Sometimes answers are right in front of you. Like many of you, I have been watching a lot of YouTube lately. As everyone knows, it doesn’t take long for watchers to determine the validity of any one clip. (Digital debris is actually an endearing quality of YouTube) But, if you look at YouTube as a Services Industry publishing platform, it’s pretty easy to see who is winning. Search any service or topic, and notice who, or what company keeps popping up. The successful will appear.
Malcolm Gladwell famously wrote of the “10,000 Hour Rule”. Concentrated study of anything over 10,000 hours will make them an expert in that field. While short on actual hours, I “feel” like I’ve spent 10,000 hours watching YouTube, so, ergo: my expert-like observations. To play along with this review, conduct a few searches yourself. Try; “Atlanta real estate”, “Atlanta home sales”, “Atlanta Housing Market”. See what YouTube gives you.
Have a Point—Don’t ramble and don’t try to cover topics that are too large in scope. The Atlanta suburban market or real estate investing, or the Condo market. These are large complex topics. Focus on smaller more bite sized issues. Think street level.
Get to It—Don’t waste a lot of time on front end puffery. Follow these 3 steps: 1) tell them what you are about to tell them, 2) tell them, 3) then remind them of what you just told them. Don’t forget your audience. There are a million reasons to be on YouTube for fun. This isn’t one of them. When people are looking for a product or a service, they are looking to learn. So, teach.
Be Regular & Consistent—Hands down, number one must do. If you are not committed to doing this, then don’t bother. If you’re trying to create a following, build brand or peddle a service it will take a lot of effort and hard work. This is no exception.
Be Clever, Not Cute—Number one problem, hands down. People think they’re a lot more entertaining than they actually are. We don’t need to hear your inner voice. With the exception of puppies and babies, cute is very tiring.
Be Professional—We live in a broadcast quality world. Thankfully, digital video has elevated everyone’s game. But, please take the time to learn basic audio recording. If your audio sounds like it comes from a tin can, people won’t listen long. Learn lighting. If you are asking people to watch a talking head, at least light it pleasantly. You may want to clean up the shelf behind you.
Expert or not, these observations are basic and probably found in any number of books. But, after searching Atlanta real estate, in a number of different ways, I couldn’t find a single example of anyone using this advice.
What you will find on YouTube for Atlanta is a lot of house listings and a bunch of one-off agent videos. I have no idea why agents put listings on YouTube? There are literally dozens of better mediums for showcasing homes. YouTube videos can have incredible life spans. They can be viewed over the course of years. That’s why posting today’s listings or market “snapshots” are pretty useless.
Looking at service providers who do well on YouTube you will notice a trend; library building. Putting out short, info-driven videos over a period of time creates an inventory of messaging. Think of it as building intellectual property. A video of a house listing today gets an agent nothing down the road. But, a short overview of FHA financing can be used for years. We all know there is a lot more to the real estate industry than selling homes. Consumers look to those who can articulate that.
I am a believer that YouTube is being underutilized, or at the very least not used well, as a real estate publishing platform. Wynd Realty has yet to develop a YouTube channel. The amount of effort in content creation has always been the deal killer. But…
As agents re-tool their sales strategies YouTube may become an option. A single agent creating a YouTube channel is almost impossible. But, if a bunch of agents banding their content together under a single Broker, no one agent bares all the content burden. A channel gets branded under the Broker, but, it’s the agents who are creating their own followers. Over time, as agents build a following and establish their own libraries, they break off and create their own channels. It makes sense, and is certainly more efficient, to dip your toe into the YouTube world as a member of a collective.
Agents having any interest in developing a YouTube channel should contract their Brand Managers. Agents interested in joining Wynd Realty specifically for developing a YouTube presence should email me at jeff@wyndrealty.com
Recent Comments