5 best visual content for real estate social media marketing

Fierce online competition in the industry has in many ways forced agents to select the best visual content for real estate social media marketing purposes. Truth be told, agents seek cool visuals to present their properties always and you should feed those needs. So, let’s explore the most demanded visual content types here, shall we?

Virtual Dusk

Virtual Dusk (or Virtual Twilight) is a Night image converted from a Day photo through specialized conversion-editing techniques. Like a real twilight photo, a well-edited dusk photo can evoke in homebuyers a deep emotional connection with the property thanks to the cozy feelings it brings. That makes it one the most sought-after real estate content for social media.

Unlike actual dusk, fixating viewers’ impressions to a certain time of day, virtual dusk allows for different timing impressions of the same property. That enables homebuyers to imagine their ‘homelife’ from day to night. In short, it shows the property in a different light, and that very difference makes it a catchy type of real estate content for social media.

Virtual Staging

Marketing is all about putting your best foot forward. This means that you are not just showcasing the property – you are showcasing the lifestyle that comes along. Not only for home listing purposes, virtual staging is a great type of social media content for real estate agents as it naturally resembles a yet-to-be-built environment or maybe more. Check out a piece of virtual staging content here?

With compelling “before and after” impressions, virtual staging is an excellent way to help potential buyers imagine themselves living in the property. On social media, stylishly staged home images can capture mass interests, not just of homebuyers. And when your clients can impress a wider range of people, their marketing efforts pay off.

#Marketer Tips: How to use virtual dusk and staging images

As a photography company, you should educate real estate agents on how to use your photos to their best social media marketing interests.

• The quickest way is posting before and after images on soicals like a carousel post. 
• Another way is to make an animated gif out of the two images (before and after) and use it for messaging, email marketing purposes.
• On socials, posting gif files on the main feed is not possible so you can save your gif file as a video (.mp4, of at least 3-second length) to post and let it loop automatically. 
• Finally, using still images as part of a video slideshow is a more dynamic and effective way to attract online audiences. 

Virtual Timelapse: The newest video content for real estate social media

Short-form videos (except Youtube) continue to be a trend of social media marketing and for real estate videos to to engaging, they better be short. Virtual (computer-generated) time-lapse is an innovative way of showing property facades that will hold online audiences in awe. If a virtual dusk photo shows the property in a different light, a virtual time-lapse compiles various moments, rendered to photo-realistically highlight the home outlook. Thus, this is a more powerful way to show the complete day-to-night transition, catching the audience’s eyes and taking their emotional connection to the next level. 

For photography companies, this innovative service gives real estate agents access to richer content marketing ideas. It ticks the box with zero effort and attention needed to mount the camera the whole day at the property. All you need is a day image! With the right editing, your image is transferred to a showstopper video on socials.

Featured service: Virtual Timelapse

#Marketer Tips: How to use virtual time-lapse video

• Tell agents to post it directly on socials with their choice of cinematic music. 
• If posting on Tiktok or Instagram reels or Instagram video feed, use the native trendy music for better exposure. 
• Finally, save the video in gif file format (.gif) to use for email marketing, it’s a better and more efficient type of embedded content.

Real Estate Reels – Vertical videos: the rising star

One of the hottest real estate social media marketing ideas is vertical videos (Tiktok or Ig Reels). Reels videos have become the new normal, popular way to circulate content in the industry as they appeal to younger buyer demographics. 

Featured blog: 4 reasons why real estate photography companies should offer social media reels

There are three types of vertical videos for realtors you can offer. The first is a slideshow of still images, requiring no video-shooting efforts. The second is the one made entirely from portrait-format video footage. The last is, of course, a combination of both video and images. See below for an example of an Instagram reels made with a collection of still images.

Virtual Tours

No one has to argue hard for the fact that Virtual Tour has been so hot in the market lately. But using them on social media has been a real challenge that makes many real estate marketers cry out loud! Why? Because of the nature of this media type, which requires specific built-in hosting treatment. That makes virtual tour creators rethink how they can best enable agents to show the tour on social media.

And a simple and profitable answer is: make it video-formatted (.MPV4)! How? Through screen recording. Not to substitute traditional walkthrough videos, screen captures of the actual tours (in .MP4 format) can replicate the touring experience, evoking viewing interests without hosting requirements. 

#Marketer tips: How to use virtual tour video on social media

• Condense your screen record through a brief timelapse. Alternatively, show a stop or two like a preview or a teaser. 
• Feel free to blend in some music or visual appeals in a longer video.
• Post the video and feature a link to the tour in the caption. That makes it easy for interested audiences to find out more. That way, realtors can create some internal engagement that still maximizes exposure for the full tour.

Last thoughts

There you have it, the five beautiful types of content for real estate social media marketing. At the end of the day, it’s important to show the most interesting aspects of a property and your photography company should enable real estate agents to do so.