Mainstream apps that realtors should use

As we've talked about previously, social networking apps are making it easier for realtors to share real estate with friends and associates, using tools at their fingertips. Instagram is a quick way to share still photos, and it connects toFacebook, Twitter, and Foursquare to help you reach larger audiences. Now, you can share quick bites of video the same way, too.

You don’t need video equipment or a lot of experience to use Vine, a newish video app for the iPhone. It delivers six-second bites of videos, and you can opt to have the video be six continuous seconds, or a collage of video clips.

Unlike Twitter, the feed is all videos, not text, and, like Instagram, users can interact with each other on each post. The application allows you to push your post to both Facebook and Twitter, or neither (keeping the photo just in Vine, which has its own social media community). It’s not yet linked to Foursquare, but you have the ability to geotag the location if you want people to find it.

Vine is still very new, which is why it’s only available for iPhones at the moment, but it was recently purchased by Twitter, so you know it’s got some potential that other, similar video apps may not. Like Twitter, you need to shift the way you think in the way you share your Vine video; you need to think creatively to communicate the visual. There’s no guarantee you can sell a home in six seconds, but you can create interest in the property and make yourself look creative in the process.

Here are some ways realtors can use Vine. To see how other agents are using it, do a search using #RealEstate in the application.

1. Introduce a home or one of its features. Vine is not a replacement for a full home tour, but you can give a glimpse of a really cool room or exterior feature. You can also show little clips of the layout, as I did with this restaurant. Click here to see.
2. Show quick shots of the surrounding neighborhood. I shot this Vine (click here) of Hawaiki Tower, then showed the streets, the foliage, and the fact that Ala Moana Center is right across the street, all in six seconds.
3. Show how you work. As with all aspects of social media, the stuff you share is not all about hard selling. You can subtly show how you’re multi-tasking, or the people you work with.
4. Share tips. Since you can start and stop the video by pressing your phone screen, you can show a time lapse of something you are working on, like staging a table or a room. Here’s a tip that someone did—granted, it’s for cooking, but you get the idea—and although you don’t get a complete look, your interest is sufficiently piqued.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, but it’s a good start. As you use the app more, you’ll figure out best uses and how to maximize the networking benefits.