In the most recent episode of The New Mediology, Nathan and I discussed RSS. RSS isn’t the sexiest thing to talk about in social media, but it’s really important to know why (and how) RSS changes everything for content creators. Think about it like this: it used to be important for people to come to your website to see what you had to say. You tracked page views and unique visits because that was your gauge for success. Now, with RSS you can allow people to stay current with you content but they never need to visit your blog or website again. They can aggregate your content with all the other content they’re interested in.

For some content creators, RSS is a welcome technology because it increases the number of people who can be exposed to your content and decide for themselves that it’s worth their time again. For others, RSS seems like trouble because it threatens all of the control that once existed over the distribution of content. In this episode, we covered what RSS is and why it’s really important to understand and fully utilize for anyone who creates content.

You may not know it but you have some control over the way your blog’s RSS feed displays. You can allow your feed to show a summary (which usually consists of the first paragraph or introductory sentences in your post) or the full post. Most blogs default with the full post display but I was asked recently if I thought the summary option is a good idea based on the premise that if people can only read an introductory paragraph from the post then it will drive traffic to the blog.

My advice is to never just do the summary and here’s why…

• The summary option assumes people care enough to click out of their feed reader to go to you blog. Many feed readers are scanning headlines and if they see something that catches their interest, they want to read it then and there. That’s a primary reason for having a feed reader to begin with…the person chose to bring the content to them rather than go to every blog to read the posts. iGoogle wasn’t the most popular Google property in 2007 for nothing. Increasingly, people want their online information consolidated, convenient, and quick. Don’t make it hard on them because they will likely keep moving through their feeds and never click over to read your post.
• The summary option assumes that unique visitors to the blog are a more important statistic than the RSS readers. Personally, I believe the richest statistic you can measure for your blog is your RSS subscriber base. Those readers have elected to pull your content into their feed reader. They are your new opt-in list so treat them special and don’t make life harder on them. You need them more than they need you.
• The summary option isn’t a common practice with 99% of blogs. If for no other reason, don’t do this because you’ll be the one blogger who forces people to click over to your blog to read the posts and it’s just counter cultural (in blog culture that is.) If you do the summary, the best case scenario is that people will ignore it an move on. The worst case is they’ll think you’re controlling and egotistical…and they still won’t read it and will move on.

The bottom line is that anything you may gain in some new traffic to the blog will be a much bigger loss in people’s attention and your influence because you’re creating a hurdle they have to get over if they want to read your posts. It’s just not a good idea. You have more to lose than gain.