Finding inspiration outside of the industry
Something I love to do is find inspiration in random places. Many of my best blog posts, videos and thoughts in general are inspired by some passing thing: a story on NPR, a beautiful sky, a joke my daughter tells me, a song… you get the picture.
It is a good idea to be well rounded in your interests because there are so many good ideas in other genres outside of real estate that we can apply to our real estate marketing and business in general. Today I want to expand your horizons on video Blogging or Vlogging.
If you follow me you know I am a big fan of video, but now that video is more common place in the real estate industry it has also become a bit dull. We all have the video where we are sitting in a chair or at a desk and giving advice. Those are good, and important, but not new or exciting. How about some inspiration to shake it up a bit?
I have been researching video bloggers who are not in the real estate industry to see what we can learn. I am going to share my top five picks with you and tell you what I think is exciting or inspirational about them and I really hope you will share some new ones in return!
#1- Story Corps
From storycorps.org: “Since 2003, StoryCorps has collected and archived more than 30,000 interviews from more than 60,000 participants. Each conversation is recorded on a free CD to share, and is preserved at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. StoryCorps is one of the largest oral history projects of its kind, and millions listen to our broadcasts on public radio and the web.”
These are cartoons, and I get that we don’t all have the ability to work with animation (although you could look into Xtranormal ). What I love and find inspiring is the actual story telling itself.
Actionable tip: How about if we were to sit down our clients and interview them in a story format about their life in the house they are selling? Wouldn’t that be more intimate, special and appealing than the typical “virtual tour”? I can just imagine Mrs. Homeseller recounting how she and the kids made cookies in the kitchen, etc.
#2- schmoyoho aka The Gregory Brothers
These are the guys that created famous “songified” autotuned news songs like Bedroom Intruder, Double Rainbow and Backing Up. Admittedly, they are probably more talented than we are in the singing and video editing department, BUT…
Actionable tip: why not have some fun? How about a video where you lip sync or conga line through the office? Consider taking a chance in your videos and letting your real estate subscribers see another side of you that makes you multi faceted, amusing and FUN! Wouldn’t you rather work with an agent who is not only good at what they do, but amusing to boot?
#3- Ask iJ
So, people ask her questions on Twitter, Facebook and Youtube and then she answers them in rapid fire manner. This is a no brainer for real estate.
Actionable tip: how about setting up a channel that allows you to take rapid fire questions about your brokerage or market?
#4- Steve Garfield
Fellow Massachusetts resident gives him an automatic like in my book. The fact that he came out to Podcamp Western MA 2 last year, taught a great session and then said it was one of his faves adds to my appreciation, and I love how real he is and how he gets creative with his videos.
In one I watched recently he crowd sourced on social media platforms to see what beer he should buy at Whole Foods. He bought the beer and talked about them on camera.
Actionable tip: How about if we asked our connections on social media about things that have to do with homes: services, products, etc. and then video the findings of their responses?
#5- Ray William Johnson
One of the top vloggers on YouTube Ray takes the best of the funny videos and drops commentary on them. He is a nice blend of funny and relaxed, letting the original funny content come through as the highlight.
Actionable tip: What about taking other real estate videos and doing a commentary? Whether it is humor based or “home help”, I think this might be a great way to vlog without having to come up with your own long content. Sort of a curation with commentary.
Taking risks with your video blog
I have been getting braver with video and taking risks. There are videos where I tap dance, wear a hat sideways and use the word “fly”, and a sweet one with my daughter who was about 4 at the time. So, there are some ideas for inspiration and adaptation in the video blogging space. What can you think of? Where do you find inspiration?
Harry Wood | Virtual tour
March 24, 2011 at 11:37 am
a real estate video tour saves buyers, sellers and Realtors countless hours of preview appointments and open houses. Offering video tours of your listings gives your clients a means of taking a life-like walk-thru of your real estate properties, thus allowing you to give your buyers an in-depth sense of the property’s scale and flow before they take the next step of scheduling an appointment.