Live Tweeting an Open House
It’s common knowledge by now that social media can be enormously helpful in building and growing your business, but there are so many options and possibilities that it’s hard to know where to start.
Live Tweeting
Live tweeting, as defined by Google, is to “post comments about (an event) on Twitter while the event is taking place”. Depending on who you follow on Twitter, live tweeting could involve awards shows, sporting events, movies, or TV shows. In the world of real estate, however, live tweeting becomes an especially interesting option for open houses.
In our hyperconnected society, Twitter’s immediacy and short character limits (each tweet is limited to 140 characters) make it accessible to even the most casual of users. With a huge userbase and the ability to add photos to tweets, Twitter is an ideal way to get the word out about an open house in real time.
This is no secret, of course. There are all kinds of tips for how to get your open house trending on Twitter so that others can easily find mention of the property even if they can’t be there in person. It’s a nice way to show off the house, while also showing that you’re tech-savvy as an agent. More and more often, professionals are judged by their internet presence, and there are plenty of prospective buyers that might be persuaded into working with you if they find a history of successful and informative real estate tweets.
What are the potential downsides, then? Well, most people make pretty goofy faces while they’re tweeting or texting things on their phone, their minds on the formation of words instead of controlling their facial expressions. By posting a series of tweets throughout the lifetime of your open house, you run the risk of alienating those that actually do show up in person. It’s very possible that a potential buyer would be dissuaded from placing an offer on the home if the agent was in the corner squinting at their phone the whole time instead of interacting.
One way around this is to use a platform like Hootsuite or Sprout Social that allows you to schedule social media posts well in advance of posting. This way the pre-scheduled tweets can launch during the open house while you yourself are schmoozing up potential buyers.
When it comes down to it, variety is king in social media. Remember the 60-20-20 rule to dictate post content: 60% educational, 20% motivational, and 20% sales.
Periscope
Useful though it is, Twitter is by no means alone in the wide world of social media. There are the other more obvious players like Facebook and Instagram (both of which can also be enormously helpful for generating leads!), and just a few years ago Twitter launched a new platform called Periscope.
The gist of Periscope is that anyone can start “broadcasting” video from their phone and others can join in, watching events as they happen. I’m sure you can see where this is going, and how game-changing this could be for open houses in particular. Video is the king of content, and a streaming video of a house that a viewer might be interested in is just about the best way to experience an open house short of actually being there.
Social media platforms are merely tools, though, and it’s up to the content creator to decide how to best use each one. The greatest open house tweets or Periscope broadcasts won’t do anything if there isn’t an audience.
Check here for some more ideas on how to spread your social media presence, and good luck on your open houses, however you choose to promote them!