When Facebook announced their live video feature many skeptics believed that it’s not going to take off. Live videos are not something that’s brand new on the modern web. There have been several startups (still active today) which offer users to go live and broadcast anything they want to say.
Even before Facebook Live, Youtube launched their broadcast live feature. If you are a realtor reading this article then let me tell you that Facebook live is going to be a huge marketing opportunity to get new clients and referrals in your area.
The reason why we can confidently publish such a statement is because the numbers are adding up for every industry that started marketing using Facebook live.
What You Need To Get Started With Facebook Live
- You need to have a smartphone.
- Download the latest version of Facebook from the app store.
- Launch the app and you should see a button that let you go live (next to the status update tab)
Today we are going to share some of the tips and tricks that you can implement within your real estate marketing ecosystem to get the most out of Facebook live. Before we actually start talking about various ways you can use live videos we will categorize them into two broad segments:
Types Of Facebook LiveStream
- Exclusive One-Time Videos – Whenever you go live on Facebook your followers will see you on their newsfeed. You can also share a link to your live feed with anyone. At the end of the video if you choose not to publish it on your profile then the video becomes exclusive. This means that only those who attended the live session will know what you talked about.
- Posted Live Videos – If you decide to share your live video after the event, you can do so. Remember that when you post your live video anyone following you can watch it and read the comments during the livestream.
#1 Exclusive Open Houses
One of the most common uses of Facebook Live for the real estate industry right now is hosting open houses. Let’s say you have an open house for a detached home in your area. You can do a quick livestream of the house an hour before the actual open house starts.
Invite people watching the livestream to come check out the open house. Make sure that you mention the address and timing for your open house multiple times when you are live.
Pro Tip: Even before going live with your open house tour make sure that you create an event page for the property.
Creating an event allows you to highlight the date and time of your open house to potential homebuyers looking for something similar in your area.
Promote your live stream on other social media channels like your personal Facebook page, twitter profile and Reddit.
#2 Real Estate Q&A 30 Minute Rapid Fire Live
Basically, you go live and answer questions from users about general real estate in your neighborhood. In order to host a successful Q/A session on Facebook live you need to promote the event strategically instead of going live and wishing everyone hops into your livestream.
Plan a schedule for your rapid fire livestream. You can start with once every week. Make sure you post about your upcoming live steam to all social media channels. Use twitter posts with lots of hashtags to attract the right audience in your area.
Pro Tip: Run a Facebook ad campaign targeting home buyers and sellers for your upcoming livestream. You can redirect them to a landing page with subscription box and send out an e-blast to all registrants right before you begin.
#3 Neighbourhood Tour & Info Live Session
Although this topic is not directly related to real estate but you can start a livestream within your neighborhood and pitch to everyone as your local realtor. Talk about the housing market in your area and price changes since last year.
You can also do a section talking about the neighborhood for potential home buyers in the area.
#4 Live call Facebook Livestream
You can set up your camera using a tripod (use tripods for your mobile) and create a livestream taking live questions from callers.
People can ask whether they should sell their home right now or something related to real estate in general. Basically, with the power of Facebook Live you can have your own real estate show just like the ones you see on television for absolutely free.
As mentioned before make sure that you brand and promote these shows before they are live so that you have people attending them.
If you followed our real estate podcast guide you can quickly convert your audio podcasts into exclusive Facebook live posts for your followers.
Pro Tip: Make sure that people can follow you on Facebook. When you go live these followers will receive a notification straight away. The Facebook newsfeed algorithm (also known as EdgeRank) prefers live videos over anything else on the newsfeed. As long as you have followers they will get the reminder.
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