In this webinar we had Craig Grant, NAR speaker & Real Estate tech guru and owner & coach at Real Estate Technology Institute and Sam Mehrbod CEO at Roomvu; Top Producer Realtor and Forbes Council Member to discuss videos for Real Estate that are worth an Oscar. In short, this article and YouTube webinar will discuss different elements agents need to follow to have videos optimized for their social media. Watch the webinar below or go on to read the main points.
Craig Grant
Craig Grant, president of EasyRealtySites and The Real Estate Technology Institute (RETI), 2 companies whose goal is to elevate the real estate industry through technology & education. With over 150 speaking engagements around the US each year he is considered one of the top technology, marketing & risk management instructors around.
Craig Grant grew up loving all things technology and the Internet. After graduating from the University of Florida he spent nearly a decade as the regional manager and corporate trainer of the New York Times Regional Media Group. Craig then created The Real Estate Technology Institute (RETI) & EasyRealtySites, 2 companies whose focus is on creating partnerships with REALTOR® associations & companies and helping elevate their members through technology education, training & solutions.
Why Videos
From 2017 videos have been getting more and more attention on social media and online space in general. Now in 2022 it is more important than ever. People tend to ignore text more than ever and videos are everywhere. All social media platforms have some sort of video on them and most prioritize videos as their main form of content. It is much easier to express ideas through videos and once can even say that stating something is much easier through a video than to write it in a blog post.
What is Expected from a Video
there are different types of videos including educational, promotional, etc. Style and the length of the video dictates the expectation that you can have from the video. On the other hand, one should not forget that you cannot create one video and then expect it to go viral. You have to keep that consistency and presence so that people want to watch your videos. Furthermore, expectation should be tied back to your marketing goals. You will have different expectation from differnt marketiung goals for which you have created the video.
Best Videos for YouTube and TikTok
Local videos are a quick hit when it comes to best performing videos on social media. For example local market data, where to eat, etc. do well since they are local but they should be optimized first. However, there is no single formula and there is no best video. You need to dedicate 30 minutes everyday to generate new content like social media content, video, written, blogging to keep that consistency.
Google will not find you just because you created one piece of content. Consistency is key. Create lots of micro content once and push them out through-out the week. But do not flood your audience and then leave them alone for a month. You need to be consistent. The golden number of posts is 5-7 posts a week. Below or beyond that number will affect your performance dramatically.
Creating content with high-competition or low demand is a waste of your time. You need to do some research first for the topics that will give you a chance to go viral and get you exposure. You need to go after the “power of the longtail” and go for the long topics that nobody is covering and a lot of people are searching for. You need to do your research and find those topics.
Best Video Recording Tactcis
20% of content you share on social media should be you in front of the camera letting people seeing your face. If you fail to do that people will not trust you. Because people connect with people. You need to be involved in your marketing or lese you will come across as a robot. We know agents are super-busy these days but they still need invest in some time to connect ot their audience on a personal level and allow them to see them as human being.
Devices
Your smartphone is suitable in 95% of the situation to record video content as long as it is a good phone. People want authenticity in the videos. They do not want a set-up video where you look good and reading out form a script. They want to see the real you. If you are goofy appear goofy in your videos, just be yourself. In other cases like recording a REALTOR video or a listing video you can use a pro camera and make a polished video.
Just make sure the lighting and the sound are not poor and the camera is not shaking. You can get a Gimbal to get rid of shaking. Most phones have bad mics so you can buy a pro mic for your phone. Since most of the vacated homes have proo lighting, it pays off to invest in some lighting to create your videos.
Easy Tools to Process Video Content
Templated videos are easy to make. You just need to put the footage inthe template. Canva gives you a lot of options. It is pretty limited in details but it is okay for most of agents purposes. Adobe Spark is also great for templated videos. If you want more creativity and customizability WeVideo does a great job and supports mobile phones and even allows podcasting.
Posting Videos
TikTok is too short for most of your videos. However YouTube and Vimeo are great. YouTube might be better since it has a great audience. And you do not have to spend money on your video since YouTube studio is free and does a lot of great stuff. So all your stuff should be on YouTube. You can keep your raw files on Google Drive and Drobox.
Ego and Fear of Cameras
Most people come up with a lot of excuses for not getting in front of the camer.Some say they do not how they look, others hate their voice. But it does not matter. If you do not look perfect it is okay. You need to get over how you look like and start recording videos. But even if you cant get over that fear you can pay others to narrate for you. Another thing you can do to get ride of that fear is to create micro-videos and little by little you can overcome your fear and get used to appearing in front of the camera.
Short vs Long Videos
People’s attention are getting shorter and shorter. Now 7 seconds is all the time you have to grab your audience’s attention. Therefore you really do not want to make long videos unless you are preparing them for a longer videos. These days shorter videos are better. We do not mean your videos should be 7 seconds but you should make sure every “cut” in your video does not exceed 7 seconds. On the other hand you need to pay attention to the channel you are posting on. For example if you are posting on TikTok you can’t make long videos because people will leave your video.
