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The countdown starts, the green light turns on, and suddenly…YOU’RE LIVE! Has the fear set in yet? If so, know that there is really nothing that horrifying about going live on social media, unless of course, you have something in your teeth, or your pants are unzipped. If you have ever walked a new home prospect around a sales model before, then all of the skills that you need to go live on social media are already within you! This blog will give you the tips and the tricks that you need to be the best live version of yourself!
These are the basic steps of GETTING to the live stream on both Facebook and Instagram. You cannot livestream on Facebook and Instagram at the same time currently, but hopefully that comes in the future of social media!
A little known fact is that with Facebook “live” you can actually film your video ahead of time, and schedule it to premier as a live video, without you actually being live.
Facebook Live Stream:
Instagram Live Stream:
Record AHEAD of time:
Now there are pros and cons to both of these, so if you’re having the age old debate over which you should do, I’ll lay a couple out for you.
Regardless of which one you choose, if you have not planned ahead of time for either, that’s one huge CON.
When you go live on social media, it’s essentially presenting to an empty audience. This thought can be extremely daunting, but if you have the right mindset, that empty audience can all of a sudden, look like a FULL audience in your mind! When you’re presenting on live stream, or recording to Premiere, whether it’s 1 or 100 people watching you, you need to be sure you treat every size audience with the same lively and infectious attitude!
You want your audience SO EXCITED to watch you that when the live stream is over they have no other choice but to contact you to plan an appointment to come visit that floorplan you just showed off!
So how do you do that? Anything that you’re saying on the internet, you’ve most likely explained to a prospect, or a new homeowner, before. Use the same explanation with your online audience that you would say to your prospects when you walk them through the home, through the buying experience, through your building process – whatever the topic may be!
Be animated! I like to think of presenting as reading a storybook to children. When you’re reading Dr. Suess you don’t read with a flat, monotone voice. You turn on your storybook voice and animate yourself with inflection and excitement. Always turn on your storybook voice when you go live so that the audience, even from all the way across the internet can feel your energy and passion! Similar to having a conversation with kids while you read them a story to enhance comprehension, have a conversation WITH your audience; do not speak at them. This is not a college lecture. This is a personal experience, and because of the new landscape of showing homes, this is now how we have to connect with homebuyers before they even get your website.
Online video content performs best when on a schedule. When people know they should expect something on a certain day, or even at a certain time, you’re more likely to collect a following because you’re setting a schedule for others to come to learn and expect. At the end of every month, make a content calendar of the videos you will film during the next month, how you’ll record them, and who will be in them, so that you can be prepared as well as hold yourself accountable to get them done!
Once you have a content calendar to follow for the month, you can plan how you will advertise for them ahead of time to make sure people attend. Send out a teaser post/video a couple of days before as a reminder. Create an event on Facebook for your live video so that people get to RSVP and get a reminder the day of to tune in!
Now you have the content you’re filming, the marketing in place to get people there, but once people are there, how do you get them to the next step? Be sure to always include a CALL TO ACTION in your live video. If you’re having a large event like a grand opening of a community, consider a multi-step approach to going live. Go first on Facebook Live, give people a sneak peek, and then request that they RSVP to join a Zoom link for more one-on-one questions and time. This way you end up collecting leads and having more bottom-of-funnel conversations.
Now that I’ve given you some basic tools to go live on social media, you should be equipped to get on the road and hit live! Now these were JUST THE BASICS, there’s so much more technology, so many more content options, and so many more opportunities available to us to display our new homes online.
Want to learn more? Watch this video!