Facebook has become an extremely successful marketing tool for member of The Guild of Property Professionals, Mackay Property in Sawbridgeworth which is using the platform to host live open houses.
The company’s Director, Adam Mackay, explains the process:
“Before a property goes onto the market fully, we advertise the virtual open house as a Facebook live event.
“The ad will be served up to a targeted audience to ensure that it is seen by the right people. People are then able to engage with the ad and indicate their interest in attending.
“On the specified day, we will go live on Facebook at the property, ensuring we are wearing the appropriate PPE while showing the home.
“Holding the camera, we then walk around the property as if we were showing it to someone in person.
“As it is a live event, people can ask questions or send us comments.
“We would normally get between ten and thirty people attending the event live, but it is after the event that the real magic happens.
“Facebook sees that the video is popular and there is a lot of engagement, so it pushes the video and increases its reach.
“Over the next 48 hours from the event we get more and more viewings of the video.
“We are consistently getting around 5,000 video views, with our top video getting between 40,000 and 45,000 views.
“As a result, we are getting regular enquiries on properties before they are even listed on Rightmove or other portals.”
Mackay says that the Facebook open house virtual events have also drummed up new interest on properties that have already been on the market for some time.
“We had 13 physical viewings requests booked off the back of one of the videos of a property that had been on the market for a while.
“All of the viewing requests were fresh enquiries from new buyers.
“We have sold four properties using this Facebook live events and are now making it a regular part of our marketing strategy and pre-launch process, especially with vendors now starting to request them for their properties.”
According to Mackay, his office has also been producing ‘MTV-cribs-style’ videos of properties for social media.
“The video is just 20 seconds long, which is ideal for TikTok, Instagram and Facebook stories.
“Using a wide-angle lens, we do a quick walk through of the entire property, which has proved popular with buyers and vendors alike.
“We have won some listings off the back of the videos, with vendors saying they love what we are doing on social media.
“They think it’s great because they get to see the whole house in just 20 seconds, it grabs attention and people are more inclined to watch a shorter video as they can fit it into their daily life.
“It is no longer just about taking photos of a property, video is engaging, and it is here is stay, so why not make the most of it.
“We have been embracing video for the past three years, so were one of the agent’s in the area to do regular content videos on properties and it has really worked to our advantage.
For an example of their videos, click here.
Comments (12)
Facebook is for girls competing as to who can make their lives the most ” perfect “
‘Using a wide-angle lens’
Unless something has changed they were outlawed under over two decades ago by Trading Standards. Estate Agency practice order.
45,000 Impressive. Means zilch! Did it sell or was the 44,999 others viewing nosey parkers? Yes social media does provide exposure not to be scoffed at, but claiming this and that that did not provide a result?
Of the 45,000 how many were not interested in the property but more in what the vendor owned in the way of possessions. THINK CRIMINALS. I do hope they have a good security system for a visit one day soon. You are making it so easy for criminals to select properties to target and access points without having to leave the couch.
Agents need to think very carefully about using this medium. As one commented, gets your brand known and then you might find that as social media is very good at, nailing your hide if it goes wrong.
Do you believe 9/11 was a government inside job too?
Weird response.
It would have been good to see a screengrab of the analytics.
Most selling is proceeded by marketing activity. Most advertising, including social media, emails and a good old fashioned ring-round are marketing activities that encourage interest, that hopefully leads to a viewing that then leads to an offer and negotiation (the actual selling bit) and hopefully an agreed sale.
By Facebook’s own definition, “views” are only an estimate. It’s NOT the actual number of people who viewed the video. It’s the number of people for who the video appeared in their feed.
The point has already been made about the importance of having the right numbers correctly interpreted. As part of an ongoing campaign appearing in people’s feeds can’t be a bad thing.
In a lot of respects, it’s the digital equivalent of leaflet dropping without the worry that some kid will dump 10,000 of them in a skip!
Love your last sentence!
Reminds me of Rightmove rep meetings. Don’t miss those.
Why the negative comments?
I think your both missing the point…!!
What fantastic marketing!
Irrespective of the numbers of buyers – it’s 45,000 views of his brand which surely can only be a positive thing…?
and with that in mind then…..
”Ladies & Gentlemen ……I give you Rightmove 1 Gazillion Visits a second!!”
Just a “Marketing Thing” NOT a “Sales Thing”.
Yes, I get the “Marketing Thing” PGex
Can’t it be both? If the 45k views lead to the 1 buyer (as there can only be one). Job done and 44.9k who might also think of you next time they come to move regardless of their position right now
45,000 Buyers?
No.
Numbers, Numbers, Numbers…..
Tell me how many were actually “Buyers” ……then I’m interested in the “Numbers”.
Absolutely, reminds me of the phrase “turnover is vanity whereas profit is sanity.”