What's RSS and How Can It Help Me?
You’ve probably heard the term syndication kicked around Internet marketing circles. Syndication is the concept of providing Web content to consumers without requiring that they visit your Web site, thereby expanding your online reach to more prospects. There is a technical term for this dissemination of syndicated information—RSS, which stands for “really simple syndication.” (It also sometimes is referred to as “rich site summary” or “RDF site summary.”)
This technology may be the wave of the future in communicating real estate information. If you don’t already know about RSS, you owe it to yourself to find out as much as you can and determine if this is a service you want to provide to your increasingly tech-savvy clients.
What Is RSS?
Internet marketing takes two forms: “push” and “pull.” Push marketing refers to sending out materials to prospects, e.g., mailing out advertising postcards or letters asking prospects to contact you. In contrast, a good model of pull marketing is word-of-mouth or referral marketing. New clients are directed towards you because of positive experiences that others they trust have had with you.
RSS is another form of pull marketing. At its core, syndication offers your online content to consumers in a convenient form. Here’s how it works:
• You post new content on your Web site.
• Your Web site offers an “RSS feed” of your content, typically denoted by an orange box somewhere on your Web site that is labeled either RSS or XML.
• Prospects or current or past clients who are interested in getting updated information from you subscribe to your RSS feed by clicking on the orange box and selecting the type of feed they would like to receive.
• Once the subscribers select the feed they want, they will see a page that contains XML computer code. (To see an example of an XML code page, go to CNN’s Top Stories RSS feed.)
• Subscribers don’t need to know what the codes mean; they just simply need to copy the URL of this code page into their “RSS readers.” RSS readers are offered at no charge by some online services (such as bloglines.com) or products (such as Liferea or FeedReader) and provide one centralized place that consumers can view all of their RSS feeds without having to visit your site or other Web sites.
• When subscribers want to get their RSS feeds, they go to the site of their RSS reader to see the latest RSS feed from you and other RSS feeds they have signed up for. (The next generation of Web browsers in 2006 will have RSS capabilities built-in so that users can just launch their Web browser to get access to their RSS feeds without having to go to an RSS reader site. It’s a powerful way for consumers to create their own customized view of the Web.)
• RSS feeds usually provide a headline link. Subscribers click on the link when they want to read the story, and that takes them back to the source of the RSS feed—your Web site.
See example RSS Feeds at www.alicedonahue.com/news.aspx and www.alicedonahue.com/mls.aspx
Benefits of Using RSS
RSS is a powerful, cost-effective way to drive traffic back to your Web site. The more traffic you have coming to your Web site, the more visible you are and the more you elevate your brand and the real estate services you offer. And by providing regular updates of important real estate information that your prospects and clients want, you reinforce your role as a real estate expert and trusted adviser.
Other benefits to providing RSS feeds on your Web site include:
• It’s the wave of the future in communicating real estate information to prospects and clients. No more relying on e-mail to do the job. With the federal CAN-SPAM Act, spam blockers, and electronic viruses, e-mail is increasingly becoming a more cumbersome and less reliable way to communicate.
• The new technology appeals to tomorrow’s client base. While older buyers and sellers may not be comfortable with this new technology, Generation X and Generation Y will come to expect it.
Over time, other Web sites will discover your RSS feed and promote it, and you end up reaping the benefits of being the original supplier of credible real estate information. If you consider how syndicated columnists become well known, it is because one newspaper picks up a columnist based on positive feedback from other newspapers. The same applies to RSS feeds.
How Can You Use RSS?
There are a number of ways you can provide an RSS feed to keep your name top-of-mind with Internet prospects and clients. These include:
• Home listings that fit search criteria set by buyer clients.
• Topics areas like “Investing in Real Estate,” “Preparing Your House for Sale,” or “Finding Your Dream House” that appeal to specific target audiences.
• A “Community Reporter” section where you demonstrate your expertise of the local community by providing updates on local events and issues. For a fantastic example of this about life and real estate in New York, see Curbed.
What About Blogs?
Another term that is often discussed in the context of RSS is blogs. A blog is an online log of writings dedicated to a topic. You should think of blogs as an online diary or the latest incarnation of bulletin boards or mailing lists. The blog looks very much like a news site and provides frequent updated information or postings on a topic. Often, the blog operator allows readers to post commentary to the articles as well. Both the articles and the commentary are usually available for syndication.
In addition to some of the examples cited above, another example of a blog that offers syndication is the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®’ Center for REALTOR® Technology blog. This site is dedicated to technical topics and you can subscribe to its content via RSS. I study the blogs that are beginning to appear in the real estate industry and have noted that most of them have well defined topical areas, include consumer feedback, and have the ability to subscribe to content.
Real estate professionals are already discovering the marketing benefits of using RSS and are leading the industry in effectively using this new technology to drive customers to their front door. The more I look on the Web, the more examples I find of practitioners who have launched blogs or are offering syndication on their Web sites. Do your homework so that you’re not left behind on this next big thing in online marketing technology.
