Jing Project – Screen Capture Made Easy
Guest Blogger Chris Smith is the Co Founder of Tech Savvy Agent, which recently won Inman News’ prestigious Most Innovative Blog in Real Estate for 2010. Tech Savvy Agent provides bite-sized tech and social media tips daily for real estate agents as well as interviews with industry leaders.
Believe it or not the Print Screen button on your keyboard actually used to fire up the printer! With the evolution of technology and cloud computing comes a myriad of useful tools and one that I highly recommend all real estate agents download is called Jing.
If you are not currently leveraging a screen capture tool for your real estate business you are really missing out. Tech Smith is the company that first introduced us to Snag It, which many agents have come to know and love. The downside of Snag It is that it comes with a bit of a learning curve that most Realtors are not looking to push through.
Enter Jing: Also by Tech Smith, Jing simplifies the art of screen capture/sharing and has really big and easy to use buttons, which makes using it daily to help improve your marketing doable for all tech skill levels. Jing has the ability to capture both simple images as well as video screen capture and has been one of the most well received tips that I have given out over the last year.
The beauty of Jing is in the simplicity. Once you have downloaded Jing there will be a small sun that will appear at the top of your screen. When you hover over the sun it extends and allows you to then easily crop out the part of the screen you want to focus on. Where Jing takes it to the next level without becoming overly complicated is in that you can easily overlay text boxes and arrows. These calls to action will really spruce up the look and feel of your marketing and can also help to increase your lead conversion. In the example below I show a standard map view of an IDX and also one where I have used Jing as a way to “speak” with the visitor on my site or blog. Can you see a difference? Both were taken using Jing, but by leveraging their easy to use editing tools I was able to really make option #2 stand out and thus convert more visitors into contacts.
Option #1 – Simple Screen Capture
Option #2 – Screen Capture with Quick Editing
As you can see the 2nd option really pops off the screen and also tells the consumer exactly what the next step is, in this case to contact you! Another useful tip would be to include any social media sites so that consumers can connect with you there if they prefer.
The basic Jing is a free download which can be used to create images, screenshots and video for your website, blog, direct mail and anything else you plan on putting in front of potential prospects. Once you have cropped and edited the image you simply save it to your computer and can add it any- and everywhere. Jing works for both Mac and PC users.
As is becoming commonplace with software applications, there is also an upgraded version available called Jing Pro. If you find yourself using the free version regularly it could be worth a minimal investment of $14.95 annually. The additional features include one button push of your newly created content to both Facebook and YouTube. Jing Pro also reduces the size of the files that you capture which helps a ton with load speeds of the videos and images once they are placed on your website.
Check out the video below to see Jing in action. I feel Jing is a great addition to any Realtor’s computer. What are some of your ideas for how to use this tech savvy tool?
Sandy | Sep 10, 2010 | Reply
This is awesome as I’m always printing the screen and then put it into another program to manipulate it. Thank you so much for the information!!!
Julia Stander | Sep 10, 2010 | Reply
I love Jing! It’s a great tool and super easy to use. One drawback is that sometimes the .jng format is not accepted in some uploads.
Torrey Russell | Sep 10, 2010 | Reply
You can use the free tool on your windows machine to do the same thing called “snipping tool”
Go to the globe in the lower left hand corner of your windows screen in the search box type snipping tool and then click on the program that is already on your PC.
I am sure the MAC has a similar tool
James Chai | Sep 10, 2010 | Reply
Looks like a neat tool indeed. It is a bit more robust than the “Windows 7″ Snipping tool we currently use. Thanks for sharing.
Marc Brodeur | Sep 10, 2010 | Reply
Its like Preview (on the Mac) but with upgrades. I will have to download it and try it. Thank you for sharing!
stacy | Sep 10, 2010 | Reply
I was first introduced to jing by tech savvy agent and I love it, makes presentations so much easier!
Blaine MN Real Estate | Sep 10, 2010 | Reply
I couldn’t agree more with the author (Katie Lance) about the power and value of a good screen capture program like Jing. It’s particularly handy when I’m trying to describe the map search area I set up for buyers in their new home search. I simply take a screen capture of the search map and email it to them!
Juliet Johnson | Sep 11, 2010 | Reply
Thanks for posting this, and thanks to the commenters as well. I didn’t know there was a Windows 7 Snipping Tool. Very cool.
I’m frightened of Jing as I’m not sure how to edit on there. But like anything else, you’re better off if you actually go try it than sitting quaking!!
Megan Behan | Sep 11, 2010 | Reply
Thanks for sharing another great tip. As a newer agent who is really into technology I love hearing the latest scoops that keep me ahead of the competition. Keep them coming!!!
Homes In Pasadena | Sep 12, 2010 | Reply
I’ve used the free version of Jing and it is very easy. Like Julia I have found some limitations in uploading its format.
From your article it seems as though this issue would be fixed with the Pro version. I’ll have to check Jing out again.
Thanks Katie!
Yorba Linda Homes | Sep 13, 2010 | Reply
Wow, never heard of Jing before but after seeing the video I’m going to have to check it out! Looks extremely user friendly!
and…crazy it does video!
Anthony Rueda | Sep 13, 2010 | Reply
Jing is an incredible tool, I’ll be downloading this as soon as possible. Thank you for the information.
Shoreview Homes for Sale | Sep 13, 2010 | Reply
Screen capturing is becoming an increasing value in the world of real estate, marketing, and web design. I use screen capturing to communicate with my real estate clients and web designer almost on a daily basis. The program I use is called “Snag It”. Great software!!
Chris Smith | Sep 14, 2010 | Reply
Glad everyone seems to like Jing and thanks again to FOREM for having me as a guest blogger. Looking forward to future articles and you can always stay in touch with us via http://www.facebook.com/techsavvyagent where we release bite sized tips, like Jing, every day!
Mike | Sep 14, 2010 | Reply
That’s a really cool tool! While I’m fine with doing screen shots on my own, the video feature looks amazing and it’s something I’ll definitely want to try out. Thanks for sharing it.
Brooks | Sep 15, 2010 | Reply
Jing is Awesome! We use it to create instructional videos as well.
Kansas City Real Estate | Sep 30, 2010 | Reply
Great tool. I have been using the window snipping tool and I find Jing much cooler to use.