Selective Networking with RSS Feeds

The web is more social than ever. One look at the blogsphere and all the various badges and widgets proudly displayed on blogs is testament enough of the power and attraction of social media. There have been days where I have literally spent the entire day stumbling, digging, rushing, joining communities, and getting lost in a bountiful buffet of feeds.

With so many ways to network with like-minded people and so many ways that you can keep tabs on your niches, how do you narrow down the blogs and bloggers that you want to follow the closest? After all, there are only 24 hours in a day and you simply cannot keep track of everything that goes on in the blogsphere in just 24 hours. One solution I’ve found is in harnessing the power of RSS Feeds.

A technique I’ve adopted recently centers around RSS Feeds and my favorite feed reader, Mozilla Thunderbird. Essentially, while I’m cruising around the blogsphere, if I see a great post by an author, I make it a point to subscribe to their RSS Feed. If I have time to read over a few posts and leave a comment, I do so, but usually, I read just enough to make a preliminary judgment of the blogger’s content and, if the content is good, I subscribe to their feed. I do this for blogs I come across randomly as well as blogs I see mentioned by prominent bloggers, or the blogs I see in the profiles of MyBlogLog visitors.

Using this technique, I’m able to track a relatively large number of potential connections in the blogsphere in a very efficient manor. The number of blogs I watch at a particular time varies. At present, I’m watching over 37 blogs in Thunderbird alone. About 1/3rd of these feeds are sites I visit on a near daily basis. There are also a few sites like Sphinn and BloggingZoom that help me keep track of what’s hot in the blogsphere.

While having so many feeds to follow in your feed reader may sound like a very time consuming task, it really is not. It’s a matter of developing a routine that works with your life and work schedule. My routine consists of starting my day with 2 cups of coffee and an hour of going through feeds that updated overnight. Throughout the day, Thunderbird lets me know of fresh posts with a ding. I check throughout the day and follow with visits to sites that have particularly good articles. After all, don’t we all want traffic to our sites? Then, I end my day with about another hour of reading over a cup of hot cocoa or tea. Usually, my evening reading is from sites I visit for enjoyment, like The Ominous Comma.

By using this technique, I’m able to follow a blogger for an extended period time without necessarily investing a lot of time in doing so. In doing this, I’m able to follow the post histories of bloggers, determine their “take” on the subject matter we are mutually interested in, and I’m able to determine if this is someone that I want to eventually network with. This is a very unobtrusive method as well.

With there being concerns of blog stalkers out there, the last thing you want to do is freak a blogger out by showing up 10 times a day for 2 or 3 weeks and then disappearing. By using RSS feeds, you can analyze potential networking connections from a safe distance while still keeping tabs on what the potential connection is saying on their site.

This very simple model of selective networking can be a powerful tool in establishing business contacts, partnerships, acquaintances, and even friendships in the blogsphere. A side benefit of this model is that, the more connected you become with other bloggers, the more you tend to visit and comment on their sites, and subsequently, the more traffic and backlinks your site garners.

What I like most about this model is that it is dynamic and I never cease to have a new perspective to read. On average, I add and/or remove feeds from my reader on a biweekly basis. If I happen upon a good blog in between, I add it. Usually, within 2 weeks to a month, you gain enough insight into a blogger to determine whether or not what they have to say is of interest. From there, you can determine whether to continue following the blogger and eventually networking with them.

Whether you are into Social Networking for personal or professional reasons, it is important to maximize the efficiency of your efforts. It is equally important to establish quality contacts that can lead to even further networking. Through selective networking with RSS feeds, you can easily and quickly determine the best potential networking candidates while still having enough time to build your blog and/or business.