I received a suggestion for a blog post via the Skribit widget on my website:
What Should I Write About? RSS Feeds from Social Networking
So here goes:
First, let’s define RSS Feeds, so we’re all on the same page: 
RSS (most commonly expanded as Really Simple Syndication) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video. An RSS document (which is called a “feed”, “web feed”, or “channel”) includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds can be read using software called an “RSS reader”, “feed reader”, or “aggregator”, which can be web-based, desktop-based, or mobile-device-based. Thanks, Wikipedia!
So, let’s take the social networking site, Twitter, for example. One way to leverage RSS feeds as they relate to Twitter would be to use www.search.twitter.com to create a search on Twitter conversations. Once you’ve refined your search, there is an RSS feed button in the upper right-hand corner. This allows you to subscribe to your Twitter search via RSS feed in your Google Reader (or whichever aggregator you use) so you never have to perform that search again; the search results just keep refreshing in your Google Reader…pretty nifty.
How about LinkedIn? One way to use RSS feeds on LinkedIn is in their “Answers” section. When I’ve got a question that I don’t know the answer to, I can go to this area of LinkedIn and ask the entire LinkedIn network (or just my connections) my question. And they can answer it. But who wants to go to the LinkedIn website all the time to find out if a new question has been asked in their field of expertise? This is where the RSS feed comes in handy. On the right-hand side of the Answers page, you can Browse the categories and select your field of interest. Once you select your field, there will be an RSS feed button on the right-hand side for you to subscribe to any updates made to your category.
Now, all you have to do is visit your Google Reader whenever you want to access your searches on Twitter conversations or find questions to answer on LinkedIn to demonstrate that you’re an expert in your field.
What other RSS feeds to you utilize with social networking? BTW, make sure you get my blog in your Google Reader. Go ahead, the subscribe button is at the top of this page…or just click here.
