August 14 2019
In 2019, live streaming content for your real estate business is one of the most lucrative social channels on which to generate tons of organic traction.
Most real estate agents are not using the power of live streaming to its full potential. While hosting one of our webinars with local real estate agents, we found out that the biggest obstacle agents are facing from doing live streams is lack of training. Agents do not know how and what kind of content to create for their live videos.
In this guide, we will go over everything you need to know about creating live streaming content for your real estate business. We will also share some blueprints of how to use live streaming videos to reach out to homeowners.
When it comes to live streaming, there are three main channels that you should target for your real estate business:
Ideally, your goal should to be to create live content for all three of these channels mentioned above.
Now that you know about the three most popular live video channels, let's talk about some of the tools you need in order to create different kinds of live stream content.
Before we proceed, we want to clarify that if you have a smartphone, it's more than enough to create all kinds of live stream content. Some of the equipment and software that we will be covering in this section only applies if you want to create more advanced shows with multiple cameras and microphones.
Let's start with the equipment and software requirements:
In this segment, we are going to dig deeper into some of the best practices to make the most out of your Facebook live stream.
There are two ways to broadcast a live video on Facebook:
When your live video is finished, you should publish it on your newsfeed. You have the ability to generate an automatic closed caption.
Instagram Live is more for one-on-one personalized video. You can still use Instagram live to show open houses, new listings, rental units and more.
However, we would recommend that you talk about the local real estate market and share community updates when going live on Instagram.
Rentals and first-time homebuyers should be your key audience in most cases when using Instagram Live.
When going live on Instagram video for the first time, one important thing to remember is that there is not much camera real estate as Instagram live only supports vertical video.
Pro tip: Do a live, local real estate interactive Q&A session with all of your followers on Instagram Live to gain maximum engagement. Use a short URL during the session where they can go and claim some kind of an offer. The offer can be a free home valuation or a list of FSBOs in the area—it depends on the topic of your live video.
YouTube Live is a little different, and you need to plan for both live and longterm content strategy in order to see a viable result.
When going live on YouTube, make sure that you ask your viewers to subscribe to your channel and click the bell icon so that they are notified when a new video is available.
Remember the Open Broadcasting Software we talked about in the beginning? Well, you can dig deeper into that if you are looking to create a curated show on YouTube Live.
OBS or Open Broadcasting Software is a free-to-use live streaming tool that lets you go live on Facebook, YouTube and pretty much any platform.
It's more of a granular controller that allows you to sync multiple screens, cameras and audio input to create a final scene that can be used to transmit on YouTube Live (in this case).
Here are the steps to set up OBS for the first time:
Step 1: Get Your YouTube Live Stream Key
Step 2: Link YouTube Live to OBS
Create your scene on OBS
Add your audio devices, webcams, and displays to create your scene. You can drag and resize your video inputs to create the perfect layout on the left screen. Once you are happy with the layout, hit the transition button.
Remember the scene on the right is your active live scene. Click on the Start streaming icon to start your live broadcast.
Your live videos can be added to your real estate marketing channel after the live event.
This means it's best that you plan your live videos in advance so that you can repurpose them as original video content and generate local organic traffic on YouTube.
Some of the best content types that work well with YouTube Ads are:
In conclusion, we would like to emphasize the fact that live streaming is one of the best mediums to connect with your prospects and you should make it a part of your overall real estate marketing strategy in 2019.
To view the original article, visit the Parkbench blog.