Video moves crowds. In fact, people have watched one trillion YouTube videos as of 2011. For real estate agents, that means you can’t afford to neglect this growing trend.

How can you leverage video for marketing your business and listings? We’re glad you asked. Here are some ideas you can use immediately:

1. Give a better picture of your listings.

Still shots can sometimes leave prospects unsure. Video tours can help your audience judge a space and see important details they might miss in a photo.

Prospective buyers want good information they can consume fast. Using your smart phone or camera, you can offer a much-needed live look at a home, impress your seller clients, and attract more buyers by sharing more information.

Whether you’re adding the link to your listing on Trulia or sharing it on Facebook, if you learn a few of the best practices, video tours can be a great way to enhance your marketing efforts by giving prospects a real look inside the property.

2.  Prepare buyers and sellers with a local market update.

Reading stats can be a bore for most consumers. However, as popular segments on the Today show and many other news programs show, people like to watch real estate experts talk shop.

Consider giving a market update for your area as a video and sharing it on Trulia Voices, your blog, and Facebook. These videos put prospects in touch with both your personality and expertise.

3. Share video testimonials from clients.

Clients are talking about you already to their friends and networks. Why not ask them to have that conversation on video?

A video testimonial is a great way to make a current or past client feel important, increase your exposure to that client’s network, and develop great content to share in your marketing.

Now that you can manually add recommendations from elsewhere to Trulia, you can use quotes from a video recommendation and a link to full video on your Trulia profile to share with future clients.

Don’t overthink the production. Shoot it as an interview — ask a few leading questions and see where the conversation goes.

Some good conversation-starters:

  • What were the top two benefits of working with me?
  • Why would you choose to work with me again over another agent?
  • Describe how I helped you work through some of the hurdles involved in your transaction.

Get more tips and advice on shooting, editing, and sharing….

Video can be a great tool if you know how to produce high-quality videos with the resources you have. For help on how to bring your video marketing aspirations to life, register for this upcoming webinar with video expert and real estate agent Brian Copeland: Using Video to Close More Deals