Real estate and social networks: YouTube real estate
A real estate YouTube channel can be one of the best ways to do Internet marketing. YouTube has seen many challenges in the online video market, but despite the competition, it remains the primary platform for real estate video marketing.
The advantages of a social network
YouTube was born in 2005 and in a short time became the most important video sharing channel on the Internet, allowing the online sharing of videos, presentations and films by both people and companies. In 2006 YouTube was acquired by Google, remaining the undisputed leader of online videos for years; only in recent years has Facebook tried to act as an alternative, giving much more space in the home to visual content, videos in particular.
In any case, YouTube remains the specific reference point for videos, although it has transformed over time into a real social network, able to give its users advantages such as:
> Visibility on search engines
The videos uploaded to YouTube can be optimized for one or more keywords relating to the real estate sector: this means giving the opportunity to users subscribed to the channel or simply to those who search for certain words related to Real Estate on search engines, to find precisely that video. In fact, it is easy to see how Google often shows videos taken from YouTube, as well as in the Google Video channel, even in the first pages of the organic results.
> Accesses to your website
You can insert a link of Tajarat Properties website in the description of each video. In this way, if you manage to capture the attention of your audience, users could easily click on the link that leads them to your website and visit the pages of the properties for sale in Bahria Hills. This will greatly increase your chances of growing leads and customers.
> Potential virility
Videos are subject to “virality” much more than images, even more so than articles or press releases. To increase the chances that your article will go viral, accompany it with a funny video, and you will see that it will be shared much more by users on social networks.
Video creation and optimization
When you create a video, you have to invest your time both in production and promotion, or you will risk receiving very few views and shares.
So be sure to follow some essential steps to make videos that give you a satisfactory return in terms of visibility, access to your agency’s website, even virality (if you are really good!)
1. The care of the design
The graphic aspect of your agency must be taken care of wherever you are present online. In your YouTube channel you can insert a banner and a profile image, then insert those that have the name of your brand, your contacts and a photo of one of your best properties.
2. Agency data
There is nothing better than sharing your agency’s contact information. But don’t assume that your audience knows how and where to find you on social networks, or even how to find your website.
Provide links that allow interested people to easily contact you by phone or email.
3. Creating a YouTube real estate plan
It is important to have a long-term vision for what you want to achieve with your YouTube channel and to be consistent with your production, the length of your videos, the graphics and the value proposition.
The best way to create this plan is to first understand which subject and which angles are best for the audience.
4. The choice of themes
There are several topics that you can cover in your videos: for example, clips highlighting the tasks that every seller and buyer need to know can position themselves as a very useful resource for you and your contacts.
Buyers and sellers of Park View City want to know if the market is growing in their areas of interest, both from the point of view of the value of homes and that of job opportunities. Why not tell them via video?
The primary interest of each of your contacts will in any case be to look for a property of their liking in your portfolio, so making videos that show every corner of your properties can be a very effective real estate YouTube strategy.
Take inspiration from the most successful real estate agents and study their videos, this way you will understand how to create clips for your real estate YouTube channel. For example, if you like how an agent tells the main news about a given neighborhood, write a text that deals with the same theme but concerning a neighborhood affected by your market.
5. The choice of titles
It is essential to think about the titles for your real estate YouTube videos, so that they have relevant keywords and entice users to watch them.
If you want to create a series of videos, think of a title that you can use and then insert a subtitle for each new episode.
6. The choice of tags
Choose tags that are appropriate to the content of your videos, as the search for videos on YouTube, but also on Google and search engines in general, is closely connected with them.
Appropriate tags ensure that your videos are recommended by YouTube to users with compatible interests in the real estate world, or that they appear as “related videos” compared to the videos of your direct competitors who use your same keywords.
Use all 500 characters at your disposal by alternating a mix of specific and generic tags. In order to strengthen the positioning of your video, use the keyword you entered in the tags first in the title, also paying attention to rename the file with the main keyword used to optimize it.
7. The creation of the miniature
The thumbnail is a key factor in the success of your real estate videos, as it determines the likelihood of users clicking on the videos. It is YouTube that recommends using thumbnails that have attractive, clear, high-resolution graphics.
Do not use deceptive images for the purpose of increasing views, as this type of attitude will be punished by YouTube and will end up having the opposite effect. The preview images must in fact represent the contents of the videos faithfully, as well as complete the meaning of the titles.
Always pay attention to the fact that many users are likely to view your videos, and even earlier your preview thumbnails, from mobile devices. So no to writing that is too small, which from mobile will become tiny and illegible, and attention to every detail of the image.
If the preview is not displayed correctly on Facebook, we recommend that you use the Facebook Debugger.
8. Inserting annotations
Have you ever noticed interactive texts appear in the YouTube video in order to keep your attention high and tell you what actions you should take? These are the “annotations”.
You can use the annotations to suggest to your users to subscribe to your agency’s channel, or to the Newsletter (we have an entire article in which we discuss how to create the Newsletter), or to invite them to watch the video of a property with a super price. Discounted.
Unleash your creativity in creating these texts, you can also redirect viewers directly to your website, blog or Facebook page of your real estate brand.
In fact, annotations in your videos can be essential to insert your CTAs. Whatever the CTA you insert in your clips, remember the essential structure of the latter: a direct text, explaining why you want the viewer to be encouraged to click; and a link that takes them to the page you promised.
9. The trailer and featured videos
Create a Trailer to get YouTube users to subscribe to your real estate agency’s channel, or alternatively set the latest uploaded video as a featured video.
Also promote your videos through “Featured Content”, a YouTube feature that will allow you to annotate all your videos automatically. By doing so you will have the opportunity to give visibility to the last video uploaded or to a playlist in which you have inserted it.
10. The choice of description
Try to connect with the viewers of your real estate videos by adding relevant, creative and engaging descriptions, with links in the right places.
Inserting a couple of sentences that summarize the concept of your video won’t help you. Rather, insert a series of paragraphs that explain in depth the content of the video, so that those who want to see the video will know what it will talk about even before they see it.
Pay particular attention to the first three lines, which will be those actually always visible on the video page without the need to explode the entire description: enter the most important keywords and tags you used, perhaps trying to induce users to subscribe to the channel or visit your agency’s website.
11. The creation of playlists
Is it possible that your videos could enter the first pages of YouTube results for competitive keywords? It is not easy for this to happen, but you can try by curating and optimizing the Playlists in which you insert your top videos.
The aim is to provide your audience with different content that is linked to each other. Write short coherent descriptions in your Playlists and give them names that are particularly meaningful for the real estate sector, possibly containing keywords often used to search for your content. Finally insert the videos in the Playlist, and that’s it.
12. Promotion on social networks
You can create as many videos as you want, but without promoting them they will never reach the potential achievable in a good real estate YouTube strategy.
Any social channel managed by your real estate agency can become an excellent ally for promoting videos created on YouTube. Among these, Facebook is undoubtedly the most interesting social network, both for the number of active users ready to “Like” and shares, and for the importance of visual content.
Do not snub Google+, much less LinkedIn and Twitter, while if your real estate brand is mainly based on the visual, as in the case of the majority of real estate agencies that promote homes for sale or rent, for the promotion of videos you can think of activating a Pinterest account.
13. Publishing on blogs
Since we assume your real estate agency has a website, create an article specifically for the video you are uploading to YouTube. In this way the video will also be ready to be viewed by the readers of your blog (you don’t have a blog yet??), while you will help increase the positioning of the video by creating a link to it.
Using YouTube Analytics you can find out which blogs have incorporated the videos published on your real estate channel: you could contact them to start a form of collaboration or mutual sharing of the videos in their respective user communities. This type of win-win partnership will give you significant benefits in your real estate YouTube strategy.
14. User comments
We’ve already told you about how important it is to respond to comments instantly. It goes without saying that the number of comments is able to influence the popularity of content exponentially, so if one of your videos receives a lot of comments and interactions already published, it will be more favored in the search results that will occur in the future.
15. Have fun with drones
Drones offer real estate agents a myriad of ways to showcase the homes on their listings with a new and affordable perspective.
Understand the role drones will play in your marketing efforts and how to use them effectively. Incorporating drones into your real estate web marketing strategy just because you want it might not be the best solution.
Be aware and well prepared on how to distribute your videos: you will have to upload and manage the videos of your clients’ homes on suitable platforms such as, in this case, YouTube.
How to make your YouTube videos native to Facebook
Now a rhetorical question, which mainly concerns real estate agents used to self-produce videos to advertise their properties, or institutional videos about their agency and their real estate team: have you ever shared a YouTube video on Facebook? Are you satisfied with the interactions (likes, comments and shares) you received on it? We’re pretty sure the answer is No! The reason this happens is that they are not native Facebook videos, therefore they have a very different layout from what users who use the social network are used to.
In fact, instead of large-format and captivating videos, which immediately capture the attention of users, the videos shared directly from YouTube are small and accompanied by a description in thumbnail, certainly a not very stimulating view to the interaction by the other users. Do not worry, for this kind of “problem” we come to your rescue by proposing to use a free tool, which will allow you to view videos from YouTube as if they were created directly on Facebook: YT2FB.
For copyright reasons, it is not always possible to download and then reload YouTube videos on Facebook. This tool, however, allows you to share videos on Facebook from YouTube without giving up the possibility of creating an optimized preview for this social network. Using this software you will have the possibility to capture the attention of your audience in a much more effective way, managing to increase your interactions on the videos (try it for yourself!) While sharing from YouTube.
Conclusions
Online videos have given real estate agents the opportunity to take advantage of more options to get noticed completely for free. Videos are popular with customers interested in your market, and your clips can help them find you easily, as well as add value to your market experience. Add a good YouTube real estate strategy by following our advice, the results will be tangible.
