I have a fondness for my iPhone. I know many of you feel the same. Waking up and checking Twitter, email and the like with one eye open is typically the way I start my day. Sometimes I feel like I am the only one, but the data we are seeing coming from the mobile space tells us otherwise. It actually tells us that there has never been a more rapid technology platform shift, ever.
So if I love my phone and you love your phone we need to concede that there is a decent chance that today’s tech savvy buyers and sellers love their phones as well! Do you have a mobile marketing strategy? Have you started using text message or QR Code options on your marketing pieces? Is your site mobile optimized? All questions for another day. Today we start with something simple to execute and sure to impress.
Uscapeit wants to become the Google “street view” for the masses.
They have created a must download iPhone only app (for now). Their inspiration seems to have come from Google. For those of you that are not aware Google actually sent cars up and down every street in the U.S. and took 360 degree images that they layered into their mapping systems. Uscapeit wants you to be able to do the same from anywhere, anytime including of course a home you are trying to market!
The process of creating what they refer to as a “Scape” is very simple. You hold your phone and spin around in a circle as to capture the entire 360 degrees from where you are standing.
There are a number of cool photo apps that accomplish this element already like 360 Panorama for the iPhone and Photaf for the Android. Where Uscapeit takes the technology one step further is that they allow you to stitch together the Scapes you have created into a collection and they then add Googleesque arrows between each one as to allow the end viewer to walk around the collection of images you have gathered.
You could start with a Scape of the front of the home, then lead into the foyer for another, the living room, master bedroom, kitchen, etc…
Many of you may remember the virtual tours of the early 2000’s on websites that would allow the web visitor on your site to control a camera in any given room and pan/zoom fluidly. This is a very similar concept but instead of being very pricey it is FREE and instead of being on the “regular” web it is mobile optimized which is where all of the eyeballs are rapidly shifting. No need to call a company and pay big bucks, just head over to the iTunes store, download Uscapeit and start creating great Scapes. Once the Scapes have been created there is one button share functionality with Facebook and email which makes getting them out to your sphere of influence a breeze.
Overall I am very impressed with the Uscapeit app as it relates to a potential marketing tool for Realtors.
They have several demo Scapes that you can check out inside the app including one of an apartment for rent which I feel really gives a good demonstration of the potential power of the app for real estate purposes.
Any questions feel free to leave those below. One that I anticipate is “How about something like this for the Android?” Let’s have some fun with that one and I will ask any Android users who find a comparable app to leave a link in the comments below.
Written by: Chris Smith, Chief Evangelist, Inman News, @chris_smth
