Feedburner is something of a mystery to many would-be social media marketers. This RSS tool, which was purchased by Google earlier this year (2007), is feature rich and a bit steep on the learning curve.

Would you like a simple primer and a couple real-world tips on leveraging the brilliant features of Feedburner?

Of course you would… I’ll try to keep it simple… Here goes…

What Does Feedburner Do and Why Do I Care?

Assuming you know what an RSS feed is and that, if you are blogging, you have at least one…

Feedburner allows you to customize, publish and track your feed(s) without having to read a single RSS for Dummies book. Really, it does and that’s all you need to know!

You should care about this because those who leverage Feedburner get MUCH more exposure, especially since RSS is finally reaching the internet masses.

Leveraging Feedburner’s Special Features

Feature #1: Headline Animator
What is it? The headline animator looks like a banner ad which contains your blog’s title and a rotating display of your latest blog titles.

Google calls it:

“A dynamically generated widget-like graphic that displays the five most recent items in your feed. Think of it as your own personal container that you can size, color, and brand however you see fit.”

How does a savvy social media marketer (like you) leverage it?

Use the animated headline everywhere.

Attach it to your email signature, post it to your profile on social media sites that allow html and Web 2 services like Hubpages and Squidoo, paste it into the What Would Seth Godin Do plugin and let it entice potential RSS subscribers.

Then, consider designing a custom Headline Animator with your logo or picture. You just don’t see these anywhere yet. Imagine the attention this would get. Feedburner makes it easy, here’s what they say about customizing:

“Simply provide us with any background image URL (you can even use our default), and this background image becomes a canvas on which you can paint your own headline animator. By “paint”, we mean pick some colors and fonts and then drag and drop some stuff around on your background image wherever you want.”

With a custom Headline Animation in place considering running it as an ad. No, not through AdWords. Feedburner (aka Google) has created what they call “Headline Animator Ads”.

How is this service different from AdWords? Again, here’s what Feedburner says:

“By placing your ad in the feed ad network, you reach an audience that is complementary to AdWords. Feed advertising is a great way to supplement existing marketing efforts and helps you reach the widest possible audience, particularly in content viewed away from traditional websites.”

If you are in a niche popular with RSS subscribers, I think your social media marketing budget might be wise to try this $25 for 20,000+ weekly impressions service.

Feature #2: Cool Custom Count Label

This is one of those cool little tricks that is super simple and will personalize your blog in a small but meaningful way. If you are displaying the Feedburner FeedCount graphic, it is possible to change the label from “subscribers” to anything you want. Here’s how:

Simply change the last word on your Feedburner FeedCount script to whatever you want that label to say. For, example, in the following script, the label would read “Listeners”.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~fc/burnthisrss2?bg=FF6633&fg=333333&anim=1&label=listeners

We have ours set to “W2C Fans”. See…

Enjoy your Feedburning and let us know if you have found other ways to leverage this great service.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Related Posts on Web2Center

• RSS Explained - A Great Little Video
• Audio Interview With Phil Hollows - CEO of FeedBlitz
• Why a Building Full of Corporate Marketers Will Never Beat a Good Business Blogger