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On our current brand and market position with RSS
If we want to make a lasting impact on the emerging RSS market, we first have to establish our brand as the industry leader in the mind of the early adopter.
I say "first in the mind," and not "first in the marketplace" for two reasons: one, we are already slightly behind the the growing trend; and two, being first in the marketplace doesn't buy us anything except a license to try to establish our brand with the consumer.
The "first-mover advantage" is a myth. Previous experience has proven that there is no automatic advantage to being the first-mover in a category. So, as we continue to develop our RSS strategy, we're not far behind anyone else in the industry.
At this point, none of our competitors have established their brand as the leader in providing content for the growing RSS community. Because RSS aggregation is highly customizable by the end user, there will never be a singular source for content. However, we should try to gain prominence and market share by being the first to offer a real strategy for early adopters.
Just like with other emerging technologies in recent years, the early adopters are the audience that will drive the stability, direction and, most importantly, the publicity of a given tool or functionality. If our sites can offer a useful product to these users, we can establish ourselves early - and continue to evolve and grow as the technology becomes mainstream.
Right now, I see a few primary ways to get our brand out to early adopters:
1. a single page on each of our sites, where individuals can hand-pick the feeds they want
2. an on-site aggregator that allows our users to one-stop-shop our content
3. integrate RSS buttons/links on as many top level pages as possible (ie. home page, section fronts and vertical fronts)
With KRD's greater resources, we can win "the battle of the mind" and create the perception that we are first in the marketplace by leveraging existing technologies from smaller companies like Rojo or Moreover. By doing so, we keep our internal development to a minimum, and allow ourselves to be quicker to a market that is already starting to ramp up.
As a side note, I'd like to suggest that we encourage as many of our employees as possible to start using RSS aggregators. I think we can take advantage of some internal testing, feedback and testimonials from them as we continue to develop our strategy.