Video is a Social Media phenomenon. Have you noticed Youtube has been ranking as the Number Two search engine? Not only can you find out how to do literally anything, you can start building a library of videos that create a conversation with your prospects. Avoid selling. Instead, your goal is to “inform and entertain.” A topical video will get more play. This results in increased distribution and greater visibility. Video allows you to take advantage of the viral nature of the web. Those who find it interesting will recommend your video and send it to others. Most importantly, it promotes you as an expert and thought leader in your area.
A good example on how to use video comes from an agent who had the following in her email signature:
“View my listings on YouTube. Click here”
On her YouTube account, she had loaded videos of all of her listings. This alone was quite impressive. In addition, she also had videos of her company, of the communities where she works, and testimonials from past clients. She engages the consumer by letting them know who she is through her video.
If you do this, track your results. Tracking provides insight into your prospects. It also helps you develop better content as you go.
Videos can enhance your search engine optimization. One of the best places to post your video is on YouTube.
Why YouTube? YouTube will give your video the most exposure. This is sometimes called “eyeballs.” In addition to YouTube, here are some other sites to consider:
Would you like to upload your videos to all of these sites? You can, with a free service like that from TubeMogul.com. Simply upload your video to the TubeMogul site and select the other sites where you would like to send your video. TubeMogul then sends it to the sites you have selected.
CAVEAT: Avoid violating the TOS (Terms of service). If you add music, make sure it is royalty free. Sites such as Vimeo allow only non-commercial videos. If they deem that any of your videos are commercial, they will delete your account.
When you upload your video to these sites, make sure you give the video a title, a description, and tags (these are metatags). Set the privacy levels and indicate whether you are willing to accept comments. I recommend you turn comments off on your videos.
You can also Geotag the video. “Geotagging” is the process of adding geographical identification metadata to various media such as photographs and video. Simply put, this means putting the address on the video. This allows search engines to include your video when people do an online search for your geographical region. This is becoming increasingly more important as Google finds additional ways to deliver relevant content.
Use Tracking Features to Analyze Results
Can you track your video results? Depending on the host you can. TubeMogul has wonderful analytics. YouTube has a feature called “Insight” that includes the demographic information for everyone who looks at your video.
Final advice
Don’t be afraid of the camera. Get out and do it. While nobody really likes the way they look and sound on camera, get over it! Be human, be real, and let your personality show!
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This is a well written overview of video… and thanks for a great idea for my e-mail signature line.
My work with my Flip Camera is pretty rough (charming) and is part of my blog… and fed through YouTube. Being part of Google has really added to the analytics.
I don’t allow people to leave comments on the house/blog videos, do you?
Amy,
Thanks for the TubeMogal tip! One place to distribute to many, makes life much easier!
I use tubemogal and think it is awesome. However, it is imperative to market your video’s to your entire database if you want any chance of viewership. I found that sending the video link to my database of facebook friends is the best way for people to find your posts.
It’s important to do key word research before you optimize your videos. If you look at different key word combinations in your local real estate search you will notice that Google puts videos from different vidoe sharing websites on the first page. Most popular video hsaring websites with real estate search for some reason are metacafe.com and revver.com. Research your key words, look up video positioning and optimize your videos accordingly.
The email link is dead or misdirected, can you email me the proper YouTube link. Thanks for the great info. I appreciate the hard work. Rich Weaver
Yes, thanks..
The only question is, who makes it easy to upload to this site and youtube and others. Does Real Estate Shows allow this?
theListiingwidget.com ?
Hi, I am the Marketing Director at HeySpread.
That is true, Tubemogul is a great service.
But you should also have a look at HeySpread for Professional Video Analytics and Video Distribution – heyspread.com. Far cheaper, with exclusive features such as YouClone (copy/paste your YouTube videos to any other platform automatically and in one shot), powerful and user-friendly interface, REST API for an easy and fast white label integration.
I’m an agent and I use heyspread also. One of the worst parts about online video is that it takes so long to upload videos, especially to multiple sites. I have been using heyspread for a year or so, I love it. Saves a lot of time.
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Amy – Good note about Vimeo. I just spoke with an agent this morning who got axed. Looks like they’re taking their cue from Flickr.
When Vimeo black balled me they also wiped all my family videos too.
@realestateshows is a deal. Low cost, unlimited and you can send it to YouTube. Trick for max exposure is in the titles you create.
A got rid of my Virtual Tous and use YouTube. Best move I made was moving to video. I get 10X the viewings on YouTube. More views = more sales.
Bob, will I be able to make a CD or DVD of a video tour with realestateshows? I can with thelistingwidget.com
Mark, how do you use Youtube? I’m veering close to realestateshows, although I had to use a promo code from Activerain because THERE ARE NO codes from Agentgenius.. Why not?
I think I’ll stick to realestateshows. The idea of making my own videos depresses me LOL.. I can upload the real estate shows to youtube. I asked..
I love making videos! Last month I got one of those FlipVideo thingies and I’ve started making “movies” of things to do in and around the area. My first two attempts, “Gainesville Day Trips”, are on youtube. I had a problem posting the 1st one last week as I learned that my Google account had been disabled….last time I’d used it was back in May….had no idea anything was wrong….I wrote to Google to ask what was up, got a form email back saying my account had been disabled and they couldn’t return it. The pro forma letter went on to say that sometimes this is due to violating Terms of Service (which I re-read and couldn’t find anything I’d done wrong)….hard to know when you don’t get a personalized response! The only thing I can think of is the music I use w/the videos….it came with my iMovie program on the Mac….so I assumed I could use it on my videos….does anyone know if I can use the music tracks that come pre-loaded on i-Movie when I upload my videos to YouTube?
I created another Google account and hopefully it won’t get disabled…in the meantime I am hoping I can get a definitive answer on why my first account was pulled. If anyone has any insights to share re why Google accounts get disabled I’d appreciate hearing them. Thanks!
Google/YouTube scans the music and if it is copyrighted then they send you a notice. They just settled a dispute with Warner Music Group where their music has been off the air for 9-months!
So using U2 or Madonna to promote your listings is gonna be a no-go.
Today’s estate agents, letting agents, property surveyors and property solicitors need to learn the best techniques for capturing property sales leads, following up with prospects and converting them into customers.
We think Youtube can help real estate agents to sell properties and more importantly gain new instructions.
Its all down to costs and return. If every expense is spared and low production values adopted the result can be a disaster.
The last thing that your agency needs is to look like some parody or comedy spoof agent.
check this link to see a collection of videos that may help illustrate this point.
http://estate-agency-survival.blogspot.com/
Why can’t people understand that things like RealEstateShows and VisualTours are NOT video! They are NOT. They are slideshows. They are simply zooming, still photos (usually pretty bad photos too!).
Video is NOT still photos. Only the real estate industry gets STILL PHOTOS and VIDEO confused. Fortunately – I’d hate to spend $12 to go to a movie and just get a bunch of still picture slideshows!
Wilson,
For over a year, a “pain in the neck” real estate video – o- grapher was “pestering” me for business. I had a broker open house (my mistake, LOL) and she came over and practically threw herself at me begging for my business.. SHe even had the nerve to say “oh, you’ll NEVER sell this home with MY video services!”.. I laughed..
I compared “video” and stuff like realestateshows (just I JUST joined) and I ACTUALLY HAD some of my clients view the two types.. I had NOT ONE CLIENT VOTE FOR THE VIDEO (I asked 12 people)…Among their reasons were…
Realestateshows were “easier” on the eyes…
They ALL loved the captions with the words for real estate shows…
The effects with the pictures for realestateshows were ALMOST the same as the video – o graphy, better actually, because the video – graphy stuff actually made a couple of viewers slightly dizzy.. Comments included “too much movement”, to “magical mystery tour”, to “too spacey”….
With realestateshows I now have my listings on youtube…Whether that’s good or bad is another issue, but they are there, for free!
http://www.youtube.com/jimgatos
I can burn the show on a cd or dvd; for free! Some of these video companies embed their videos in such a way I can download them and I HAVE TO PAY EXTRA to make a cd /dvd to give to my clients..
I can change them, NO charge…
I have single property websites now… part of the same package…
For the cost of one of these “video – o -graphy” shows I have a year subscription to realestateshows
I don’t have a “pushy” desperate video person trying to sell me something…
I have the wisdom and patience of Jeff Turner behind me! That in itself speaks volumes!
Wlson, if you’re a “video – o grapher”, my apologies, but I really thought this issue through. Some of here may know me personally, believe me, I drag my feet when I make a decision, and investigate something to death, and ask around first.. You can argue, but I know I made the best decision possible….
What I especially love the most is the quick and easy setup.. You don’t have to draw blood to service a seller. You have too you job with maximum results!
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“Video is NOT still photos. Only the real estate industry gets STILL PHOTOS and VIDEO confused. Fortunately – I’d hate to spend $12 to go to a movie and just get a bunch of still picture slideshows!”
No, we aren’t confused. We are just focusing on a desired outcome. The goal isnt to sell the property online, but to generate interest.
What many marketing experts outside of real estate do not understand is that buyer behavior is different with real estate than with almost any other purchase. For example, while emotion is a critical part of the home buying process, it differs in this niche because emotion doesn’t allow for an impulsive purchase because of the time it takes to complete the sale.
what this means is that the prospective buyer online is using images to filter OUT properties. Given that knowledge, I need to use images in a way that doesn’t eliminate the property before they have actually seen it firsthand. That is far easier to do for the average person with a still pics versus video.
Another important issue here is the effective reach. Pics can be leveraged to a far greater extent than video and for a fraction of the cost. Given that we know that video rarely sells the average property, using it over the still image based virtual tour across the board is frequently not the best business decision, nor is it necessarily the best for the seller.
So instead of griping about stills v video, why not use both as they attend to a different desire by the consumer? Our marketing system consists of both Hi-Res photos in a virtual tour AND walk through videos. Actually used to narrate the videos too, but man does the whole process take a lot of time!
We even split-tested professional video production and our own quick and dirty production. Oddly enough, the quick and dirty production got a better response because buyers could hear the squeaks and creaks of the floors and doors. Plus, when I was narrating, I would get a little creative (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....rofilepage <<check the comment about the 1.5 car garage)
So, for us, this is not an either/or proposition. We just do both because both have benefits the other does not.
@Bob "The goal isn't to sell the property online, but to generate interest." True, to a point. I sold a home to some third shifters almost purely because they could experience the home from their computer BEFORE their schedules allowed them to view the home in the daytime. We certainly generated interest as a result of the video. As long as the "in person" viewing matched their video experience, the house was sold.
Bingo, Bob.. Bingo…