Could Facebook be turned into a series of mini property portals?
The question comes from Ian Jones, a vendor and businessman who happens to have a property to sell and which is listed with hybrid agency Purplebricks.
He said that if products and services are promoted for sale on Facebook, why not property.
He recently put his theory to the test.
He set up https://www.facebook.com/propertyvideostv and uploaded a video he had shot of the property in Dorset and text-linked it to the listing on Purplebricks.
He then paid £5 to use Facebook’s “Boost Post” feature and selected an age group and area he wanted his video pushed to.
The result was over 2,000 video views and 18 click-throughs to the property listing within 48 hours.
Each click cost less than 30p.
Jones said: “I am not suggesting that Facebook is going to rock the boat for Rightmove, Zoopla or OnTheMarket any time soon, but over the course of time I do think that Facebook could become a cost-effective and powerful means of additional promotion.
“Facebook is a cheap way of marketing a property with video.
“I think there is nothing stopping a given Facebook account or accounts becoming mini-portals, broken down by, say, location – for example, homesforsaleinhampshire.
“The key things is that estate agents need to think out of the box and not just rely on two of the three major portals.
“Social networking is king and agents need to think of new ways of exploiting it.”
Jones, who acknowledged some agents are already using Facebook effectively, said that for most people, Facebook is their favourite and most visited site – “so Facebook has to be a great additional space for property promotion”.
He said that using videos on Facebook was key.
“With the advent of affordably priced gyro stabilised video cameras such as the DJI Osmo and 360-degree video/still cameras such as the Nikon KeyMission 360 (coming soon), it is going to become much easier for agents to shoot eye-catching video.
“Furthermore, FaceBook now supports 360-degree videos in conjunction with mobiles fitted with 3-D sensors – providing viewers with an immersive experience as they pan their mobile around to view a given area.”
The result was over 2,000 video views and 18 click-throughs to the property listing within 48 hours.
But… the only question is… is it sold?
Not even maybe.
Even PB relisting it apparently hasn’t helped….
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Ouch and nasty – because:
1. poor narrow lens (wide angle would be better).
2. Great music to get people to turn off early. Last heard in the 1990’s in an elevator.
As for facebook becoming a mini portal. FB can’t be all things to all people. Equally it simply doesn’t have the property stock to pull the punters in.
FB, may claim the odd sale, but no more than a Dave, Bill, Sophie or Jim, telling their friends at work that their or a neighbours property is for sale.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Facebook offers an incredibly cost effective platform for agents to raise their exposure and, advertise their customers homes to a highly targeted audience. In many cases, for free.
Our monthly reach on Facebook is now equivalent to a capacity crowd at Wembley, with our last five posts with video content averaging just under 3,000 views and a total reach of over 72,000 for a very modest investment. Put simply, if you are an agent and you aren’t using Facebook, why?!
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Way too long but great in theory. It’s a real shame the portals haven’t embraced video yet
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Portals have not embraced video as the majority are poor as in this article. They have no quality assurance over it.
We have an agent near us that walk round a property with a dslr recording and its awful all jumpy, lots out of focus and poorly edited.
Until agents adopt a professional way of doing this as the “Norm” i do not think the portals will allow uploading.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
I use the photographs and add a little movement to them, upload to youtube and embed them on RM and Z
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Video and Facebook are both valuable marketing tools for estate agents. The key, though, is properly understanding the benefits. A good video marketing strategy does, on average, help sell each home, but when used regularly across a range of property types, the biggest benefit an agent can generate is an increase in new instructions – more than enough to cover the cost of the videos.
Facebook is just part of the story, which will do little to help on either front, but distributing your property videos via the right channels increases both instructions and sales.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Working with one portal at the minute to offer integration of video. And sorry to be ‘that guy’, but in last 2 days one of my virtual reality videos had 3.8k views in 36 hours. Led to a dozen enquiries. Paid for no promotion at all.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Oh, and the property isn’t on the portals yet. Leads generated without them 😉
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
I’m always shaky when I hold the video camera, oh wait, you probably didn’t need to know that !
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
While on the subject of Purplebricks…
… an article a couple of weeks ago mentioned they had a property listed at £4.5 million.
Not any more they don’t, apparently.
Wonder if it had a video tour that sold it for them?
Or… will it simply reappear in a month or so as a “New Listing”?
Answers, on a postcard, please…
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Interesting story.
I refer again to my interview with Scott Sinclair of google – profound insights shared about the use of video in estate agency and the advent of 360 degree immersive.
http://www.propertytribes.com/an-inspirational-chat-with-google-about-property-tech-t-127622225.html
Scientists have recently discovered that 1 minute of video has the same impact on the human brain as 1.8 million words of text.
If a picture paints a thousand words, then a video paints a million.
Video is a tool to access the part of the brain that wants something and can visualise themselves in the picture.
Good lighting and sound are vital, along with branding and “call to action” bumpers.
Facebook is nothing more than an aggregator to reach eyeballs. The more eyeballs you reach the more chance of a commercial transaction.
Agents should be looking at all aggregators like FB, Twitter, etc. These are networks and a very small effort is amplified through a network. Niche networks are even better, as the eyeballs are more targeted but adding #property on both FB and twitter will put your content into niche silos.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
I can’t think of ONE DOZEN words that politely describe the quality of the video the article refers to…
…so in that case they must each be repeated 750000 times.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Scientists have recently discovered that 1 minute of video has the same impact on the human brain as 1.8 million words of text.
REALLY?
The Bible has 783137 words
The Qu’ran, 77439
Further proof that ‘scientists’, like ‘experts’ know chuff all about diddly-squat – but make it up as they go along with big numbers and statistics.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register