Facebook live for real estate leads: the complete guide

If you are looking for ways to promote your real estate brand on social media in 2017, you probably already know that video content is what you need to consistently produce for leads.

Video marketing, in fact, dominated the real estate marketing scene this year. An increasing number of real estate professionals used drones to capture panoramic views of large estates.

Instead of bombarding their prospects with text-based property listing descriptions, they shot videos of properties and the surroundings and promoted them on social media.

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Some became news anchors, broadcasting a weekly show on property market trends in their area.

And, it paid huge dividends. It became obvious that videos could make real estate brands stand out and hook prospects instantly.

What is surprising is the fact that despite this skyrocketing popularity of video marketing, only a small population of professionals in this industry is leveraging Facebook Live for real estate leads. And, those who are getting on board don’t know how to use it effectively.

Facebook Live can be a great inbound marketing tool. It can create buzz for your real estate brand. It can also be one of the most effective ways to connect with your prospects without you having to even step out of your office.

In this in-depth tutorial, let’s discover how to use Facebook Live for real estate marketing and how to do it the right way.

When to use Facebook Live for Real Estate Leads

Virtual walk through: Open houses are slowly becoming a thing of the past. People today check out property listings online. They go through images of homes in their target areas online and narrow down their choices in the early stage of house hunting.

A buyer would zero in on a couple homes. So instead of visiting several properties, she would like to know about her chosen homes as much as possible. She would check out the website and social media profiles of the agent who listed these properties for more information.

That’s where Facebook Live can be a great tool to market your listing to people actively seeking more information about homes you have listed or are trying to sell. You can broadcast a live virtual walk through at a pre-advertised date and time.

While organizing a virtual walk through you can answer questions prospective buyers may have.

Q&A: When people plan on selling or buying homes, they want to clear a lot of uncertainties and questions with regard to the process of a property’s transaction. It will be extremely difficult and time consuming to answer each and every question that you get from prospective buyers and sellers by email and other mediums. Facebook Live can be a great time saver with a wider reach. From time to time, you can invite home buyers and sellers to ask you questions on a specific date and time.

A Facebook Live session is much better than counseling prospects on phone or by email. Since your prospects can watch you in action on their mobile screen, they will feel more connected. Even if the person asking the questions is not going to buy or sell a home yet, you will instantly become a go-to professional and a known face for him or her whenever he is ready.

To make your sessions focused and productive, you can let everyone know the specific theme of a particular session. For example you can hold an FB Live sessions for buyers only.

Home buying and selling tips: You may have written a hundred blogs or curated a lot of content from other websites on how to buy and sell properties. You should try giving out these home buying and selling tips through Facebook Live sessions. Videos are a more engaging and powerful medium than text.

Neighborhood awareness sessions: People want to know not only about homes- up for sale in their target areas, but also neighborhoods. You can leverage Facebook Live to stream videos showing the best features of neighborhoods in your community and answer prospective buyers’ questions related to crime rate, amenities, the quality of schools etc. in real time.

Setting up a Facebook Live session

It’s easier to hold a Facebook Live session using your mobile phone.

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You will need to have the Facebook Pages Manager app in order to stream live video to your business page. Once you are live, you will be able to see the number of live viewers and a real-time stream of comments.

• Go to your Page in the Facebook Pages Manager app
• Click Post to create a new post
• Click “Go Live”
• Add a description for your video
• Click “Go Live”

If you are using your personal profile, you can follow these steps:

• Tap “What’s on your mind?”. You can find it at the top of your News Feed in your Facebook client app.
• Next you need to select the Live Video icon.
• You can write a description for your video; however, it’s optional.
• You should choose the visibility as ‘Public’ to widen your reach.
• Tap Go Live and start your live broadcast.
• When you are done with your broadcast, tap Finish.

Elements of a successful Facebook Live session

Why so many real estate agents fail to generate leads using Facebook Live is quite obvious. Here are a few things you need to know before going live to showcase your expertize to your prospects:

Advertising your session ahead of time:  

Before organizing a Facebook Live session, you need to advertise it. Most real estate agents advertise Facebook Live schedule only on their Facebook page and that’s primarily the reason as to why these sessions fail to create any buzz.

 

The organic reach of Facebook pages has dramatically decreased. It means that if you advertise your upcoming Facebook live session only on your Facebook page, only a small number of fans would see your promotion in their News Feed.

So use some of the most prominent places on your website to inform your prospects about the schedule of the upcoming Facebook Live session. You can also promote it on other social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram. You can advertise it even on off-line real estate marketing collateral.

You can also use Facebook ads to advertise your session ahead of time.

Be on a fast Internet connection

 Nothing can be more embarrassing than to have your session interrupted due to poor Internet connectivity or speed.

Demonstrate why people should participate in the session

Nobody will participate in a FB live session if they don’t know what they are going to get out of it. If your session is based on a theme, make sure you write a detailed and appealing description. There is no point having home sellers participate in a session meant for home buyers.

Personalize your session

Try to address a few of the people participating in a session by name. Not only those who you name in the session, but others also will feel connected. Encourage your audience to leave feedback and ask questions in real time. You can respond to their comments or questions.

Make sure that people know you go live often

Your audience will have the option on their screen to follow you. If they tap this option, they will be notified whenever you go live. It will keep your audience coming back for your future FB live sessions.

Set the scene

Make sure that the place you are using for your Facebook Live session has minimum background and ambient noise. You won’t be able to do much in this regard if you are outdoors to stream videos of a neighborhood, but still try to make sure that your audience can hear you without straining their ears.

You should also determine where you will put your phone. Will you hold it in your hands or use some type of mount?

Practice

Before going live, you should practice a lot. It will help overcome any fears and minimize chances of embarrassing mistakes. If you are organizing a walk-through, you should determine ahead of time which portions of the property you will prominently feature. You can even prepare a script. However be ready to get out of your comfort zone and answer questions in real time.

Conclusion

Organizing a Facebook Live session is a lot easier than you think. Get rid of all the fears that may be holding your back from using Facebook Live for real estate leads. If you practice before going live and advertise your sessions ahead of time, you can definitely create a buzz and stand out from other real estate professionals in your area.