Last year we did an article about Realtors using video in their business. Back then about 14% of Realtors were using video. We suspect today that number has grown a bit as more and more people are watching videos in their travel time and in between moments of their life on their smart phones and tablet devices. Today we’d like to update that story with Realtors Using Video Revisited
Last month alone our YouTube channel www.Youtube.com/brettellisfl viewers watched 11,792 minutes of video. That’s over 196 hours of video. Of that traffic, mobile apps and direct traffic accounted for 51% of that activity. Germany was the leading country after the United States to watch our videos. Brazilians watched for the longest average duration followed by the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Austria.
While it helps to have professional video and audio it isn’t required. Putting something at least decent up is better than nothing as long as the content is compelling and informative.
One thing you’ll notice about our YouTube channel is that we’ve updated the skin to YouTube’s standards. This is a recent change Google has adopted. They want pages to look similar across platforms and devices. We created the beach graphics that have a similar theme to our Google+ Business Page. You can find a link to our Google+ page from Topagent.com if you’d like to see an example. They also requested different sizes so they’ll look good on a desktop computer, a tablet or iPad, and a Smartphone.
Google is rewarding those who adopt their standards in local searches. For instance, if you search Fort Myers Real Estate on Google the Ellis Team at RE/MAX Realty Group comes up in their listed map search as well on various pages. The results in the various pages change all the time, but the map listings have stayed fairly constant.
We believe using video heavily has helped how Google rates websites. We still do many other things as Google doesn’t rely on any one thing. However, by doing many things and using video helps raise the bar and in Google’s algorithms separates serious Realtors from less than serious. Google’s term is authority. They are trying to identify authority and reward websites that provide authority.
In addition to SW Florida real estate updates published on our YouTube channel, we have a separate YouTube source where we post our property videos. Video is playing an increasingly larger role in real estate searches. Some buyers are searching for agents and properties on YouTube and skipping the search engine process altogether.
Look no further than teenagers today. They don’t search on computers much. They do search YouTube videos all day long, or do mobile searches on the phone.
Agents today must change they way they market to reach today’s buyers. If you think teenagers are the only ones searching on mobile devices, just look around and watch people. Our analytics tell us who is searching, from where, and how long on our websites. The results will astonish.
Our advice would be, if you want to attract more customers for your listings, step outside the box and try new things. Ask successful agents where they’re finding buyers today. Look around and observe people yourself, and if you see a niche, jump on it. We’re always looking for new ways to reach buyers and sellers, and if the market shifts in the future, (and it will) we’ll be searching for ways to capture that demand.
So get out there and take some video and post it online. If it has decent audio and video, you’ll be glad you did.
Good luck and Happy House Hunting/Selling!!!!
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