Another Gift From Google – Expeditions 

I use a lot of Google tools – I mean A LOT.  Over the past few months, one of my favorite among those tools has become the Google Poly project which has introduced free virtual tours to the world, in an easy-to-create system using only your smartphone. My mind keeps sorting through the various ways that this technology can be used for marketing and to just collect and share a moment in time.  I love hiking and camping when I can get away and the ability to create a 360 experience standing in a river while fishing sounds awesome to me.  From a marketing prospect, being able to tell a better visual story of certain features of a property or community has endless potential.

Virtual Tours Aren’t Just for Inside the Home

For years I have made an effort to know about area lakes, history, dog parks, people parks, trails, and more in my marketplace.  For many agents being a guide is not just for a specific home, but for the community around them.  Consider this, how much of a superhero-agent will you be if you create a library of community highlights to share with buyers looking to relocate into your marketplace?  How about just being a community guide for future clients and as part of your content marketing, you introduce people already living in your area to your favorite place in the park or an inside look at a baseball stadium from the pitcher’s mound?   And best, you can easily build the library and then host it on your website to share with relocating clients or for families looking for something to do over the weekend. 

There are a lot of hidden treasures in your community that you could introduce your tribe to.  Google Tours is a great and very easy way to do it!

What This Technique Isn’t

I’m a big fan of this tool for collecting community expeditions (Google’s title for them) of outside environments.  I’ve played with interior tours using Google Tourcreator and it’s just not designed for that yet.  I would recommend using this tool for community content marketing and perhaps outside features of estate properties, like paddock areas and waterfront just to highlight it.  However, I am sticking to my professional tools for scanning the interior of homes.  My favorite tool currently is Immoviewer. Immoviewer and the like are using more professional cameras than our SmartPhones and have a ton of branding and marketing features that Google Expeditions and the Poly system just aren’t set up for yet.

What You’ll Need

• iPhone or Android Phone
• Google Cardboard App (free)
• Google Tourcreator (free) 

Here’s the Tutorial