I recently read an article in Florida Realtor Magazine which is a trade magazine for Realtors that showed 14% of Realtors are using video. The article focused on the fact that video is now the number one Internet activity even surpassing emailing. They recommended using YouTube Analytics to verify the reach of the video audience. Realtors Using Video!
Because the Ellis Team has used video for awhile I decided to look at the analytics and see if the results the magazine touted matched what we were seeing.
In the past 30 days our channel www.Youtube.com/brettellisfl has received 4,471 video views. 71 came from a Google search about SW Florida. 33.9% came from mobile apps which may explain why Facebook is concentrating so much on the mobile platform.
The YouTube search pulled in 691 video looks so one could argue YouTube is a bigger search engine than Google is, at least for video.
Recently we’ve sold homes to buyers from Germany, Canada, and Dubai, so I wanted to see if video is helping us reach those markets. Sure enough, Germany and Canada scored very high at #2 and #3 right behind the United States. United Arab Emirates came in at #15 with 23 video views. The buyers said they were on our website and found us on the Internet, but I guess the next question should be where on the Internet?
Did these buyers find us on our MLS property search page www.AllswflRealestate.com or www.LeeCountyOnline.com ? Did they find us on video first which led them to other areas on our site? When a buyer says they found us on the Internet, maybe watching a video is the sum total of what they meant and they looked no further?
The International list goes on for pages so we just showed the top 25 this past month. I’m amazed that there were 13 views from Turkey, 14 from Kuwait, and 95 from Saudi Arabia. Could it be that we’ll sell a luxury home to a Prince from Saudi Arabia in the next month?
The answer is it’s possible. Buyers from all over the world are finding Realtors through video. These views we’ve provided don’t even count the virtual tours we use. Last month our virtual tour site link which can be found at www.Topagent.com received 4,125 views in addition to the YouTube video views. Throw in our MLS property search sites, our Topagent.com site as a whole and views, our Blog and the numbers grow substantially.
The point is, only 14% of Realtors are using video now and more should be. If Realtors knew the staggering number of people using video to find homes and research areas more would reach out and learn. The trouble is video is hard to do on your own. Sound quality is an issue and production costs are high. With today’s modern technology those costs are coming down.
For instance, we produce our shows in-house and add our jingle and graphics. While we have an advantage from doing TV shows and radio shows over the years, an agent without all this could hire a virtual assistant to create logos, music, and even edit videos. An agent can even do voice overs if the initial sound quality isn’t good.
Doing video poorly isn’t good, but doing nothing can cost as well. As you can see from the numbers, video is becoming one of the most important things. Reaching the mobile buyer is critical.
More tablets and smart phones will be sold this year than PC’s. More Internet traffic will occur over mobile than the office. The sands are shifting, and Realtors have to be at the forefront. The good news is, the real estate industry has always led, and will lead with video.
Good luck and Happy House Hunting!