Witnessing the Birth of a Great Idea

March 1, 2007 |

My previous post discussed the idea of creating a ZebraCast, an audio podcast for the blog. This post sparked an email from Mike at MLPodcast that involved me in a discussion about creating a place for RE.net bloggers to post podcasts for the world to find and hear. Mike felt that bloggers should cover the topic in future posts to judge the demand for such a thing. I think it is a great idea, and Greg recently wrote a post raising a few questions about how the whole thing would work. He asked:

1. What kind of content should be accepted, and what should be omitted? Feelings are running strongly against spammy or self-promotional podcasts — for instance, video virtual tours of listed homes.

2. How local is too local? Obviously I am strongly biased in favor of general-interest, nationally-focused and industry-oriented podcasts. Should locally-focused podcasts be accepted, and, if so, should any limits obtain on what kind of local content should be accepted?

3. What’s a good length? I personally prefer podcasts that run from 45-75 minutes, the length of a good workout. The Sales Success podcasts we’re putting together will run from 10-30 minutes. What do you think is a good length?

4. Finally, do you have plans either to create or to subscribe to real estate podcasts, and, if so, would a system like this appeal to you?

My answers to Greg’s questions are:

1) Video podcasts of active listings and purely self-promotional material would have to be prohibited. There are plenty of outlets for that type of thing. The question would be who would be responsible for the monitoring of content, as that could prove to be a bear of a task.
2) Anything local that goes beyond anecdotal examples in the service of addressing a broader issue should be prohibited. After all, aren’t our personal blogs designed for that purpose? Someone else’s server space shouldn’t be clogged up with podcasts that only pertain to Charlottesville.

3) As far as length is concerned, that is a personal thing. My opinion is that the more brief, the better. I don’t know how willing people will be to listen to a 30 minute podcast about industry issues. That might cause people to fall asleep in the pews. When I start my ZebraCasts, I will probably try to keep it under 10 minutes or so. I think that is appropriate for most subjects. The other option is if someone is going to do a longer podcast, make sure that it has ample chapter breaks so that people can take a break and come back to things later if they want. A series of podcasts may also be a solution to the length issue.
4) I definitely have plans to create such content, and a service like this sounds like a great idea. Hopefully, it will come to fruition sooner, rather than later.

There are a lot of good people mulling the idea. It looks to me as if we maybe witnessing and participating in the creation of a significant development in the RE.net world.

My two cents is in. . . how about you?
[tags] real estate, realtor, blogging, podcasting, marketing [/tags]

Posted by Daniel | Filed Under Blogging, Industry Issues 

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