YouTube & Realtor.com Video Innovation!

The innovative Premium Virtual Tour company FloorPlanOnline has done it again.

FloorPlanOnline continues to offer additional features and functions to its tours and single property websites…without charge. Real Estate Agents may now check a simple box and an automated process creates and posts a YouTube video of the listing online into the FloorPlanOnline YouTube Channel or….your own (or company’s) channel! It’s very simple to use – just use our normal video editing tools and save your changes. Best of all, this enhanced tour distribution service is FREE. The video will be available for download under Marketing Materials generally within 1-2 hours after saving your changes (time varies based on the number of videos in the processing queue).  In addition, we also create a video file that can be used to upload into your Realtor.com Showcase listing.  For now, this is something you must do as Realtor.com has no automated process for tour companies to handle this job for you.

More adventurous Realtors may opt to select different music, type in captions for each photo and edit photos to create a more personalized YouTube video. In order to take advantage of the new YouTube & Realtor.com tool – FPO customers should log in and edit their linking profile by checking the box to include the linking to the FloorPlanOnline YouTube channel.  Then just make sure it is selected on the order as you place create a new tour.

This new tool works on all new tours created as of Monday, Aug 30th 2010.
Click here to view an example video on YouTube or just play the sample below:

As with most enhancements and improvements to FPO tours, there is no additional fee for this feature.  Other companies charge up to $20 or more, just to put a video on YouTube. On top of that, they charge up to $49 or more for the same virtual tour we price at $29.  As long as your tour is active, including tours that have been renewed, you can create a video file and have the video uploaded to YouTube.  Please read our FAQ below for more details on how to create a video file.  Additionally, word from the FloorPlanOnline development department is that further options and YouTube related tools are being tested and tweaked for launch before the end of the year.

Why should you link the tour to YouTube, or Realtor.com?  More online exposure.  Most people are not going to YouTube to search for properties.  In fact, according to the most recent NAR statistics, less than 1% of buyers in the survey sited YouTube as a source for online content.   Realtor.com was one of the highest websites, however.  However, putting the video on YouTube can help with search engine optimization…so your tour gets found, and you get it sold!

To learn more, just click on one of the FAQs below to read more details (click again to hide the detail).

How do I Create a video for YouTube & Realtor.com?

We automatically produce a video file of the Virtual WalkThru Video and automatically upload the video to the FloorPlanOnline YouTube Channel or your (or your company's) YouTube channel. It is an exact replica of the video, including music, transitions and any text you may have added to the video scenes. There is no upgrade request - it just happens, and it is FREE!

How do you add YouTube Videos to your account? For new tours, the only thing you need to do is login and go to Edit Profile, then select the Edit Linking Info button and check the box for either the FloorPlanOnline YouTube Channel or Your own YouTube Channel linking option under Automated Website Distribution Service. Then save at the bottom. Once the tour is approved, the video will be uploaded within approximately 24 hours or less. As part of the video on YouTube, we include a link to the complete tour, the marketing description, and the contact information of the marketing representative. There is nothing else you need to do, and on future listings, just make sure the right box is checked to link the video to YouTube as you create the tour, and will will all happen for you, automatically!

As an added bonus, we also provide the video file for download under Marketing Materials. Just click the link under Marketing Materials and then select the Download Video button. You can use this file to upload to your own YouTube channel manually, or use it to upload into your Realtor.com Showcase listing (note - Realtor.com does not allow us to upload the video file to them...so something you must do). You can even use a third party program, such as the Windows DVD Maker included with Windows 7, to burn it to a DVD and play it on a TV connected DVD player.

We provide 3 file formats. For YouTube, any version should work for uploading.
- Download AVI File - good for Windows Media or Windows DVD Maker
- Download MP4 File - Windows or Apple users
- Download MOV File - QuickTime video file for Apple users

What happens if I change the video or I want videos for my older listings?
If you change a video, a new video file will be created and added to your account under Marketing Materials within 1 to 2 hours (the actual time may vary based on the size of your video and other videos that are concurrently being processed). To create a video file for old tours, including ANY tour that has been renewed, just login, and make sure your profile for linking has first been changed to one of the two above YouTube Channel options. Then, go to Manage Orders and select the Edit tour link, then the Edit Property Details button. Scroll down to the bottom to the Link To Website area and select the option to link to the desired YouTube Channel. Save. Then, select the Edit Tour link for the listing in question after the page refreshes back to the Manage Order page. Then select the Edit WalkThru Video & Photos button, select the Save & Close button (or you can do some edits if you'd like). This will queue the video for rendering, and it will show up in your account under Marketing Materials within 1 to 2 hours, generally (actual time may vary based on the number of videos in the processing queue).

How do I upload a video to my own YouTube Channel?

If you would like to take the WalkThru Video we create as part of the tour and upload it to your own YouTube Channel, you can do it two ways.

One. Automated upload. If you would like us to automatically upload the video to your own YouTube Channel, just login, go to Edit Profile and click the Edit Linking details button. Check the box for the Link to My YouTube channel. Enter your login name and password, go to the bottom and save! We will ask you if you want your videos upload.

Two. Manual upload. If you would like to manually upload the video to your own YouTube Channel, just follow these steps:

1. Login at www.floorplanonline.com.
-If your tour was created after August 29, 2010, go to Manage Orders and select the VIEW link under Marketing Materials. Then select the Download Video button. You have 3 file types...anyone should work for uploading to YouTube, but we suggest the first option, AVI file.
-If your tour was created before August 30th, you first need to generate the video file. Any older active tour can have a video file created. To do this, from the Manage Orders page, select the Edit Tour link for the tour, then select the Edit WalkThru Video & Photos button. Select the Save & Close button...and this will then queue up the video for rendering. Once the video has been rendered, the video should show up under Marketing Materials, generally within 1 to 2 hours...but it could vary based on how many other videos are concurrently in process. So check back later under the Marketing Materials section, then download the video file to your computer.

2. Upload the Video to YouTube.
-If you do not have a YouTube account, create one first. We suggest you create a channel for your business so you can separate personal from business videos.
-Login to your YouTube account. When you get to YouTube's homepage, click the "Upload" link on the top of the screen. Click the "Upload Video" button then fill in the required details of the Video:
We suggest title (street address), add the tour link first so it will show - www.seetheproperty.com/xxxxx or the vanity domain, description, category, your contact info, tags.

You can fill in the Broadcast Options - Date, Map Options, Sharing Options.

Select a category. We post our tours under the Entertainment category. The other option is How to & Style. There is no real estate option at the time of this writing.

Then select "Save".

Congratulations....you just uploaded a video to YouTube.

Marketing Materials - Features

Your marketing materials, such as your flyer and your virtual tour links, can be found in the Marketing Materials area of our Order Management System. Follow these steps to get there.

- Log in to your account, then select "Manage Orders." Select the "View" link under the "Marketing Materials" column which brings you to the Marketing Materials menu. This menu is slightly different depending on what type of tour you ordered and if you have customized your online flyer.

Here is an overview of your options:

- VIEW TOUR. You can view your tour here.

- TOUR LINKS. Branded and Unbranded links appear here for approved tours. Use these links to add your tour to your MLS, to forward the tour to other agents and to the seller.

-EMBEDDABLE OBJECT. You can use this tool to put both the floor plan part of the tour and the video into your own website, a blog post, etc. Many company sites now allow you to paste in embeddable code. This is similar code to a YouTube video embed code. Check with your IT help desk to make sure it will work. You can configure the object to show a button to the full tour, change the button and text colors, etc. It is a great tool to make the tour a more seamless part of your own website or blog.

- SAVE TOUR to PC/BURN a CD. Select this option to save your tour to your PC or make a CD of the tour.

- FEATURED LISTING PAGE. Select this option if you want to see and/or copy the special website address we create for you that lists all of your active tour. You can also add a button to your website of emails to promote all of your FloorPlanOnline tours.

- DOWNLOAD PHOTOS. Select this option to save the photos to your computer. You have options to download a "zip" file of all photos, in different sizes, or download individual photos in different sizes. If you are downloading the zip file, how you do this depends on the type of operating system you are using (Windows vs Apple) and whether you have installed any third party file zipping program (like Winzip) or not. Normally, you click the button to download the zip file - after several seconds, a window should appear that has icons on it. Look for a menu option that says EXTRACT ALL FILES or something similar - click that, find a place to save your photos on your computer, such as My Pictures, and walk through the steps.

- DOWNLOAD FLYER. This option opens a smaller PDF of the flyer, which is the same version found on the tour when you click the Print button.

- DOWNLOAD HI RES FLYER. This option appears if you requested to save a High Resolution Flyer when you edited the online flyer in the Tour Editor function. Select this option if you want to save the High Resolution Flyer to your computer.

- DOWNLOAD FLOOR PLAN as PDF or JPEG. Select one of these options to save the floor plan to your computer.

- DOWNLOAD HI RES FLOOR PLAN. Select this option to save a high resolution floor plan to your computer. Individual files are provided for each level.

- VIEW INVOICE. Select this option to see a copy of your invoice for this tour. There is a date stamp for different charges and all charges associated with the tour are shown on the invoice. This can include tour renewals that happened in a different year.

That’s FloorPlanOnline – Simple, Effective and Affordable.