No More Cruise Control - Use RSS Instead

You can tell who's on cruise control. They remain steadfast to the point of stubbornness. They don't use forethought and are constantly avoiding change.

This weekend, I took a leisurely drive from back to Iowa from the Blog Business Summit in San Francisco. The only headaches were caused by those drivers who would get in the "fast" lane and drive with cruise control. This causes several problems:

• They drive at the same speed regardless of terrain. They don't even notice the semi-trucks trying to gain speed to get up a hill.
• They pull beside a truck and stay there - creating a blind spot to what's happening on the other side of the truck.
• They don't consider traffic coming onto the freeway.

This is similar to how some companies are operating today. The view on blogging, RSS feeds, and other forms of online communication are being ignored. This causes several problems:

• They operate at the same speed regardless of terrain. They fail to recognize the conversations going on in their market.
• They find a niche and stay there - creating a blind spot to what's happening with their competitors.
• They don't consider new ways to gather information - or new ways to get information to market.

Even if your company isn't blogging right now...get up to speed on RSS and feeds. Sally Falkow shared with me a detailed report on The Business Case for RSS. I would encourage you to read it.

Get this - On the highways, traffic alerts on the radio will always tell say "turn off Cruise control" in construction zones. Well, it's time to "turn off cruise control" with your business as RSS, Blogs, Podcasts, and Wiki technology are in the mix.

"Embrace change before it tackles you." - Mike Sansone