Pandemic Marketing: Virtual Tours
This time in in our lives, the Coronavirus/COVID-19, is not only a once in a life time opportunity to experience the modern age on slow down, but an amazing time for Marketing. Even a bigger deal than the amount of people interacting and reading and posting, is some of the marvels of the modern age showing themselves to be a unique advantage right now. Virtual Reality, Virtual Tours. I know on the gaming side that Virtual Reality is a growing sector but that is not what I am referring to. In a normal reality (pre-coronavirus) we would have made plans to travel and just traveled. In our current reality, we are quarantined. So where does one go when they are physically stuck? Virtually anywhere. I am talking about Virtual Tours.
1) Virtual Tours
They have been popping up all over my news feeds, as I am paying particular attention to my feed right now even though I already do for business purposes. But the places they are popping up in are some really cool places (in my opinion). Here's a few in case you want to take a look:
- The Winchester House
https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/video-tour/
- The Paris Catacombs
http://catacombes.paris.fr/en/virtual-visit
- Chernobyl
https://www.dreadcentral.com/news/322390/housebound-horror-fans-can-virtually-explore-the-most-terrifying-haunting-place-on-earth-chernobyl/
-National Museum for Funeral History
https://read.ilovehalloween.net/funeral-museum-dead-people-walk?
- The British Museum (London)
- 11 Other Museums
Museums and Victorian Houses may not be your thing, but when was the last time you saw one? Doesn't that change things up? The other thing that is amazing about these video tours is that I personlly love the Winchester House and Catacombs and would see them in person if I could, but have not gotten the chance to yet. Before seeing these tours, I might have been ok not seeing them if the opportunity did not come up. After seeing these video tours, I can't not see them. While the videos are amazing, they never do justice to seeing it in person. So what is this doing? Helping stay at home people while building up future sales, looking to the future!
2) Should You Do One?
Now that the idea is popped into your head, I beg the question...should you be doing one? I know that the in the Real Estate industry that video tours have been seeping in starting to become a thing, as you know videos are the way of the future. But what about other industries? Any office or place of business could do a video tour of their store. Places of attraction like Museums benefit from one, and even Disneyland has done so (in the form of an Xbox 360 game). But if you start doing videos or video tours, you should definitely plan on doing follow up videos. In later blogs we will go into other ideas for videos.
3) How To Do One
So now you are excited to do a video tour and the new question is how? As the saying goes, there is more than one way to skin a cat. While I love my cat and would hate to see someone try to skin him, there is definitely more than one way to deliver a video like effect. There is a reason I said it that way which I will get back to but let's get down to basics...what is a video? Before we had video we had handheld devices that moved through images quickly to imitate movement. A video is basically a moving image. So to create a video effect/video, if you don't have a techy or the specialized know how-you can still participate. I will offer two ways a simple and more knowledge needed one. Also I would like to note this will all be done on iPhone, sorry if you are an android user-request an android addition to this blog if you need it.
- 360 Photo
On your iPhone, this is called a Panoramic shot. Take a panoramic shot- be as steady as you can and look over your work when done. Once you are pleased with the result, post it to Facebook where it will automatically have an interactive feature where you can move the picture with your mouse/phone and move through the picture. On Twitter the whole image will post just as a big image. Same thing on LinkedIn. Instagram will not let you post that big of an image, so you can post a portion or use Boomerang to create a mini video.
Here is an example of the panoramic photo and the Facebook post:
- Video
For videos, to keep them simple we will do this without an intro/outro. It is possible to do this without a proper set up, just using your iPhone-and yet I have done this with and without a good set up. I highly suggest a good set up. When looking for a set up, look for a "Smartphone Video Rig". This will include something to hold your phone in, something to help keep you steady, a microphone, and a flash. This can cost you up to $100+ dollars, another reason that if you start you should use it more than once. So let's assume you have your tech/no tech and you shoot your video. Once you have your video done, where should you put it? If there is no background noise (or if you do you own it) Facebook is a great option. Otherwise, YouTube is a natural home for videos and you can link it and post it on all social media. Instagram will turn it into IGTV if you upload it directly there.
Here is the set up:
Here is the video:
As you can see, you get a similar effect between video and panoramic photo. Something that does make a difference is the microphone/outdoor sounds make a different viewing experience between the video and panoramic. Some would say we usually have our own tune going on and don't listen to audio on videos but the outdoor sounds are so relaxing, I would turn my music off to hear the birds. Give it a try and let me know your thoughts! Remember, Stay Safe and the only way to be ready for the future is to play with the tools of them now!
P:(657) 246-2298-Email Me - Moxi Zombi Marketing - Blog-Twitter - Instagram - Facebook - Flickr - LinkedIn
1) Virtual Tours
They have been popping up all over my news feeds, as I am paying particular attention to my feed right now even though I already do for business purposes. But the places they are popping up in are some really cool places (in my opinion). Here's a few in case you want to take a look:
- The Winchester House
https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/video-tour/
- The Paris Catacombs
http://catacombes.paris.fr/en/virtual-visit
- Chernobyl
https://www.dreadcentral.com/news/322390/housebound-horror-fans-can-virtually-explore-the-most-terrifying-haunting-place-on-earth-chernobyl/
-National Museum for Funeral History
https://read.ilovehalloween.net/funeral-museum-dead-people-walk?
- The British Museum (London)
- 11 Other Museums
Museums and Victorian Houses may not be your thing, but when was the last time you saw one? Doesn't that change things up? The other thing that is amazing about these video tours is that I personlly love the Winchester House and Catacombs and would see them in person if I could, but have not gotten the chance to yet. Before seeing these tours, I might have been ok not seeing them if the opportunity did not come up. After seeing these video tours, I can't not see them. While the videos are amazing, they never do justice to seeing it in person. So what is this doing? Helping stay at home people while building up future sales, looking to the future!
2) Should You Do One?
Now that the idea is popped into your head, I beg the question...should you be doing one? I know that the in the Real Estate industry that video tours have been seeping in starting to become a thing, as you know videos are the way of the future. But what about other industries? Any office or place of business could do a video tour of their store. Places of attraction like Museums benefit from one, and even Disneyland has done so (in the form of an Xbox 360 game). But if you start doing videos or video tours, you should definitely plan on doing follow up videos. In later blogs we will go into other ideas for videos.
3) How To Do One
So now you are excited to do a video tour and the new question is how? As the saying goes, there is more than one way to skin a cat. While I love my cat and would hate to see someone try to skin him, there is definitely more than one way to deliver a video like effect. There is a reason I said it that way which I will get back to but let's get down to basics...what is a video? Before we had video we had handheld devices that moved through images quickly to imitate movement. A video is basically a moving image. So to create a video effect/video, if you don't have a techy or the specialized know how-you can still participate. I will offer two ways a simple and more knowledge needed one. Also I would like to note this will all be done on iPhone, sorry if you are an android user-request an android addition to this blog if you need it.
- 360 Photo
On your iPhone, this is called a Panoramic shot. Take a panoramic shot- be as steady as you can and look over your work when done. Once you are pleased with the result, post it to Facebook where it will automatically have an interactive feature where you can move the picture with your mouse/phone and move through the picture. On Twitter the whole image will post just as a big image. Same thing on LinkedIn. Instagram will not let you post that big of an image, so you can post a portion or use Boomerang to create a mini video.
Here is an example of the panoramic photo and the Facebook post:
- Video
For videos, to keep them simple we will do this without an intro/outro. It is possible to do this without a proper set up, just using your iPhone-and yet I have done this with and without a good set up. I highly suggest a good set up. When looking for a set up, look for a "Smartphone Video Rig". This will include something to hold your phone in, something to help keep you steady, a microphone, and a flash. This can cost you up to $100+ dollars, another reason that if you start you should use it more than once. So let's assume you have your tech/no tech and you shoot your video. Once you have your video done, where should you put it? If there is no background noise (or if you do you own it) Facebook is a great option. Otherwise, YouTube is a natural home for videos and you can link it and post it on all social media. Instagram will turn it into IGTV if you upload it directly there.
Here is the set up:
Here is the video:
As you can see, you get a similar effect between video and panoramic photo. Something that does make a difference is the microphone/outdoor sounds make a different viewing experience between the video and panoramic. Some would say we usually have our own tune going on and don't listen to audio on videos but the outdoor sounds are so relaxing, I would turn my music off to hear the birds. Give it a try and let me know your thoughts! Remember, Stay Safe and the only way to be ready for the future is to play with the tools of them now!
P:(657) 246-2298-Email Me - Moxi Zombi Marketing - Blog-Twitter - Instagram - Facebook - Flickr - LinkedIn
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