Welcome to my blog. I'll be writing about tips to help you learn how to effectively use the AMS Carrier Community site. Our first topic is RSS Feeds.
So what are RSS feeds and why should you use them? RSS feeds are a way to have new information "pushed" to you rather than you having to go looking for it (referred to as pulling information). By subscribing to an RSS feed for blog posts you like to read you'll be notified when a new posting is available, eliminating unnecessary visits to check if content has changed.
In order to subscribe to RSS feeds, you need a Feed Reader. There are many feed readers available. Of the more popular ones (and the one I use most often) is Google Reader. But I think a lof of you probabaly already use Outlook, which also has a feed reader so I will cover that here. Specifically, I will be covering Outlook 2007 because that's what I'm using.
To get started, you may have noticed a folder in your mailbox called "RSS Feeds". If not, go look for it; I'll wait.
Welcome back. now right-click on this folder and select "Add a New RSS Feed...". You then get this prompt:
Now you just need a feed location (URL) to put here. To get you started, I'm going to have you subscribe to my blog.
Click on the blog name "Community Builder Blog" (you should find the blog name below this post in the "Available Blogs" section) and look for the RSS feed icon that is next to the blog name. It's an orange icon that looks like this:
Right-click on it and select "Copy Shortcut". Now you can paste this shortcut into the above prompt and click "Add".
That's it! You're now subscribed to my blog. Whenever I add a new blog post, your RSS Feed folder in Outlook will show a number, much like it does when you get new e-mail. You'll be able to read the blog post directly in Outlook. Keep in mind that there are many, many places on the internet where you can subscribe to RSS feeds and these instructions apply to them as well.
If you have any questions, please ask them in the comments for this post.