It seems that as social media outlets have become more and more popular, our attention span to view the content from such sites and applications has gotten shorter and shorter. Twitter forced us to squeeze our thoughts into a mere 140 characters, and then Instagram took the need for written communication out of the equation altogether.
Video sharing has been miniaturized, as well. You only thought YouTube videos running a minute or two long were short -- one app that's captured a ton of attention over the last few months is Twitter's video app called Vine. Much like Twitter, Vine forces users to be short and sweet with whatever it is they're trying to convey: videos can be no more than six seconds long. (You can almost hear the makers of cute kitten videos screaming in indignation.)
Not to be outdone, Instagram just introduced its new video app, which lets users share videos up to 15 seconds long. Why 15 seconds? I don't know -- because six seconds seemed too short and 16 seconds is just too darn long? Got me.
At any rate, the questions we as real estate investors need to be asking ourselves are, "Can real estate video content from these apps help our business?" and, "If so, how?" Well, the answers to those questions are, "Yes," and, "I'll tell you."
Investor Vlogs
Just as you would use a blog to establish yourself as a brand and engage a customer base, you can use short video apps to create miniature vlogs (video blogs). Introduce yourself. Talk about relevant real estate topics. Be humorous. Capture people's attention. And do it in
short bursts -- the video equivalent of the previous few sentences.
Micro-Tours
Let's say you have a rental property that's ready for a tenant. You want to increase your social media presence and educate your audience about what you have available. Why not use one of these short-video apps to create a series of "micro-tours" of the property? A few seconds is all you need to quickly pan of each room, giving potential tenants a general overview of the property.
Tenant Testimonials
News flash: Prospective tenants are looking for a good landlord. One way to let them know that you are a good one is to let your current renters tell them for you. Short video clips of your tenants singing your praises as a respectable person and a great landlord could be a
nice marketing tool to add to your arsenal. (Note: You probably need to actually be a good landlord for this to work.)
What other uses can you think of for creating real estate video content with these apps? Let us know in the comments!
