For months now, I’ve been hearing how Periscope is the best thing that ever came along for people like me to build their businesses.

In case you didn’t know, I’m a real estate agent, selling homes in the St. Louis area. I continually need to find new clients who will hire me to list their home or help them buy a new home.

I’ve been dabbling in video for years but never stuck with doing video on a regular basis. When I first heard about Periscope, I immediately thought of ways I could use it to connect with potential new clients. I like the idea of being an early adopter, one of the first real estate agents in St. Louis on a new social network.

It’s what I did on Twitter. It really helped me get noticed before tons of agents jumped onto Twitter.

Periscope for Real Estate:

If you aren’t familiar with Periscope, it’s a new live streaming social network. Using your smartphone, you can easily start recording a video. People watching can talk to you by leaving comments. They can also give you hearts to let you know they like what you are doing.

I keep going back and forth about using Periscope because I know it can work. Periscope is a great way to show my real estate expertise by offering tips. I can also build a following by sharing local information – restaurants, parks, festivals, businesses.

If you want to see how a real estate agent can use Periscope well, you should watch Sonia Figueroa in Chicago.

Sonia both showcases Chicago locations and gives real estate tips, plus does a great job interacting with people. She is building relationships exactly the way Katie Lance said you should in this Periscope video.

But something kept holding me back.

Every time I watch a Periscope and see the person recording talking to the people in the chat, then watch a flurry of hearts float by, it just doesn’t feel like me.

Gary Vaynerchuck Convinced Me NOT to Do Periscope:

Given the potential upside for using Periscope, why would I decide not to use it to build my real estate business?

Honestly, because I would be bad at it.

I just finished watching this Gary Vaynerchuck video about being self aware and focusing on your strengths, and now I understand why my gut reaction to Periscope is that it isn’t for me.

Gary talks about identifying what you are good at and what you are bad at.

What I’m Good At:

1. Understanding how to use social media networks for real estate in a way that isn’t spammy.
2. Understanding the complex details in the real estate process.
3. Putting my clients needs ahead of my own.

What I’m Bad At:

1. Fostering relationships.
2. Doing repetitive things over and over.
3. Following a structured schedule and time blocking for tasks.

Why Periscope Isn’t For Me:

If I’m going to be successful at Periscope as a tool for building my business, I would need to do these things that I just don’t see myself doing.

1. Create daily Periscope videos, at least at the beginning.
2. Before I start a video, plan a time for it in the future and promote it on Twitter so I actually have people watching and commenting.
3. Talk to the people who are watching live while I’m taping (very hard for me as I have a hard time reading the comments on my phone, and Persicope can’t be created on a computer).
4. Follow up with the people who watch live and posted comments to foster a relationship with them.
5. Watch other people’s Periscope videos and comment/give them hearts so they notice me.
6. Slowly push out each video the week after creation to all of my other social channels. Plus write a blog post about it.
7. Edit out portions of the video and repurpose that content for more ways to get noticed on my other social channels.

Doing it right feels like a full time job. 

Instead, I see my self popping into Periscope after I’ve arrived somewhere and get the inspiration to make a video. Without any pre-promotion, no one will be watching. And the few people who are watching will likely not be in St. Louis.

After I finish, I think I would push out the replay immediately to a few social channels and maybe make a blog post about it, but then I would move on. I wouldn’t take advantage of all of the opportunities I could use. Plus, I would hesitate to use these casual videos with me chatting with people making comments. I’m more of a “get to the point” type of person.

How I DO Plan to Use Video:

While I don’t think Periscope is a good way for me to use my time to build my business, I do still believe in video as a business builder.

I could still make videos about the places I visit around town. I could still make videos with real estate tips like the one I made years ago about shopping for homes in the rain.

But instead of making these videos on a live streaming network like Periscope, I can make a traditional video and upload it to YouTube. I can also upload it directly to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn.

I do think live steaming is perfect for interviews, and have a couple of video interview series planned.

In one series, I plan to interview people about where they live in St. Louis.

I also want to interview other professionals to delve into issues that come up throughout the real estate process.

Video taping interviews are perfect for Blab, another new live steaming video network.

On Blab, I can pop into another person’s video or contribute to the conversation with quality comments. I can build a follower base by joining in rather than always being the person who starts the video. It’s also really easy to use Blab, and makes interviewing people easy.

What Do You Think?

Are you using video marketing? Periscope? Blab?