Have you abandoned YouTube in favor of more real estate specific video sites?
YouTube has added some very cool features that are sure to rekindle interest in this familiar ol’ friend. Features such as annotations and interactive videos.
You control what the annotations say, where they appear on the video, and when they appear and disappear. You can even link from an annotation to another YouTube Video, Channel, or Search result.
So, not only can you put a banner of text or words on your videos, but you can also make sections of them clickable and redirect users elsewhere on YouTube.
Check out this interactively annotated video.
Got some ideas on how to use this?
How about creating your own virtual tour right on YouTube…
Walk down the hall with your snazzy Flip camera, reach a new hallway or door and offer the viewer the clickable option “What would you like to view next?” They click the doorway that takes them to a video of the room, or the click to journey down the hall to another room.
This is pretty cool and I know StomperAgents will have a field day with this.
How else could you use the new YouTube annotations interactive features?
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Exactly what the doctor ordered. Thanks for this. I’m always on the prowl for ways to do these things not requiring a degree from M.I.T. Anyone who knows me realizes I was never on M.I.T.’s recruiting short list.
Mark,
I have attempted your idea. Here is the result: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Amu2aqE517w
@Jeff Royce – woot! way to step up and give it a go… however, i didn’t see the annotations on the video… :/
also, for it to work the way i talk about in the post, you’ll want to break the single video into multiple videos (each room a separate video) so when someone clicks on, say, the kitchen they go to the kitchen video.
can’t wait to see the next go around
@Jeff Royce – video is a very powerful tool for hitting certain psychological “triggers”. if you plan on using video a lot in your marketing (not just home tours, but all around) then you might want to watch this case study i filmed…
word of warning though… some folks may object to this kind of “manipulation.” granted, you can use these techniques maliciously which is why i don’t publicly talk about some of these methods but you should be able to gather some good insights just by watching this case study.
watch the video case study here