Keys to an effective virtual open house

1. Schedule on a weekday around lunch hour, Wednesday, Thursday or Fridays have proven best for attendance. Make sure you’re using your Facebook Business Page, not your personal profile.
2. Promote the event online up to a week before. Best practice is using Facebook events on your Business page and ad boosting to a target audience.
3. Ensure you’re also using MLS exposure, REALTOR.ca recently launched the ability for Canadian REALTORS® to link to events like this.
4. Have the right gear. A gimbal or stabilizer is key. For the pro version, use a 360° Camera! (checkout this blog on reviews of the top 5 cameras). Also make sure you have clear sound, a lavier mic is best or if your gimbal allows you to connect bluetooth ear buds or apple earpods for iphone users work awesome! For best results, use the properties wifi network too.
5. Engage with those attending. Say hi when you see them join, encourage viewers to comment with any questions and then answer them live.
6. Have fun! You learn with experience, so try one with only a few close friends or colleagues first. You can go live in an event that you only invite a few people to before going live on your page. Remember, if going live on your business page, everyone who follows it will be alerted.

Facebook Live Open House Marathon Example

Our brokerage held a marathon virtual open house event where we toured various listings of our agents all over the city and in a variety of price points. Checkout the video to the right.

How did we do this?

We’ve had several others asking us how we were able to do this. We utilized Zoom meeting software to host a virtual meeting of all our agents behind the scenes, and then used Zoom to broadcast to our Facebook page in a live event! We had three brokerage team members to make it run smoothly:

1. Our Broker, John Carter, introduced and addressed some common market questions plus promoted our brand and REALTORS®.
2. REALTOR® volunteered as host, to transition between agents. In Zoom’s software, you choose “Spotlight Video” of that agent to feature them on the live feed. The regular Zoom meeting is only used internally, and is a sort of “waiting room” for the onscreen talent. We had each agent arrive at the property at least 15 mintues before their scheduled time.
3. Social Media Manager who monitored the Facebook live comments and actively linked to each listing on our office website, tagging the respective Agent or team to increase lead conversion from the event. This could be the Broker or Agent too, but we find it’s best to be able to stay focused on content and have someone else handling other details.

Have fun with it! Get creative, there’s so many other options for interviews with other professionals, tours of new home builder show homes and more.