In 2019 live streaming content for your real estate business is one of the most lucrative social channels to generate tons of organic traction.
Most real estate agents are not using the power of live streaming to its full potential. While hosting one of our webinars with local real estate agents, we found out that the biggest obstacle agents are facing from doing live streams is lack of training. Agents do not know how and what kind of content to create for their live videos.
In this guide, we will go over everything you need to know about creating live streaming content for your real estate business. We will also share some blueprints of how to use live streaming videos to reach out to homeowners.
The 3 Big Channels To Broadcast Your Live Stream
When it comes to live streaming there are 3 main channels that you should target for your real estate business.
Facebook Live – Probably the most popular platform when it comes to live stream. Facebook live lets you broadcast from your page to all your followers straight inside their newsfeed. It has a simple, easy to use interface that people can use to go live from their mobile as well as desktop.
Instagram Live – If you are looking for the most engagement we would recommend giving Instagram Live a try. Not only is it an effective tool to communicate with potential millennial homebuyers, it gives you the ability to invite others straight into your stream.
YouTube Live – YouTube’s live stream feature lets you create content that you can publish right into your YouTube channel.
Ideally, your goal should to be to create live content for all 3 of these channels mentioned above.
Equipment & Software To Create Live Streams For Your Real Estate Business
Now that you know about the 3 most popular live video channels, let’s talk about some of the tools you need in order to create different kinds of live stream content.
Before we proceed we want to clarify that if you have a smartphone it’s more than enough to create all kinds of live stream content. Some of the equipment and software that we will be covering in this section only applies if you want to create more advanced shows with multiple cameras and microphones.
Let’s start with the equipment and software requirements:
Your Smartphone – You can go live straight from your smartphone on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Just make sure that you download the latest version of these apps.
Open Broadcasting Software (OBS) – The OBS software allows you to connect multiple cameras and audio inputs and create your own custom screen that you can broadcast on any channel like Facebook Live or YouTube.
A tripod for your smartphone (optional) – In case you are doing a live presentation in front of a home, a tripod can be handy. Get a basic one for your smartphone.
Facebook Live Best Practices For Real Estate Agents
In this segment, we are going to dig deeper into some of the best practices to make the most out of your Facebook live stream.
There are two ways to broadcast a live video on Facebook:
- Actually going live – This includes real-time live videos straight from your page.
- Broadcasting a new video as a live video – This is a feature most of you are not using and it’s really useful. Let’s say you hire a videographer to shoot a professional video of your new listing. When you upload the video on Facebook you have the ability to broadcast it to all of your followers just like a live video and even create a Watch party for it.
When your live video is finished you should publish it on your newsfeed. You have the ability to generate an automatic closed caption.
Real Estate Live Video Strategies For Facebook Live
- Open House & Listing Tours – Create open house videos and listing tours on your Facebook Live. The goal here is to broadcast with you in front of the camera. You don’t need to be professional, in fact, you need to talk to the camera as if you are talking with your potential future client.
- Random Live Videos with just sold clients – The second secret to maximize Facebook live and this works well with Instagram is to start a live video when your client is about to accept the final offer. Share the moment when it happens followed by their experience working with you. If you can incorporate these elements into a live video not only will it get tons of traction but you can repurpose the video as a retargeting ad to generate more leads in the future.
Instagram Live Best Practices For Real Estate Agents
Instagram live is more for 1 on 1 personalized video. You can still use Instagram live to show open houses, new listings, rental units and more.
However, we would recommend that you talk about the local real estate market and share community updates when going live on Instagram.
Rentals and first-time homebuyers should be your key audience in most cases when using Instagram live.
When going live on Instagram video for the first time on important thing to remember is that there is not much camera real estate as Instagram live only supports vertical video.
Protip: Do a live local real estate interactive q&a session with all of your followers on Instagram live to gain maximum engagement. Use a short URL during the session where they can go and claim some kind of an offer. The offer can be a free home valuation or a list of FSBO’s in the area, it depends on the topic of your live video.
YouTube Live Video Best Practices With Real Estate Agents
YouTube Live is a little different and you need to plan for both live and long term content strategy in order to see a viable result.
When going live on YouTube make sure that you ask your views to subscribe to your channel and click the bell icon so that they are notified when a new video is available.
Remember the Open Broadcasting Software we talked about in the beginning?
Well, you can dig deeper into that if you are looking to create a curated show on YouTube live.
How to setup OBS For YouTube Live
OBS or Open Broadcasting Software is free to use live streaming tool that lets you go live on Facebook, YouTube and pretty much any platform.
It’s more of a granular controller that allows you to sync multiple screens, cameras and audio input to create a final scene that can be used to transmit on YouTube Live (in this case).
Here are the steps to setup OBS for the first time:
Step 1: Get Your YouTube Live Stream Key
- Go to your YouTube Live Dashboard
- Scroll to the bottom and click on reveal beside your stream key
- Copy the stream key
Step 2: Link YouTube Live to OBS
- Download and install OBS
- Launch it and go to settings
- Go to the tab that says Stream
- Select YouTube
- Paste the stream key
- You are all set up to go live from YouTube
Create your scene on OBS
Add your audio devices, webcams, and displays to create your scene. You can drag and resize your video inputs to create the perfect layout on the left screen. Once you are happy with the layout hit the transition button.
Remember the scene on the right is your active live scene. Click on the Start streaming icon to start your live Broadcast.
YouTube Live Video Marketing Strategies For Real Estate Professionals
Your live videos can be added to your real estate marketing channel after the live event.
This means it’s best that you plan your live videos in advance so that you can repurpose them as original video content and generate local organic traffic on YouTube.
Some of the best content types that work well with YouTube Ads are:
Weekly real estate marketing reports Interviews with local influencers and homeowners Sold over asking case studies General topics targeting millennial and other niche markets like first time home buyers, how to downsize etc. on your YouTube channel.
In conclusion, we would like to emphasize the fact that live streaming is one of the best mediums to connect with your prospects and you should make it a part of your overall real estate marketing strategy in 2019.