Lights Camera Sold: Promoting Your Real Estate Video - Hosted by My State MLS

Youtube Introduction: 

Amanda: Good afternoon everybody and thank you so much for joining us for this session of Lights Camera Sold. This is our second to last session. Today we're going to be talking about how to promote your video after you've done all of the other stuff that we've been talking about this whole month. My name is Amanda. I'm the marketing director here at StateListings.

Question And Answer: 

Amanda: Earlier in the month, we've talked about what kind of technology you need? What kind of products you'll need to get a really good filming setup and how to set that up on a budget? We talked about how to plan out your video and most recently last week, Dave taught you how to film and edit your video. This week we're going to be talking about how to promote it, how to make sure that your video goes out to the widest audience, and how to repurpose that video, so it doesn't just live on one platform and you can grow audiences across multiple social media channels.  

Amanda: While during the planning phase, we talked about what your main social media platform is going to be. It's possible to re-purpose any video content you create and use it across multiple platforms. You can use it to drive traffic to your main video by showing just teasers on shorter form platforms, for a much longer video as well as using it to grow your own audience on separate platforms. Just to review the main options that we've talked about for posting, include Youtube which has two billion monthly active users and It's the world's second most visited website after google. It is in its own right a huge search engine, where folks go to find how-to content, product reviews. It's really the best place for any long-form, informational content you want to make. So if you'd like to make a video explaining to buyers parts of the real estate sales process, Youtube would be the best place to post that content in general.  

Amanda: In addition, if you have a real estate podcast, we're seeing that become more and more popular, especially over the course of the last year, with folks having more time at home. A lot of podcasts will film themselves while they're recording the podcast and then post a video version of their show to Youtube. So that's just another way, kind of built-in that you can repurpose content across channels. We'll be focusing on videos but that's just a little tip if you have an audio-based podcast to repurpose that to grow an audience on Youtube as well.  

 Amanda: Facebook is another huge platform for video. It has 2.4 billion monthly active users and it is the most widely used social media platform in the US. Facebook is really emotionally driven, so if you're talking about you know, a really touching testimonial video from a client who you helped through a really difficult time or if you want to share just a really beautiful listing, Facebook's best for emotionally driven video content. I should be not quite as short as some of the other sites that we'll talk about but definitely shorter than Youtube and It's your best place for shareable content because in general, you'll have a built-in network of friends or followers already on Facebook and they'll be able to easily share that to their friends without leaving the website that they're on.  

Amanda: Facebook also includes live streaming video capability and the option to save the video to your page permanently afterward. Youtube has this option as well as TikTok and Instagram but Facebook's one of the places that we've seen real estate agents focus on the most in terms of live video and again, that's because the network is already there in a way that it isn't quite as much on some of your other platforms. It also includes the option to save that video to your page permanently, once you're finished live streaming. Which means that you can have a live video, have a live experience for your followers as well as creating video content that you can reuse afterward. There's also Instagram, which has a billion monthly active users and 500 million open Instagram stories per month. Instagram is best for short-form videos that rely primarily on visuals because sound doesn't auto-play on Instagram in the way that it does on Ttiktok or Youtube. For example, most videos unless the user has turned on the audio, start out muted. So It's great if you have a really beautiful, for example, above a million dollar listing. Like a really, luxury property. Instagram is one of the best places that you can show that off. It performs really well on Instagram.

Amanda: In addition, like I mentioned, Instagram also comes with Instagram stories. These are short-form videos that disappear after 24 hours. You can then reuse them as highlights on your page. Instagram stories are really good for engagement and more behind-the-scenes kind of content because they're much more informal, so your followers won't be expecting a full high production, really beautiful picture quality like they would for an Instagram photo or video in their feed. It's a lot more personable and can be kind of more off the cuff. So It's a great way to create content without the same amount of work going into it, in between your larger projects. In addition, while I do suggest that you vary your content for each platform. One of my very few kind of caveats to that is that Instagram videos can be cross-posted to Facebook with a single click and in general, that's okay to do. In addition, Instagram recently launched Instagram Reels. Which was pretty much a direct response to Tiktok.

Amanda: So we'll go over what Tiktok is. You've most likely heard about it, It's been pretty explosive over the last year. Last time we talked about Tiktok they had around 750 million monthly active users and now they're up over a billion and over 60% of users are under 30. So if you're targeting first-time home buyers and younger homebuyers in general, Tiktok is going to be the place to be. It's best for very short content because videos range from 15 to 60 seconds or sometimes even lower than 15 seconds. The platform started off as 15 seconds only and that's where a lot of the content still cuts off. In general, the videos should be very funny or just really quick bytes of information or what marketers can call snackable content. So things that your viewers can just kind of get the quick information that they need and get out in under 60 seconds. 

Amanda: Like we mentioned before, you have your main platform, you know what you filmed and planned your whole video around but from there, It's possible to reuse and repost that video on multiple sites to make sure that you're getting the most out of your content. For example, if you're creating a long video on Youtube that's got a whole lot of information, that's just really dense, you should pull out as you're editing and create kind of a separate video file with the most short impactful moments from your full-length video. So if there's a statistic that you're going over that's really impactful, pull out that clip as a separate video, then add graphics and add captions to draw attention, If the viewer can't hear the audio. Like I mentioned on Instagram, that'll automatically be muted to start with. So adding those graphics to capture attention and then adding captions so that sound isn't necessary, makes it really easy to share that short impactful shareable moment to Instagram and or to Tiktok. 

Amanda: You can also direct viewers to the full-length video by saying using the link in your bio because most sites will allow you one link in your bio. You can also use a service like Linktree to get more from that single link and we'll talk a little bit more about that later. If you made a video for Instagram, like I mentioned, It's really easy to share Instagram videos directly to Facebook and while I'd recommend varying content, that is one of the huge exceptions. The other exception to that rule is like I mentioned, Instagram reels is pretty much a direct response to Tiktok. Instagram reels are short-form videos, usually set to music or with quick hits of information or a really funny joke. So they're really easy to quickly repost to Tiktok, to get the most out of that content. 

Amanda: However, both Instagram reels and Tiktok will watermark your videos, so I recommend editing in an external app to make sure that those watermarks aren't on your video when you cross-post them because I believe, both Instagram reels and Tiktok will not prioritize your video as much in the algorithm if you have a watermark from another site. Which is kind of fair. There are other kind of Tiktok clones out there, such as Clapper. Which I know will directly let the user know if they detect a watermark on the video and will let you know that it won't show up on people's for you page because of that watermark. I personally use Inshot to edit directly on my phone but if you're already editing more in-depth, like for a Youtube video. It's easy to just keep using any of the options that we talked about last week, such as Davinci or Adobe Premiere.

Amanda: Finally from Facebook, as I mentioned, live videos on Facebook can be used to save to your page, for your audience to watch later on-demand. So you have that really fun live experience as well as making sure that, that's a really reusable piece of content and you're not kind of doubling up your work. There are also programs like OBS studio. That's the one I personally recommend. It's Open Broadcaster Software, you can also broadcast to other sites like Youtube and Twitch simultaneously. So you've got same live video that you're creating for Facebook, you can broadcast live on Youtube as well. We're not going to go into Twitch a whole lot here because It's much more heavily focused on live video content but if you'd like to start growing a Twitch audience as well, you can cross-post to there using OBS as well.

 Amanda: So now that you know all the different places that you're going to post your video and you have your content ready to go. It's time to make sure that you put your best foot forward with your profile. So when posting a video to a social media website, you should make sure that your profile on that site includes at the very least, your full name, a photo of you or your logo, it doesn't need to be a professional headshot, especially for more casual sites such as Tiktok but it should be high res and well lit. Resist the urge to filter and face tune at the very most. I'd use your phone's kind of autocorrect settings but other than that if It's overly retouched, it just won't look good. You should also include the best way to contact you. Facebook can allow buyers to message you without even leaving the page. We'll also review how to use Linktree in just a little bit, you can also on some sites like Facebook and Youtube, have a banner. Where you can reinforce with your contact information right in the banner.   

Amanda: Finall you should include the name of your brokerage. If you'd like to make the absolute most of your profile, there are some additional branding image areas that you can make use of. Like I mentioned, Facebook and Youtube allow large branded banner images. You should use that to highlight any additional information folks might need, like your website. You can also include any recent sales, highlight new listings, or just use it to reinforce your company branding. Photo editors like Canva, which has a premium side to it but you can really easily get a free account. Will have the image sizes pre-programmed into the software. so you can really easily resize it for different channels. In addition, several sites such as Facebook, allow you to pin a post at the top of your feed. So that can help you share additional information when your profile is limited or you can just use it to highlight your latest video. So for example, we'll do this on Twitter, where your bio is limited to one link and you're pretty short on characters as well, so you can use the pinned post to highlight a bit more information about yourself. 

Amanda: So finally, like I mentioned on places like Instagram and Tiktok, you're only allowed one link in your bio. So it can be really hard to choose specifically what you'd like it to be. In addition, if you use Instagram and Tiktok to promote multiple videos that you've made, you don't want folks who are watching an older video to go to the link in your bio and not be able to find the video that you mentioned. So a service like Linktree, Beacons is another one that can help you make the most of those sites. Essentially, you create an account with those companies, and then you're able to put multiple links on your Linktree. So essentially, it'll be linktr.ee slash your username and then when anyone goes to that link, you'll be able to put a link to your website, a link to your other channels, a link to any videos that you're referencing. It's a great way to make sure that anyone can find you on any other social network from whatever network or website that they're on. Linktree is free. There are several other free options, many of them also have a premium tier that allows you to customize the page even more and use it to reinforce your branding.

Amanda: So moving along. This whole month, we've been working to prepare you for the Dave awards. That's the Digital Awards for Video Excellence. At the end of April, we'll be hosting the Dave awards. You're going to be able to take everything you've learned in this series and then share your masterpiece with us, once you've posted it. Submissions are already open if you just go to mystatemls.com/dave_awards. There are three categories and the top video in each category will win some pretty exciting prizes. Let's go over the prizes. 

Amanda: So the Best Presentation, the person who has just the most well-put-together video. Is going to win this really awesome hard shell camera case as well as a tripod to help you level up your videos even further. The Most Informational video, the person who really helps us to learn something in a short amount of time. Is going to win this Teleprompter, which would be very useful for these webinars as well as a tripod and finally, the person who Entertains us the most. Submits the funniest video, will win this mobile Blogging kit. It comes with a built-in flash, a microphone as well as a handheld tripod to just help you create the best videos possible on the go.

Amanda: So all month, we've been kind of giving you some homework, letting you know what you need to do to stay on track before next week, to submit for the Dave awards. So for next week, post your video. Post it to the main channel that you'll be promoting it on as well as this isn't required for the dave awards but I highly suggest that you cross-promote your video on at least one additional channel. I'd love to see what you guys come up with, how you come up with ideas to reuse your content across channels. Finally, submit your video to the Dave awards. The site again is mystatemls.com/dave_awards. The due date is Monday, April 26th at midnight. So we have time to watch all of your awesome videos and choose the best in every category. You don't necessarily need to post the video to your Youtube channel. Like I mentioned, different content performs best on different platforms. You can absolutely post it to whatever platform you'd like but you will need to post it somewhere online so Youtube, Facebook any of that. Just as long as you can get a link to share with us. You can find any of our past webinars in this series, if you need to review as you keep going, by going to MyStateMLS and selecting past webinars and you can find the text version of this guide by clicking on guides right there and downloading the Lights Camera Sold guide. Thank you so much for joining us this afternoon and have a great rest of your day.