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A recent auction by Tom Panos has gone viral online, racking up more than 2 million views and reaching more than 3.5 million people on Facebook alone. Here’s why he thinks more agents should be taking note of the marketing tactic.
The REB coach and trainer has revealed that since posting the live-stream video on his social media, he’s had more than 30 people call him up asking him to sell their house.
“They call me thinking I’m a real estate agent,” he said, “which I’m not — I’m an auctioneer!”
Even though he won’t be selling houses anytime soon, it’s led Mr Panos to realise “that social media, whether you like it or not, is now the television screen for a real estate agent in the marketplace”.
He lauds the benefits of viral videos being that it “breaks you into new audiences that had no relationship [with you previously]”.
All of a sudden, it “brings you into new audiences that weren’t consuming your content” and has the potential to act as a powerful marketing tool for real estate businesses and agents employing the strategy.
Having spent $0 on advertising his own viral video, which has still managed to garner almost 10,000 reactions and over 1,000 comments, Mr Panos said it had become very evident that “consumers are really interested in watching in-the-moment, raw content”.
“A lot of people want the feeling of being there live,” he reflected.
Considering it as being no different to watching live sport or live news, which Mr Panos acknowledged as the highest-rating shows in media, he told REB that “it’s obvious to me that real estate agents should start getting comfortable live-streaming in-the-moment content that is engaging for the marketplace”.
So, how can agents do the same?
“If you’ve got a phone, if you’ve got an auction — you’ve got a TV show,” Mr Panos stated.
He’s advised: “Start with your current camera, start with your current wardrobe, start with your current weight, start with your current property,” he advised.
From his perspective, too many people don’t believe they are cut out to post videos, arguing, “I don’t have the equipment. I’m too fat. I’m too skinny. I’m too old, I’m too young. I don’t have a prestige property on the water.”
He noted that his viral experience “was a simple house in Belfield in the Canterbury-Bankstown area — it wasn’t a waterfront mansion at Point Piper!”
And there’s no better way to approach it than by accepting that “if you’re in business, you’re in show business”.
Reflecting on his own experience of “going viral”, he has flagged five major things that real estate agents need to think about if they want to create engaging social media content that serves that purpose — of entertaining consumers.
“It was suspenseful, number one. Number two, it had humour — there was humour after humour in that auction,” he began.
“Number three, [it was] trending. Real estate is trending [right now], no question about it, so I had that in favour of it.”
The fourth thing agents should be doing? “Go live.”
And last but not least, Mr Panos emphasised the need to tell a story — it can’t just be about the property.
In his video, “the story of this was that the people had never sold this house and they moved into the home the day they got married”.
Acknowledging that people are always looking to consume content, Mr Panos concluded: “There’s just so much of it; you better make sure that it’s good enough to stop them from scrolling.”
You can watch Tom Panos’ viral video below.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Grace Ormsby
Grace is a journalist across Momentum property and investment brands. Grace joined Momentum Media in 2018, bringing with her a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Communication (Journalism) from the University of Newcastle. She’s passionate about delivering easy to digest information and content relevant to her key audiences and stakeholders.
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