpost is the only thing I can offer you. As I wrote, this is nothing scientific and I just keep track in a list every year...
Looking forward to read your articles !
After I posted my comment it came to me I did not include all I wanted to say. I do think a major part is given by the way PR agencies do business or have to do their business. I have been working in Hill & Knowlton for a little while. RSS is quite well known in the agencies, but not it's "full technology" as you say, that for sure can be of great help.
I am quite familiar with it (perhaps not that deep as you are) and I think quite some agencies are as well. RSS technology makes it possible to do much more. I do understand promoting clients on the own corporate site is not always done. Nevertheless, RSS (as well as other tools) should be more integrated for PR-use. Let's just think in terms of media-approach or informing stakeholders...And this is just part of the possibilities of it's technology.
Before I close this comment I would like to mention we (and agencies) should not only focus on RSS since there are other very powerfull tools nowadays to integrate in daily PR-practice. Yet the power, it's tech & possibilities seems not yet fully been aknowledged. If they are, they are currently used in the way RSS is used nowadays (classic monitoring)
I hope this (and other articles) will open again some constructive discussions.
All the best!
PhiCo - Philippe Coppens
btw: nice article on PR students on Artevelde several months ago! I was proud reading it, as an alumni.
For me it basically comes down to this; both online content syndication and monitoring is highly based on / can be productively managed by the of RSS. All major media sites use RSS to distribute their content as well...
I see no reason whatsoever NOT to use RSS in the context of Public Relations.
With regards to focus - of course RSS is just one aspect of social media (although the basis of content syndication), you have blogs, wikis, pod & videocasting, microblogging etc... (But all content created by these tools can and is syndicated through RSS...)
However we turn it... there's a long way to go for our profession... We've been "faced" with social media for the last 5 years or more now.. Time to learn, integrate and start working with them no ?
Glad you liked the interview with Artevelde.
I can only agree on what you write and I would like to conclude my part with a similar advice : After years of quite deep research (often done by PR agencies or professionals) it sure is time to take action and integrate this in Public Relations. There should no doubt about this any longer.
Whatever way of syndication is used, it should be there. It's a crucial part in the entire mediamix, if you ask me. Better not to open the broader discussions on all possibilities since I think there's been written about that a *lot* the last years:)
All best
It doesn't surprise me. Look at the situation with media agencies (planners & buyers). It's even worse. In some cases you can (must) start with the question: do they have a proper, efficient and informative website? ... Let alone their knowledge (I'd reather say: their faith) about social media. And nevertheless clients depend on them for their knowledge of the media landscape. Amazing, isn't it?!