Consistent Clients – Real Estate Marketing

Today’s post is about RSS. Now, I know I have covered RSS in other posts, but that was on the basics, to help anyone not familiar with RSS understand more about it. Today’s Web 2.0 Wrap-Up will be about more advanced ways to use RSS, both on your own site, as well as for your own use.

Read More: What the heck is RSS, anyway?

Facebook – add your blog posts to your Facebook account. Two applications I use are Notes, and Posted Items. You never know when a post title might catch the attention of a Facebook friend that has never read your blog. If it’s timely information that they’re looking for, you’ve just become the expert in their eyes.

Widgets – Think about turning your blog feed into a widget. You can offer it to any local business that is interested in offering valuable community information to their visitors (think local tourism center, insurance or title company, or get creative!). Widgetbox is a good site for easily creating a widget from your RSS feed.

Deliver files to your audience – if you’re familiar with podcasting, then you already know that files can be delivered to your subscribers. But go beyond, and consider offering pdf’s of listing brochure’s, or property tour video’s.

Trulia Voices – Subscribe to the RSS feed of a site like Trulia’s Voices Q & A. You have the option to enter your zip code, and you can subscribe through their RSS button on the bottom left to be updated whenever new questions are posted for your area. By answering questions on sites like these, you can establish yourself as a local expert.

Stay current – with your industry, with your competitors, with the neighborhood news for the area’s you work in, the opportunities are endless. Enter your search term in Yahoo! or MSN. On the results page (if you’re using Internet Explorer 7 or Firefox) you will see an RSS feed button, and be able to subscribe to the search results.

Keep track of comments – most blogs that use RSS offer the option to subscribe to comments. Whether it’s your own (just in case your email notification doesn’t get through) or comments on other post’s that apply to your business, this lets you keep up with comments and make sure you’re able to respond in a timely fashion.

Hopefully, these suggestions give you some ideas to use RSS in lots of different ways. Whether it’s to save you some time, or increase your reach to potential clients, RSS is a very flexible tool. Let me know what you try, and how it goes!

Technorati Tags: Rich Rogala, real estate marketing, web 2.0, RSS feeds, Trulia, Widgetbox