Real Estate Internet Marketing for Realtors > Locale | Best Practices Blog

I am continually amazed at how long the adoption of one of the most beneficial and efficient ways to share content online is taking. Known as RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, knowledgeable consumers use RSS feedreaders to track content of interest online. For the most part, realtors and real estate agencies have not adopted the use of RSS, ignoring yet another of today’s trends and providing another example of realtors having direct disconnect with consumers.

RSS has many parallels to the fax machine in its user adoption pattern: confusion, reluctance, and the eventual embrace. Without a doubt both publishers using RSS feeds and the consumers that use feedreaders to track their online content need each other to grow. The question simply is: why is the adoption taking so long?

Of the five categories Rogers created, characteristics include:

• Innovators - 2.5% - venturesome, educated, multiple info sources, greater propensity to take risk
• Early adopters –13.5% - social leaders, popular, educated
• Early majority – 34% - deliberate, many informal social contacts
• Late majority – 34% - skeptical, traditional, lower socio-economic status
• Laggards – 16% - neighbors and friends are main info sources, fear of debt

At the very least, successful realtors need to be “early adopters” of useful technologies rather than the industry’s current trend of the “late majority” and “laggard” categories. Being an “early adopter” allows for a first mover advantage and gives you an edge over your competition before the technology becomes commonplace within the market.

As the fax machine in your office proves, you’ve embraced change before. Now do it again and gain a competitive edge by embracing RSS and learning how to use it to feed your listings around the Internet.

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Posted by Latham Jenkins in Technology |