If you don’t know what Podcasting is, how simple it is to implement, how little you have to spend to do it, or what the best ways you can use this technology on your real estate website, it is time you learn. Podcasting technology enables users of personal audio players (iPods, MP3s, some cell phones, etc) to receive broadcasts of audio media via an Internet feed to which users can subscribe. Basically, it’s your way of posting audio to your website and broadcasting it out to your subscribers.
I need to do this as a multi-part article simply because there’s so much to say and my attention span is a little too short to write it all in one post! This part is going to go over the basics of Podcasting, why real estate agents should be doing it, how to implement a podcast and what options are available to you for recording and publishing.
What is a podcast?
While I would normally quote Wikipedia for a definition, even I got confused by theirs, so here is about.com’s definition. A Pocast is an audio file you create in .mp3 format which contains your own radio show or any audio you wish others to have. You can upload a Podcast along with an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) file to a server (your website for instance) that your intended listeners download using one of several programs that have been created to retrieve your audio file automatically so, they can listen to it at their convenience on their own iPod or .mp3 player. Interestingly, it is estimated that perhaps only 20% of podcasts are actually consumed on portable media players; 80% are consumed on the PC onto which they are downloaded.
What makes a podcast valuable to a real estate website?
Audio on your website, big deal, huh? Well, it is and this is why. Unlike the other Internet audio formats, Podcast technology allows you to associate searchable text to the audio/video file. Say what? Podcasts and vidcasts contain enough extractable information to be used for SEO. That means that podcasts can be searchable and indexable by engines like Google, MSN and Yahoo! and podcast directories like podcast.net, podcastdirectory.com, odeo and ipodder.org. What types of data can be coupled with the podcast to make the whole think indexable and SEOed? Keywords, descriptions, author information, publish dates, titles and chapter information, etc.
So, the end result is that adding podcasts and vidcasts to your website or blog (most blogs freely offer the ability for podcast publishing) can add to your site's overall SEO value.
What types of podcasts can help real estate professionals?
Podcasts that you record yourself:
You can record a podcasts yourself on your computer. All you need is your PC, microphone and some some podcast recording software. There are a bunch of free podcast recording tools, but I really recommend spending between $20-$50 for a quality package. My recommendations are: Propaganda or Webmaster Podcaster, both of which are about $50.
Podcasts that automatically convert your website text to a podcast
Autocasting is the ability to convert the text on a blog into speech so that it can be downloaded as via podcast.
Recommended AutoCasting Service:
*For a great example of a real estate blog using a high-quality autocaster visit Sellsius and click on the podcast icon at the bottom of any article.
Podcasts that automatically convert your blog text to a podcast
This is pretty much the same as an autocast- just has a more specific name. A blogcast is a portmanteau of two better known media types, the blog and the podcast into a single website. A blogcast is a podcast with an associated text summary, which can be indexed by search engines to make the podcast searchable. (this is from wikipedia)
Teresa Bordman's recommendation: Talkr
How to market your real estate podcast
Directory marketing is so far the best way to market a podcast. Here is a pretty complete list of podcast directories. Choose a few and list your podcasts there. It will help people find you and drive traffic back to your site.
Top 5 ways to use podcasting on a Realtor website or blog
- Offer personal tours of listings: Couple your Podcast with a Virtual Tour or slide show for a listing to give visitors a personalized tour of your listings. This type of podcast would be called a Vidcast as it can contain video. By doing an official or unofficial podcast/vidcast of your listings you are providing a level of service and intimacy available no where else.
- Tour local attractions: Similarly, you can couple a video of the downtown area with a description of all the local “hot spots.” You could even do a series of podcasts and feature different attractions or hot spots in each cast.
- Give mini seminars: Guide buyers through the mortgage and closing processes with bite sized audio clips of what they can expect at each step. You can even personalize RSS feeds to automatically send these audio tutorials to your clients as they approach their closings.
- Create a “talk radio” show: Interviewing builders of homes you are selling, happy clients who love the home you sold them, mortgage brokers that can help people understand the process or the options, etc. The list is endless. It really creates an intimacy with listeners and showcases your personality.
- Announce events: Have an upcoming open house? Use a podcast to alert subscribers to the open house and other relevant local events.
In the next installment, I will go over how to create and publish your very own podcast/vidcast at almost no cost.
Mary McKnight
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this is great. thanks for sharing. i have been wanting to podcast for awhile, but haven't able to do so because i didn't know exactly what software and hardware i need. so i am assuming that podcasting is doable as well on a laptop?
thanks again,
cindy
i stage to sell, live (redesign) and work in san francisco bay area!
cindy@staged4more.com
www.staged4more.com
http://stagingtipsandmore.blog.com/