It looks like many of the traditional media just have to fight off one Internet battle after the other as Web 2.0 alternatives lay siege to longstanding methods of communication. With the blogging boom, the social community explosion and “texting and twittering” detonating together with the wide adoption of readily accessible and portable video, the transmission of ideas, messages and announcements will never be the same.

This week I want to focus on the phenomena and growth of online video. As CNN stated in an article, it all starts innocently enough by you visiting YouTube for, say, a few minutes of football bloopers. Then you switch to funny dog antics, followed by goofy juvenile stuntmen. Before long you've inadvertently spent 30 minutes watching videos on your computer.

30 minutes…and from which pool of time did you “steal” that…and it’s growing, everywhere and on almost all levels of technology.

In a recent study from Edison Media Research they report that the audio podcast audience has grown from 13% to 18% while those favoring video podcasts have jumped from 11% to 15%.  Those numbers may not seem significant but audio podcasters spent an average of 90 minutes more per week than online audio listeners.  Why the difference?

Well podcasters don’t like to be interrupted by pop ups, spam or commercials and they want what they want – when they want it.  Go one step further and you find they are very selective on content.  In other words, if you don’t provide your content in a first class format they will go somewhere else…because they can.

In another study by Pew Research, 48% of those surveyed had interacted with a video-sharing site.  Better still, 15% of them had used a video-sharing site “yesterday.”  That’s almost double the results of last year’s survey.  A report by comScore stated that last year that 75% of U.S. Internet users watched an average of 3.25 hours of video every month.

And the reports go on and on…confirming that this is a major trend shaping communications and marketing.  And as we live and breathe, both of these key functions will be shaping the real estate industry.

The bottom line for Realtors is – pictures are nice and audio descriptions are helpful but video is hot and currently there is no substitute for the power of providing a first hand visual experience. Today professional quality HD video is affordable, easy to create and when compared with traditional marketing and communication channels it’s a “steal.” If used correctly it can actually be a very compelling, cost effective and powerful way to show and share.