Social media video marketing is one of the most effective ways to promote yourself as a real estate agent – but it’s essential to get it right if you really want to reap the benefits. Today, I explain how to use video on social media to give your real estate marketing a boost.
Why use social media video marketing?
Video is perfect for real estate marketing. It enables you to “show and tell”, taking your audience on a journey by using visual imagery, sound and motion to give them an authentic experience of you as a real estate agent and keeping your brand front of mind.
Getting to know you through video will create a connection between you and the viewer – you and your brand will feel familiar and trustworthy as your audience has already gained an idea of how you will market their properties and help them through the process. This is a great way of using social media to generate warm leads for your business.
Remember this? Hence today’s blog title!
What are the best formats for real estate video on social media?
With the huge rise in popularity of social video marketing, it’s now worth looking at a few different formats to make sure your real estate videos stand out from the crowd.
1. Pre-recorded video
Professional pre-recorded property marketing videos have been growing in popularity on social media for the last few years. A professional-looking video makes you appear experienced and trustworthy, and gives you a great chance to get everything exactly right so you can showcase yourself and your properties to best advantage.
2. Live video
Live video is ideal for injecting some real personality into your brand and giving your real estate social media marketing a truly spontaneous feel, giving viewers a realistic insight into what it’s like to have you as their agent. It’s also great for audience engagement – social media users spend three times longer watching live videos compared to pre-recorded videos.
3. 360 degree video
360 degree video is relatively new technology, and it’s perfect for property marketing, as it gives your audience the opportunity to get a full 360 degree view of a property or its surrounds. The technology is now a lot cheaper than it used to be, too – so much so that 86 percent of businesses are now using it as a marketing tool.
4. Square video
Most videos were traditionally filmed horizontally for desktop viewing. However, over 80 percent of people now watch videos on mobile devices, which don’t lend themselves so well to horizontal videos. Square videos are far more suited to smartphone viewing, and they’re hugely effective on social media, as they take up 78 percent more space on the Facebook News Feed than horizontal videos, and receive more engagement.
What makes a good social media video strategy?
The great thing about video is that it lends itself so perfectly to real estate marketing – there are so many different types of videos you can share to boost your profile as a real estate agent and increase engagement with your brand. Here are a few ideas of the type of content that makes an effective social media video strategy.
1. Video testimonials
Who can promote your business better than you? Your previous clients! Ask some of your satisfied customers if they’d mind speaking on video about their home selling experience with you and the service you provide. These should always be pre-recorded rather than streamed live to ensure everything goes smoothly – there’s nothing like some great reviews from real people to build trust with prospective clients!
2. Profile video
A pre-recorded profile video acts as your showreel for potential clients. It should highlight your key points of difference from your competitors and portray your business in the best possible light. Include a few client testimonials, and if possible, create trust and confidence with your audience by answering a few of the more common questions that vendors ask when they first enquire about your services.
3. Property videos
These gain great traction on Facebook as they’re given greater prominence in the News Feed than written content or still images. They’re also ideal for giving potential clients a realistic feel for the properties you sell. Do make a proper video, though – some property videos are more like slideshows, with a series of photographs panning and zooming in. This defeats the object as it doesn’t harness the power of video for conveying atmosphere and creating audience engagement.
4. New property listings
Live streaming your new property listings before you start your formal property marketing campaign can generate a great deal of interest. It may save your vendor money by creating off-market opportunities – and it also gives buyers a great reason to follow your Facebook page, as they know they’ll see all your new properties there first!
5. Auction videos
A live-streamed property auction video will take your audience right to the heart of the action. It’s compulsive viewing and will generate huge excitement around your brand!
6. Market updates
Once a month, pre-record or live stream a market update, informing your viewers about the latest property trends and which types of properties are being snapped up in your area.
Remember though that this isn’t a sales meeting with your peers – it needs to be interesting to the general public, so you should talk less about yourself and your results, and more about home buyers and what they are looking for in a property.
7. Educational videos
These give your viewers help and advice about the home selling or investment property management process, and they can be pre-recorded or streamed live. Answer all the questions you are frequently asked by home sellers, and give updates on any legislative changes affecting the property market. This will show homeowners and investors that you have their best interests in mind.
Where should you share your videos?
Of course, it’s important to have videos on your website, but you also need to post them directly to each social media platform rather than just providing links. Social media video statistics show that native videos are prioritised by social media channels, so they will be given more prominence and receive more engagement if you upload them directly to each platform.
But with over 200 social networks to choose from, which ones should you be targeting?
YouTube is the “go-to” platform for anyone interested in video – it’s used by a staggering 1,900,000,000 people worldwide, including 80 percent of all 18- to 49-year-olds. It’s also a search engine in its own right, so it’s a great place to capture your target audience.
Facebook is an essential market to tap into, because its users are more likely to be homeowners – it’s widely used by people aged 35 and over, enabling you to capture upgraders, downsizers and retirees all on one platform. It’s also great for video marketing, as over 8 billion videos are watched on Facebook every day!
Snapchat has a younger user demographic than Facebook – almost half of its users are aged 18 to 24, so it’s ideal for capturing renters, especially as Snapchat users watch 10 billion videos on the platform each day.
WeChat is the only essential social media platform in China, and it now has over 900 million active users worldwide. It’s hugely popular with Chinese communities everywhere, so it’s an effective way to introduce yourself to any Chinese-Australian residents in your local community.
LinkedIn is the platform for professionals with higher levels of disposable income. It now supports video, but only on its mobile app, so it’s essential your videos are mobile-friendly.
Social media video marketing do’s and don’ts
Social video marketing may seem daunting – but it doesn’t have to be. The most important thing is always to keep your audience in mind – post videos that they will want to see, covering engaging topics in an interesting way. And don’t make your videos too long! Consumers prefer videos of under two minutes in length.
With a consistent posting schedule and appealing content, video can make your real estate star shine even brighter in 2018.
Written by Melanie Hoole
My team and I specialise in helping real estate and property professionals perfect their personal brand, build a first-class digital profile and implement inbound marketing activities to attract leads. If you are unsure which direction to take with your digital marketing contact me for help.
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