These days, people are much more into ‘authentic’ than they are into ‘professional,’ when it comes to video. Thanks to platforms like YouTube, people like to see others in the real world recording their stories. They want to see the warts and all.
Otherwise, they think it may not be the whole truth.
There’s a certain connection people have with the people on a video when they see the gaffes. They think, ‘looks like my life.’ They are more interested in what someone might be selling if they feel like they can relate to the person.
One of the best ways to show authenticity is to record it live. Often it doesn’t take much more than a cell phone to record good-enough quality video and put it on the internet.
Real estate investors have tons of live events that might interest people...
Think of HGTV and how popular that channel is. How many times have you said ‘that’s a bunch of bull..’ when you saw a slick, well-rehearsed show on that network? Not everyone buys a house for $10K, slaps some paint on it, and sells it for $150K like they show sometimes.
People want to see what real estate investors really do. If people see you doing what you really do well, you have instant street cred. Think about what people might want to see you do live:
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Rehabbing a house
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Walking through a home estimating
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How you market
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Staging a home
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Evicting a tenant
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Celebrating a sale
There are lots of others, of course...
But people will want to work with you if they like how you work. The trick is getting the word out when you are live. That’s where social media comes in.
“Do You Guys Know How to Post Videos to Facebook?”
We’ve come a long way since this commercial was on the air… right?!
We now have Facebook Live – a streaming service to let you broadcast live to all your followers. Your followers can react to the video in real time. You can make changes on the fly if it seems like your viewers like one thing you are doing over another.
Then your video can be picked up and sent to all corners of the Facebook-o-sphere.
Using Facebook live takes just 3 easy steps:
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Tap “What's on your mind” at the top of your News Feed.
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Select “Live Video” from the dropdown menu.
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Add a description and choose your audience before hitting "Go Live." You'll see a 3-second countdown before your broadcast begins.
There are a whole lot of tips on how to make the most of your Facebook Live broadcasts. Here are few we found from Facebook:
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Tell fans that you are broadcasting ahead of time so they can plan to look for it.
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Use Live when you have a strong connection.
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Have a good headline for what’s going on to attract people’s attention.
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Ask viewers to subscribe to ‘Live’ notifications. It’s nice to automatically alert people.
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You’ll get comments and ‘Likes’ in real time. Plan to respond to them as they come in – don’t let them just trip you up. Hopefully your friends won’t screw with you too much!
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The longer your broadcast, the more people you will reach. As word spreads, you will provide more and more people the opportunity to watch.
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Use some kind of closing line to signal the end of the video. You might want to let your fans know when you will be live streaming again.
There are lots of other tips and techniques for making the most of your Facebook live session. We found a complete guide to maximizing its use here.
Alternatives to Facebook Live
Not to be outdone in the social media sphere, especially with video, Instagram has also jumped into the act with Instagram Stories. Unlike Facebook Live, Instagram Stories, like much of Instagram, is only up for a short period of time – 24 hours.
With Stories, you can take as many photos and videos of your day as you want and upload them quickly to Instagram.
Maybe you have a hot wholesale deal... you want your buyer’s list to feel the urgency of the deal, so you tell them you will be walking through the property and showing it on Instagram only on a certain day. Instagram is great for creating that urgency.
You might also use Instragram to answer a bunch of questions that pop up from your buyer’s list or rental tenants.
The other alternative is Snapchat. Although Snapchat doesn’t have a specific feature like Facebook Live or Instagram Stories, Snapchat can provide live pictures and videos in its basic format.
It’s hard to ignore the power of Snapchat. Check out these statistics:
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Snapchat ads are seen anywhere between 500,000 to a million times per day
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Snapchat will surpass 18 billion daily video views by May 2017
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Snapchat's video views have tripled every 6 months
With that many people looking on Snapchat, it may be worth doing some Live Streaming of your own on it.
Here’s a video on how to use Snapchat if you aren’t already.
We do a lot of cool stuff as real estate investors. Don’t you think it’s time to show the world just what it is we do – maybe live?
Be Authentic – You’ll make a whole lot more deals happen if people think they can relate to you.
Investigate Live Streaming – The privacy barriers are coming down. If you run a good business, let the whole world see just how good you are.
Experiment – You probably won’t get these technologies right the first time. So what?! Keep trying. Keep improving.
JP Moses
is a real estate investor in Memphis, TN, with experience ranging from land lording to note buying, rehabbing, and wholesaling. However, wholesaling is the area that he enjoys most and where he bring the most experience and expertise to his students.