2012 Multimedia: DIY or Professional?

Guest contributor Michael Antoniak of REALTOR® Mag says:

Creating effective multimedia productions can be a labor-intensive, time-consuming process. Will you be better served developing new skills as a multimedia producer or entrusting that job to a professional while you focus your time and effort on real estate sales?

Many video tour service providers now promote themselves as multimedia specialists. For a flat fee, they will put together an interactive tour or presentation. These services will relieve you of a marketing responsibility, but you may surrender some creative control.

Fee-based services typically limit you to a set number of pictures, a maximum length for the video, and inclusion of specified other elements. Anything beyond the basic package ups the cost. You're also dependent on the service provider's schedule and workload.

Still, if hiring a multimedia production professional or company seems like a practical solution, make sure to check out some of their completed projects and talk to past clients before engaging their services.

While the sampling of multimedia software and services may seem the cost-effective alternative, there's no avoiding the time required to put together your own multimedia production. Once you've taken pictures and recorded video, you'll spend significantly more time editing that into a final production, at least initially. If you enjoy the creative process, the time invested mastering production skills will be well spent, allowing you to make more ambitious use of multimedia in the future.

Not sure which is the right path? Take advantage of the free trials many publishers of multimedia solutions now offer. With these, you can try your hand at it and then decide whether you want to make multimedia a do-it-yourself project or hire that professional.

To view the original article, visit REALTOR Mag®.