As someone who works in Internal Communications and has a passion for social media, I spend a lot of time trying to explain how we can use RSS. Before helping someone understand the value that RSS can bring inside our company, though, I often need to start by addressing the question of ‘What exactly is RSS?’ As result, I have often struggled with how to translate what RSS is into terms that people at my company can easily understand.

As I was about to board the train the other day to head to work, it flashed before my eyes in the form of a newspaper box. When I explained RSS to a coworker in the following way, I saw the fog clear from their eyes.

Every day I walk to the train, and my main purpose in doing so is to get on the train so I can get to work. As I head up the steps to the station, I pass by three newspaper boxes – one for the New York Times, one for the Chicago Tribune and one for the Wall Street Journal. Every paper has one propped up against the glass of the box so that people like me can see the headlines for the day. On most days I walk quickly by the boxes and merely glance at the headlines, because even if a headline catches my eye – such as ‘Microsoft profits plummet’, I don’t have time to stop and buy the paper. But the fact it caught my attention means I will probably look for that story on my smart phone or on my computer when I get to work. On days when a headline catches my eye and I am not in rush, I often buy the paper.

Now imagine if I go to the train station on a Monday and I notice that the newspaper boxes still have Sunday’s paper in them. On Tuesday if the Sunday paper is still there, I’m probably not going to even look at the headlines when I go to the train on Wednesday.

Now imagine that the newspapers at the train station represent the news on the front page of your company’s intranet. Are you now thinking that catchy headlines and relevant news won’t stop me in my tracks unless they are also consistent and timely?

Now let’s instead assume that the newspaper boxes do have Monday’s paper on Monday, but that when I go to the train on Tuesday the boxes are all gone. I notice a newspaper truck driving by, and I ask ‘Where did the newspaper boxes go?’ The reply I receive is ‘We moved them two blocks away’, and he drives away before I have a chance to ask ‘Two blocks in which direction?’ What if these newspaper boxes that I can’t find actually represent important news on your company’s benefits or payroll sites that many employees would find useful to know? How is anyone going to find out this information given most people don’t actively surf your intranet like they do the internet?

So you tell me - just get rid of all these newspaper boxes and instead have the newspapers sent to your house every day. The issue is that I don’t want to trip over three newspapers every morning on my way out the door. I’ll just end up recycling them and I won’t go back and read them. I only want news if it’s relevant to me and when I have the time to read it. Sound like your employees asking you not to send them any more electronic newsletters?

I have a better solution. Let’s build one newspaper box that’s filled with news that is relevant to me and that I get to choose. The Sports Section from the Chicago Tribune, the Technology Section from the New York Times and severe weather alerts from the Weather Channel. While we’re at it, let’s add news of when my favorite blogs contain new posts and news on anytime my company is mentioned in a newspaper…anywhere in the world. Wow, that would be great!

The great news is this box already exists. It’s called RSS. Using it allows your employees to subscribe to the things they care about – an executive blog, updates on benefits, the latest company podcast, mail server outages (try emailing those) and even outside news they want to keep updated on such as their favorite sports team.

So why aren’t many people using it? Well, while RSS does stand for Really Simple Syndication, maybe up ’til now it wasn’t deemed newsworthy by many.