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Tuesday, April 24, 2012

FM Durham Tech Bytes: SocialCam for Real Estate Agents

I want to introduce an awesome new app for you. It is like the offspring of Pinterest and Youtube, Instagram for video! It is going to make video blogging so easy!  The new app I am talking about is Socialcam. SocialCam is a fantastic app for capturing video content. A great example of it in use is the video below by Fonville Morisey Realty's Digital Media Marketing Director, Lisa Sullivan.



  
Lisa just recorded the video on her iPhone app, and SocialCam automatically uploaded the video to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and I later embedded the YouTube video in this blog.  But you don’t even need to embed the video in your blog — just taking lots of videos using SocialCam on your phone is a great start.  It will give you content that you can use later.

As a real estate agent, there are so many great ways for SocialCam to give you exposure to your and your clients' friends and followers on social networks.  I believe this will be one of the better brand building tools we will have at our disposal.  How you can use SocialCam as a real estate agent: 

  • Do a video with a client about any real estate related topic (maybe a testimonial, for example) and then have your client post the video post to their Facebook wall and Twitter stream, using them as a ‘hook’ to vouch for you. 
  • When you are in the car going to see a client, take a SocialCam video of what you’re up to. 
  • Capture a video of your buyer or seller standing in front of their new home or the home they just sold and discussing the transaction and how happy they are.
  • Use it as your video blog and blog about an HOA, foreclosures, short sales, dog parks, luxury homes, and more, while never needing to actually write anything.
  • Use it to create a video tour of your listing.
  • Use it to create a video of homes you are previewing for out of town clients to help narrow down their home search before they arrive.
There is just so much you can do with this application.  SocialCam is available for iPhone and Android phones.  It also has a web application.  The best part is, it's FREE!  Now start shooting that video and sharing it with the world!

Brandon L. Penny
bpenny@fmrealty.com
http://www.facebook.com/fonvillemoriseydurham
(919) 402-1201

2 comments:

  1. Thank YOU for introducing me AND our Agents to the benefits of this app. I'm so excited about it! Great suggestions too!

    To add to it, here's what I learned from this one upload -

    KNOW your video. In other words, know what you plan to shoot and plan to shoot it all at once. From what I can tell, you can't edit clips; it's an all or nothing shooting experience. So, PLAN accordingly & remember to keep your vids no more than 2-3 minutes in length for maximum exposure.

    Unlike Instagram, once you've made your selections on filters & music, you can't go back & delete or edit. So, MAKE SURE you've added your title, selected your filter & music accordingly. Once you hit "done" it's rendering!

    With YouTube, if you've configured your account to share with YouTube, it will upload a duplicate video to your Channel. This is good because you can then edit your video title, description, tags, category, etc. once it's uploaded and rendered in You Tube. GREAT for SEO!

    The bottom line is I HIGHLY agree. This app has a lot of potential for your marketing purposes. Just be sure you have a plan for what to shoot & how long you will shoot BEFORE you shoot. That's my key take away...for now.

    Thanks, Brandon! This is one shiny object I think is worth jumping on the bandwagon of. SO much FUN!

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  2. Thank you for the additional information Lisa! I agree, I'm on the bandwagon with this one!

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