Buying a home or refinancing your mortgage is really a very social process. Unlike many financial transactions, buying a home is about the community, the schools, the shopping, the recreation, the neighborhood, the people–it’s all social. That’s why social media for mortgage lenders should be natural, but most of us turn it into math class.
The Internet has never been a more social place. Consumers have gone far beyond simple Google searches and email to find and share mortgage recommendations. Which do you open first? Email or Facebook? Which do you close last before bed?
Details you need about when to buy or refinance, how to get the best mortgage loan, and where to live are now all around you. Your friends, classmates, and co-workers are sharing this kind of information daily–right into your social media streams (i.e., Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and many more).
This is a great opportunity for lenders willing to invest in educating consumers and smart enough to get it flow into social media channels.
Remember the Internet is a huge place. Winning (attracting) homebuyers and homeowners attention can be tough. However, social media can make your mortgage marketing a bit easier.
5 Basic Social Media Strategies for Mortgage Lenders
Social media is a broad term for lots of tools and methods for syndicating Web content. However, the big idea for mortgage social media is getting current, relevant, and interesting mortgage information into the social life streams of your potential mortgage customers.
Here are just a few ideas to get you started…
1. Create Interesting, Shareable Content
It all begins with stuff that’s worth having a conversation about. After all, that’s what effective social media hinges on. Think about what you share. If it’s like the stuff we pass around the office it probably consist of things like:
- Weird pictures - Things that make you say, “Is that real?”
- Funny videos – Things that make you blow milk out your nose
- Blasts from the past – Pictures, videos, music, and articles that take us back in time
- Jokes and parodies – Things that make us take life a little less serious
- News - Stuff that makes us smarter, gives us an edge, or just makes you want to do something
Can you do the same things for mortgages? Sure you can.
- Find an old real estate or mortgage ad with a ridiculous rate. Post it on your blog
- Make a funny video of the “typical” (not you of course) pushy mortgage loan officer. Put it on YouTube
- Grab stuff from the financial and mortgage industry news. Make sure your customers know what’s coming.
2. Develop an Active and Responsive Audience
Audience development is a bit of an art, but it can be your most powerful marketing weapon. Audiences are folks that have followed or connected into your social networks. They have found you, your information, or both to be interesting and important to them. The bigger the audience the more opportunities your messages have to resonant with enough trust, credibility, and relevance to turn into a sale.
Building that audience is about adding value to the existing communities you will draw from to create your personal audience. For mortgage, this could be things like:
- Helping, referring, and giving tips in online industry forums and communities that draw referral partners
- Answering questions and sharing specific lending expertise in social networks for a local market that draws customers
- Pointing someone on Twitter or Facebook to reliable information on short sales, foreclosures, or credit
Done right and in a helpful way…sharing will gain you generate a large audience of trusting sales prospects.
3. Use Twitter for Social Syndication
News outlets have found the power of Twitter. Developing stories, breaking stories, finding sources, tapping into the pulse–it all happens on Twitter.
The secrets to getting the most out of Twitter are really quite simple…
- Tweet out good content - Automate this with Feedburner or Hootsuite
- Tweet consistently - Schedule some tweets. Search and engage personally too
- Follow and interact with influencers - Use Klout or PeerIndex
- RT and get RTs – Engage and it happens
There are tons of other tricks that we will share later, but it all starts with getting started.
4. Use Facebook to Build a Loyal Referral Network
Facebook is the grandaddy of social media. It covers the broadest demographics, commands the largest network, and has a sharing methodology (the Like button) that everyone from your 5 year old child to your 70 year old grandparent can master.
That means you need to have a Facebook Fan Page to go with your mortgage website. You need to get friends, family, clients, and partners to Like it. Then give it lots of personality and attention, not just mortgage stuff. In the Facebook world sharing a wacky video or a funny photo it quite business-like. People expect to see the personality of your company and the people that work there.
Use this non-mortgage content to get Likes and build a bigger audience. Then sprinkle in the mortgage stuff to stay top of mind, ensuring you are there when they are ready to buy a new home or refinance the old one.
5. Don’t Forget Email, It Still Works
Well, we’ve covered the typical social media channels that come to mind. Here’s one that might surprise you…
Build your email list!
It’s still the number one for converting marketing strategy out there. It’s also a winning strategy for gaining a consistent permission-based marketing audience. That simply means a regular flow of sales leads if managed and nurtured properly.
Sign-up for our newsletter to learn more about email marketing for mortgage lending.
Looking for help with your mortgage social media?
Get our Social Media for Mortgage Guidebook or Hire one of our Mortgage Social Media Experts.
Connect with Us