Dear Mr. Internet,

What are the best ways to "jazz-up" my Website to make it more interactive, fun and interesting for my visitors?

Stef Lukas
Lukas Group Realty
Calgary, Alberta
Canada

Dear Stef,

"Jazz-up" is a good way of describing what happens to your visitor experience when you include well thought out multimedia elements to your site.  There are some very exciting possibilities that will definitely grab the attention of your visitors and have you stand head and shoulders above your competition.

The Power Of The Spoken Word...

Using audio is one of the easiest and quickest ways to add compelling multimedia content to your site.  A Web-based service called AudioGenerator makes it as simple as leaving a voicemail message to add voice to your Website and or listings.  Click Here to see how Phyllis Staines of RE/MAX Coastal Real Estate uses it to "jazz-up" her listing's description (just click the play button after the written description).  You can get fancier by adding lead-in / lead-out music, editing the voice recording and then uploading the final mix as a high-quality MP3 file to the AudioGenerator site.  Click Here to see how these kinds of effects are incorporated in a site I recently created -- there is a different audio message from me on nearly every page.

Audio is just the beginning however, there are other ways to digitally engage your visitors...

A Multimedia Tour Is Worth A Million Words

Some agents are beginning to use multimedia tools that were originally designed for listings and repurpose them into tours of neighborhoods, parks, etc.  Here are some examples:

Cool Tour Of A Warm Place - Click Here to view an Imprev Flash movie tour of Winter Park, Florida.  Charles Williams of the Winter Park Land Company hired Virtual Assistant Kim Hughes in Dallas, TX to put together this multimedia tour of his town that incorporates the use of photos, music, and text.  Diane Dunn with Coldwell Banker, Willis-Smith of New Burn, NC  also uses Imprev for her area tours. Click Here to see an example.

Map-Based Guided Tours - Rick Lorenz, a broker with the Wells Group Real Estate Brokerage in Durango, CO uses a different and rather clever approach.  Click Here to see how he incorporates a map of his area with "hot spots" that link to multimedia tours of that corresponding area (be sure to click on the red hot spots to launch the tours).  In this case, Rick uses Visual Tour for delivering the multimedia content.

What is important to note here is that these agents used multimedia tools that were originally designed for marketing listings and turned them into highly interactive, entertaining, and valuable tours of their market area.

The ideas mentioned above are inexpensive and relatively easy to implement and provide excellent results.  However, if you really want to push the high note of multimedia interactivity, there are ways to do that too...

Have Your Site Come Alive (Literally!)

Rovion is a company out of Lexington, KY that has a remarkable service called BlueStream that allows you to add "personality" to your site in a way that must be seen to be believed.  When you go to view a site that uses BlueStream multimedia it will ask you to enable a small Java applet, you must say "Okay" in order to view the effect.  Click Here to view a real estate example on Mary Ann Simmons Realty Executives Premier site and just sit back and enjoy (be sure your speakers are on, also this technology works best for high-speed connections).

Keep in mind that this kind of multimedia is highly sophisticated and requires a scripted digital video shoot in front of a "blue-screen" (like most TV weathermen use) as the source video.  Bluestream essentially takes edited digital video files and converts them into a special kind of Flash file that makes it "pop" above everything else on your screen.  It is probably out of the budget and practicality range of most real estate sales people -- but then again, so were listing virtual tours when they first came out in the mid-90's.

The multimedia Website enhancement examples above are just the beginning of where things are going over the next few years.  As high-speed Internet connections become more ubiquitous, the unlimited supply of creative talent around the world will continue to find ever more clever ways to utilize it for enhancing your message.  And that's real "cool jazz" baby!

Article Resources

AudioGenerator - an easy and inexpensive way to add your voice or any other kind of audio to your Website.

Imprev - a Web-based multimedia marketing materials service that enables you to create awesome Flash tours (with background music) of just about anything including neighborhoods, schools, and other points of interest.

Visual Tour - where you can find Virtual Consultants to help you set up your own e-mail marketing software systems.

BlueStream - a highly innovative and sophisticated way to make your site come alive.

Published: February 23, 2004

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

Michael J. Russer (a.k.a. Mr. Internet®) is an internationally acclaimed speaker, trainer, author, and strategic consultant to the real estate industry and small business. He is also the exclusive Internet columnist for REALTOR® Magazine, the architect of the revolutionary e-ProductivityTM system and leading voice for the use of Virtual Assistants in small business. You can subscribe to his free monthly leading-edge newsletter ePOWER NEWS by going to ePowerNews.com.