This news was simply too exciting to withhold, so we’re not even going to try. We are proud to announce that WellcomeMat is now iPhone-ready BABY! Ok…ok…we’re almost entirely iPhone ready baby. The alpha version of our iPhone app is now live at www.WellcomeMat.com/iPhone. The way that it is coming together is as follows:
-We have converted about 1/5th of all our videos to H264 format (the only video format that iPhone’s will play). This means that your channel videos may not be showing up right now. If you are upset about this, please write Apple and tell them how lame it is that they are not yet supporting flash video, as they inevitably will have to and are just dragging their feet.
-Once we have completed all conversions, you will be able to send iPhone users (and soon all mobile users) to your WellcomeMat channel, or individual videos for viewing.
Example: property hunter pulls up to the curb of your newest listing. They love the house! So, they stroll up to the sign to get some contact info and BOOM! “View the video of this home at: http://www.wellcomemat.com/iphone/BostonVideoTours”
Disclaimer: this is the first version of our mobile solution(s). You’ll likely hit some snags. But, right here in the collective brain of Team WellcomeMat is a mobile video platform that is going to absolutely change the name of the local game. If you have any feedback/questions, as usual, get in touch already!
When we talk about video, one of the hottest topics these days seems to be that of distribution. How do I get my content online and everywhere? What are the best tactics for distributing/syndicating content online? Before we address the ‘how’, we should first talk openly about the practices of many of the most popular video sites online. For a good while now, online video has been like the wild west. Shoot a video and post it to any and every site that will accept your content, a complete free for all! Things are changing, fast! We’ve talked about this before (see “The Egg Cracks“) but this story is bound to continue.
If you are focused on real estate and local video, you need this list!
Stopped Accepting Real Estate Video
- Vimeo
- Bliptv
- Crackle
- Pickle
Stopped Accepting User-Gen Content Altogether
- Brightcove
- Video Egg
- Mania TV
Publicly Stated Disinterest in Real Estate Video (Terms of Service, etc.)
- YouTube
- Viddler
- Yahoo Video
Is it just me or have you been getting bombarded by unnecessary Facebook promotions (groups, friends, etc.) recently?
I was speaking with a human friend this week about her evolving relationship with FACEBOOK. More specifically, how it’s changed from the early days to the behemoth it’s become today. Obviously she preferred the days of old, but that wasn’t the part of the conversation that tweaked my zanplat (that’s an “ear” for you humans). She, like me and countless other beings, had lost her emotional attachment to FB. I thought to myself, “OMG!… what have humans done to her FACEBOOK?”.
What’s my malfunction with Facebook? Well, ever since I signed up on Facebook, I’ve been getting friend requests from people I don’t know. Now that’s ok because this is in fact a ‘Face’ book (community of individuals) and likewise I have total control whether or not to accept the request. What’s bothering me is that some humanoids cannot overcome their desire to broadcast their services on FB: “HEY!!! YOU!!! HAVE YOU SEEN THIS?! YEAH THIS. MY NEW PRODUCT! YOU HAVE TO TRY IT OUT. SIGN UP TODAY! SERIOUSLY. IT’S AMAZING.” So amazing that I need them [insert annoying marketeer] to broadcast their service to me while I am simply trying to connect with like-minded peeps?
I think it’s a bad idea to market your service (so bluntly) on FACEBOOK, so much so that I’ve almost convinced the guys at WellcomeMat to pull down their WellcomeMat Video profile. You might disagree with me but deep down, you know I’m right. The site is 75% to space junk (MySpace) status already. So please… don’t cheapen facebook. Don’t post, ‘Thanks for the Ad’ to someones wall. If you have a product or service to sell, promote awareness of problem you’re trying to solve, not yourself or business.
There has never been anything about WellcomeMat that didn’t seem worth it. Yes, it’s been a longer and extended shlog up a muddy mountain side than we originally thought; but, as Moms always says, “Christian…the joy is in the journey.” I’m here to say that we are more than enjoying our journey to local video glory. BUT, I also have to say that knowing that the local video market is projected to be a $1.5B market by 2012 makes this journey feel a bit more worthy!
If you are a local producer, and wondering where your next gig is going to come from, keep your chin up and keep shlogging up the hillside. We’re climbing a worthy mound!
Long time WellcomeMat member, aerial video jockey, and Alaskan real estate agent Ray Wood has done a pretty amazing job with his new blog, Full-MotionVideoTours.net, which thoroughly documents the nitty gritty details of real estate video.
It’s rare to find a real estate video blog that is objective because most of them (including this one) are real estate video companies, helpless against the passion of their sites/companies/products. Go to Ray Wood’s blog, and you’ll find a well-done, objective source of information about real estate video. Great job Ray! Now, if you’d just crop that darn profile photo of yours on WellcomeMat…
Joel Burslem put out a post the other day about a common opinion within the industry that 2.0 tools will have little, if any effect on the real estate industry:
“There’s a belief that the principles of real estate marketing 201 (social media, blogging, video, social networking, micro-blogging, etc.) are never going to supplant traditional marketing.”
Jonathan Dalton identifies this Wizard of Oz shoe tapping, please take me back to a more comfortable time mentality in his post, “The Fallacy of ‘Going Back to the Basics’ .” Back to basics? Back to huh? Let’s do this instead: let’s pretend the internet didn’t ever happen. This is definitely the way to go: bare with me. Let’s also pretend that the junk mail that we get-you know..the mail that you get and immediately realize how wasteful this country really is-holds more weight in the eyes of our customers then when they do a Google search for hyper local information and find a knowledgeable, local expert (blog/video), whom happens to be a real estate professional.
These back to basics (huh?) and off-line/dig your head into the sand notions immediately serve as the catalyst to The Question. I am referring to The Question that crosses every single real estate technologist’s mind from time to time (don’t lie…I know you have thought this too): what in the hell am I doing in this industry? Trust me, it’s only a fleeting moment before I remember why I am here, working on WellcomeMat during every waking moment of each day; but, holy ?!?&#!!?
Please note that, even though I would immediately re-allocate all off-line marketing dollars to the web, I am not suggesting that anyone else do the same. All I am saying is test the waters, mark a percentage of off-line money to online marketing initiatives and see what happens. There are a lot of off-line marketing methods that work, have worked, and will continue to work. I get that.
We are often asked “what’s going to happen to real estate?” Sometimes, this question means “hey..which way is the market going to go?” Other times, what we are being asked is “what is 2.0 doing to the industry?”
People tend to treat the real estate market like it’s some giant living in the woods somewhere. What’s the monster going to do? The answer to all of these questions is You Are Real Estate. 2.0 isn’t doing anything to real estate…it is real estate. Real estate will head in the exact direction that we as an industry push it.
They say that the true test of a man/woman is what they do when they get knocked down. The market has dealt a blow to just about everyone by now, but this is where winners take their stand. Lazy marketing, apathetic attitudes, and lame excuses (such as “the media is hurting my business!”) make you the victim. You are the local media that the national publications/news outlets can never beat. You are the local resource, and can shoot videos that highlight your knowledge of your territory. Be the media, be the change, be real estate. Don’t be a victim.
One waits, one makes moves. One relies heavily on peripheral vision, one need only focus on what’s ahead. The most important thing to note about using video is that it is a real, tangible, competitive advantage. This is especially so when trying to win listings over agents that don’t use video. Brian Copeland’s statement says it all:
“I have a 100% listing rate. I’ve never lost a listing. In my first eight months of real estate (which was in 2006) I closed 62 homes without being with a builder or on a team. I know you guys looked silly walking the floor in space suits, but you truly are the new frontier. Thanks for making [video] accessible, easy, attractive and affordable!”
While we disagree entirely with the opinion that we “looked silly walking the floor in space suits,” and truly believed we looked like super heroes, we still think the world of Mr. Copeland.
Watch his interview with Team WellcomeMat in Vegas:
-Christian Sterner, Jeff Turner, and Phil from Turnhere on on a panel about video at the Inman Connect event in SF.
-Jeff Turner decides that video is still a debatable medium, and attempts to sway the attendees into believing that slide shows are better than video using a “cheaper/easier” argument. His ROI statements are decently solid, but all new technology starts off more expensive, and becomes more affordable with competition.
-WellcomeMat team members wrongfully use a bad video to demonstrate how easy a video tour is to create.
-Jeff uses this video as his foundation about how slide shows are better than video
Here’s what I’ll say: congrats to Jeff for creating a bunch of product advocates out of his customers. It takes one look through the comments of his post to see that he has some serious fans. However, slide shows companies are not WellcomeMat’s competition. Maybe they’d like us to think that they are competition (I can’t speak for them), but WellcomeMat has far more lofty goals than to just supplement or beat out slide show/virtual tour companies as a listing enhancement. We consider video technology companies our competition, and no one else. If someone has to make the choice between a good video or virtual tour, we think the choice is plainly in favor of video. Should you use photos and video? You definitely should if you want more attention on the web.
WellcomeMat is a real estate and local business advertising platform. Can we help people enhance a listing…not a single doubt in my mind. But, WellcomeMat has only just begun to execute the most exciting plans for our business and there will be no doubt what my team, and company, are capable of when our work is completed (can someone please tell me when this is?). While I don’t appreciate being attacked by Jeff Turner, I don’t think his argument (or personal attack) matters. It is home sellers, and ultimately buyers/renters that decide which medium wins. I will end with a hypothetical situation:
Imagine the television has just been invented. Someone sets this TV down, connects the wires, and turns on a program. Web video is in precisely the same position: did radio and print guys try to downplay TV when it came out? Their future depended on it…of course they did!
Alright….Team WellcomeMat has seen the word “video” tossed around at will for too long. Time to set the record straight. Slide shows are not video. Zoom in, zoom out, fade in, fade out….do whatever you wish with a photo, but it just isn’t video. We started a discussion today in The Neighborhood because we have been seeing quite a few slide shows getting uploaded to the site. While we don’t necessarily like this (we are a video site after all), we are going to roll with the punches. In our minds, it’s better to help people to use video then to shun people away from WellcomeMat whom aren’t.
How do you know if you are looking at a video? The litmus tests for a video are really quite easy: can you see movement within the image frame (a tree blowing in the wind for example)? Is a real person giving you a tour of a property/place? Is the position of the camera changing as time goes on (is the shooter and camera moving towards a doorway and then turning back towards the entrance for example)? If your answer is yes to any of these, you are looking at a video.
Why should we care? We should care for one very good reason: videos are better than photos! With video, you can offer the closest thing to a real life walk through on the web. Video, unlike any other medium, tells a story. If you have someone in front of the camera telling that story, even better! More importantly, video sells! If this weren’t true, how would QVC, HSN and infomercials have made it? Do you see products being sold on television using slide shows?
We have heard slide shows defended because “houses don’t move,” and therefore an image can do much justice. The truth is that houses don’t move (yes…I am bright enough not to argue this one). However, people do move: how does one see the true connections between each room in a place without viewing a video? Answer…in person. If you are using slide shows to market properties, that’s great! Truth be told, pictures are a great way to market properties. Video is better and they are not the same.
