Click here to view the embedded video.

Today I’m sharing an example of what I’m doing with video to help strengthen my relationships with my trusted partners.  I’ve picked my top 5 trusted business partners that I already currently pass a decent amount of introductions to and have put together a video about why I like them and that they are MY Guy and you should use them as well.

Just grab the camera and make it happen. I don’t care how you do the video or what camera you use if it’s something as simple as someone holding a flip camera with both of you at each others office that will work just fine. You need to talk about your actual personal experience in dealing with that person, put there phone number at the end — and boom you’re off to the races.

Here’s my quick tips when you are helping a carpet cleaner in a respective area make the title of your video Carpet Cleaning (That City) – Then the Actual Company name.  Next in the description write a decent sized paragraph that relates to carpet cleaning make sure you included carpet cleaning 1 or 2 times in that description you dont have to go crazy a few times is plenty.  Put in relevant keywords and boom wait for magic to happen. Here is an example video I created highlighting Green Bay Floor Restore:

Click here to view the embedded video.

When you get your trusted partners in google — the rest is history.

I believe in the law of reciprocation and that’s why I do all of my trusted partner videos for FREE. Zero. Nada. Nothing. The reason I do this is simple. I believe if I do something of value for someone it’s going to come back in huge dividends.

I hope you have a Merry Christmas much love from the Green Bay Homes Expert.

Here’s a question from Tom Lipinski in Lake St Clair:

What is the significance (or non-significance) of having a YouTube page/channel? What can YouTube do for me?

One response from Chase Thompson on Twitter:

@drewmeyers it has driven 100% of my business that hasn’t been referral or past client. Granted social/blogging/teaching has played a role. it all stems from my videos.

Here’s a video response from Greg Dallaire in Green Bay.

Click here to view the embedded video.

What’s your answer?

[disclosure Tom Lipinski and Greg Dallaire are both clients of Virtual Results]

What’s going to differentiate those community pages from everyone else?

VIDEOS

Here are a few examples of community videos..

Sue Adler – Millburn & Short Hills:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ted Mackel — Lemon Pad in Simi Valley

Click here to view the embedded video.

Halstead Property – Tribeca

[note: not sure why the embed on this video isn't working, but view the video HERE]

If you don’t have your own videos, or are in the process of working on them, embedding another video onto your page is certainly an option. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of videos of communities uploaded to YouTube — and most of them are not produced by competitors, but instead by tourist establishments. For instance, here are a few I found on YouTube for various cities:

Portland

Click here to view the embedded video.

San Francisco

Click here to view the embedded video.

Miami

Click here to view the embedded video.

Are you utilizing videos on your community pages? If not, why?

[Disclosure: Sue Adler is a client of Virtual Results]

Click here to view the embedded video.

Kenn, Ben, and Sue are all driving significant business from their web efforts, so certainly a panel worth learning from.

[Disclosure: Sue Adler is a client of Virtual Results]

Click here to view the embedded video.

The video was produced by Colliers International, a firm specializing in commercial real estate. What’s the topic of the video? Surprise, surprise — it’s not about them. Instead, it’s about one of their tenants — TrendHunter – which is a very smart strategic decision. The Colliers branding is subtle, but powerful.

The message is clear — great companies such as TrendHunter work with Colliers for their commercial real estate needs.

I can assure you of one thing — TrendHunter is going to be spreading this video wide and far and, in turn, marketing Colliers International in the process. Additionally — this is a great client retention tool for key clients — after being promoted like this, I’d guess it would take an act of god to get TrendHunter to switch commercial real estate brokers the next time they need to relocate or additional square footage.

Lesson: Turn your clients into Rock Stars. And they will market you in return.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Are you creating videos for your listings? If so, how do they compare to this? How much are you spending on video?

Uploaded with Skitch!

It got my interested. I clicked through. And I watched this virtual tour (from IMAGEination) in its entirety.

[Note to Doug - I tried to embed the tour here, but couldn't get the embed script to work]

The tour is obviously professionally produced. It includes a nice voiceover explaining the features the penthouse offers and offered amazing views of the entire unit. Doug got me there through the use of social media. But once he hooked me, from a conversion perspective (our specialty), I think Doug missed the mark. I spent a solid 2 minutes watching the video. That’s a rarity for me given my tendency to work with no fewer than 5 tabs open, and 2 windows on two separate monitors (and I know I’m not alone). Of course, I am not his target audience. Somehow, I think that property is out of my budget. But if I could afford that penthouse, I’d totally love to live there. That said, if that video did reach the right person — it should be painfully obvious how to contact the Heddings Property Group for more information.

During the viewing process, there were no conversion points anywhere in sight. Where is the phone number? Where is the email address? Where is the website URL for more information?

Uploaded with Skitch!

Now, let me end this by saying I consider Doug a friend. He’s someone I really really respect in this industry; he’s pushing the envelop with everything he does and is moving the NYC real estate market toward being a more friendly environment for consumers. And that’s a great thing. And I’m willing to bet, knowing Doug like I do, this critique is something he’s going to take to heart and improve upon.

And Jay, you just earned yourself a link – sexiest Phoenix realtor.

Now, whether or not photos and videos are on the same level is up to the customer, but if you look at the stats around video it’s pretty clear that they’re in love with it.

According to comScore 178 million people watched 33.2 billion videos in the month of December alone, with the average user watching 187 videos per month in the U.S. Those are pretty powerful numbers, and that data is from 2009! I can only imagine where those numbers are today and hope that comScore releases a new study soon.

When you combine the video viewing habits of Internet users with the explosive growth of Facebook (71.2% of the U.S web audience is on there) and the fact that videos are the most viewed posts on Facebook, using video seems like a no brainer.

Even with those mind-blowing statistics above some agents are still hesitant to use videos in their marketing. I think I have a solution that can ease you into using video in your marketing in 2011: community videos. Instead of doing a video for every listing (this can be time consuming, I know) start by doing community videos. These have a longer shelf life (hopefully!) than listing videos and will still impress your clients. If you’re still worried about the quality of your videos hire a local videographer to shoot your video for you. But honestly, I wouldn’t worry. People are in love with video. Not professional video, just plain video.

What are your thoughts on using video in your marketing? If you’re using it, how are you using it. If you’re not using it, why not, and do you ever plan to?

Disclosure: I’m co-founder of Zipvo, a website that offers real estate video solutions to agents, so I may be a bit biased on this topic. However, I don’t care what type of video you use, I just think you should use it!

[Photo credit: Ugly House Photos]

Seriously — is anyone doing video like THIS in the United States?? If not, WHY?

From Larry Lohrman at Photography from Real Estate.