If you read my Zebra Reports regularly, you know that I believe that today’s real estate agent needs to engage more fully in social media than ever before. That engagement may come through Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, a blog… or one of the other hundreds of social media sites available – including YouTube.

I’ve long been a big fan of agents posting videos on YouTube to help build their business. Not videos of your parents’ 50^th wedding anniversary or your dog chasing your cat around the house. I’m talking about real estate-related video.

I still believe that YouTube is underutilized in this way by real estate agents. And I also think real estate agents underutilize YouTube in another way – as a learning lab!

Back in the dark ages, if you had a question on how to do something you poured through an instruction manual for the answer. If you were lucky, you might turn to a friend or colleague who could help… saving you hours of tedious searching. When it came to software, for example, you could be within a program and use the “help” feature. Sometimes you found an answer; often you didn’t.

Fast forward to 2012.

Estimates are that ten hours of video footage are uploaded to YouTube every second. So it’s a pretty safe bet that while there’s lot of goofy stuff out there, there’s also tons of great content to help you solve problems.

The wonderful thing about using YouTube for as a mini-learning lab is the ability to break your learning into manageable, bite-sized bits. You can quickly zoom in on a small piece of knowledge.

YouTube also provides an enormous advantage over asking a friend for help (or paying an expert to assist you)… and that’s “replay.”  Didn’t pick up all you needed on the first viewing? Simply play the video over and over (and over) if necessary until you’re comfortable with the solution being presented. I’m pretty sure that – no matter how kind your friend is – they don’t want to repeat information until you “get it.” And I’m pretty sure you would be embarrassed to ask! Of course, with YouTube you can always bookmark the video and watch it again.

Another YouTube learning advantage? The sheer volume of material available. There are videos providing training on every imaginable topic, from changing a tire to candling eggs to making macaroni and cheese.

So the next time you’re stuck – whether it’s trying to figure out how to add a board to Pinterest, how to create a specialized formula in Excel, or how to edit a video, turn to YouTube… your online learning lab!