Making RSS feeds simpler

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Word of mouth guru Andy Sernovitz has an interesting post where he argues that we need to make RSS feeds simpler for people to understand. He does an OK job, although Pat in his comments does it much better likening RSS to ‘home delivery’ instead of having to remember to go down the newsagents whenever a new issue of your favourite magazine is published.

But far from simplifying it Andy makes it far too complicated by recommending that people “get a feed reader” and saying that his favourite is Google Reader.

No, no, no. Nearly everyone will already be using either Internet Explorer 7 or Firefox, so why, why make it harder for them. If you’re only reading a small number of feeds then the basic reader built in to your browser is more than adequate. My Dad is a perfect example, he’s now well into feeds and happily shows others how to use them. But he does it in IE7 and would definitely not want to waste time learning something else, even if it is better.

p.s. It’s a shame Andy didn’t credit Microsoft with already making the biggest move in simplifying RSS by standardising on the   icon, rather than using its own new one (which nearly happened) and calling it a feed, which is reasonably self-explanatory and what Andy is calling for.

How important are you on Twitter?

Andrew Bruce Smith has blogged about Twitter Grader an interesting little tool that “measures the relative power of a Twitter user”:

Your grade is calculated using a combination of factors including:
* The number of followers you have
* The power of this network of followers
* The pace of your updates
* The completeness of your profile
* …a few others.

For the record I score 92 which means I score higher than 92 percent of the other user profiles that have been graded.

Here are the scores of some others you might know (with the hacks beating flacks almost every time!):

• Mike Butcher Grade: 99.2 - Rank #271
• Jemima Kiss Grade: 99.1 - Rank #326
• Stuart Bruce Grade: 92 - Rank #2,525
• David Brain Grade: 92 - Rank #2,557
• Tom Watson MP: Grade: 87 - Rank #4,085
• Guy Clapperton Grade: 67 - Rank #10,597

But we’re all crushed by the steamroller that is Barack Obama on Grade: 100.0 - Rank #2.

Jed Joins Wolfstar!

Hi, I’m Jed Hallam, the newest edition to the Wolfstar pack. You might know me from such famous campaigns as ‘Jed on Twitter’, ‘Why Wolfstar Should Hire Jed’ and ‘Rock Star PR’… Or you might not know me at all.

For those that don’t know me, I thought I’d tell you a little about myself.

I’m a young PR and social media account executive, I love finding new social networking tools (that offer something new, of course) and I’m a massive advocate of complete brand transparency – something that PR 2.0 (#shudder#) is helping with!

I’m a textbook PR boy really, I never intended to work in PR, I just loved writing and making friends with people. So when I found out that PR was just writing and making friends with people, it all fell into place! Wolfstar is my second industry job, my first being an in-house role with an education company who gave me a great introduction into traditional public relations. I’m hoping to combine my experience in traditional PR with my love for social media to achieve some great things here at Wolfstar.

When I’m not working (which is rare these days!) I’m listening to music, reading a book or catching up with friends.

The team continues to grow at Wolfstar

Well after another busy week at Wolfstar we decided it was time to add another staff member to our ever increasing team.

I am delighted to welcome Jed Hallam, who joins us on an initial two-month temporary basis. Jed and I have spoken with each other on various social media platforms many times before but the clincher for employing him was when he created a new Facebook group called ‘Ten reasons for Wolfstar and Jed Hallam’.

It was the final point for me that really caught my attention. In his own words his final reason was this: “I very nearly hired a Barbershop Quartet to sing these reasons to the Wolfstar Team at head office… Seriously.”

To be honest I had several visions of these guys walking into the office and singing (to the tune of Mr Sandman): “Mr Bruce give me a job!”

I thought it was a brave and bold move and it did make me laugh. Welcome to the action Jed!

Jed joins our other recruit Natalie Smith, who has been working for us on a full time basis during the entire summer. Natalie is still studying public relations at university, so she is only working for us on a part-time basis now but she has been a bit of a revelation in our office. In fact, I think Stuart Bruce said it best when he described her as: “the best student we have ever had”.

I can also reveal that there will be another two staff appointments very soon.

Cross Posted on: Norton’s Notes

Student Life vs. Working Life

Recently things have been a little hectic in the Wolfstar office, so our apologies for the lack of blog posts! Our work load has increased dramatically since winning various clients and we’re currently working to tight deadlines on a few different projects. 

All this extra work has got me thinking about the difference between student and working life.  When the conversation of life after Uni (yes I’m afraid it will all come to a sad end) comes up with my friends, most of them shudder at the thought and dread starting a full time job.  But is it really that bad?

As our work load has increased, so have my hours and I’m now a full time worker here at Wolfstar (well until I go back to Uni!) To be honest I haven’t found the transition from part time to full time all that noticeable; I mean obviously it means I can no longer have a fantastic lie in but other than that it’s been fine!

Working 9 to 5 means I can now fully appreciate the appeal of the weekend whilst knowing I’ve spent my week being productive and gaining great experience along the way. 

Students, like myself who have the opportunity to take a placement year are incredibly lucky because this year can give a us a real taste of what our lives could be like after we graduate. 

I strongly believe that all students should take any opportunities to work full time during holidays as it really is invaluable experience.  And if this job can help you advance your studies, that’s even better!

Anyway, I should probably get back to “the grind” (I’m kidding, of course!)