Written By: Kelly McGuinness, President, United Mortgage, CT. Everyone can read.
Okay friends, last month I discussed the perils of “doing it all” as a mortgage company owner returning to production. I’ve highlighted the obstacles many loan officers struggle with relative to pipeline variances; archeology relative to new lending guidelines; the tendency to babysit loans in process, etc.
Perhaps the most important area I have discussed in my recent articles in the absolute necessity to keep my eye on the ball: new production; protecting my mindset to stay focused on production and commitment to daily rituals that support and force business production activities. This is indeed the “secret” to the success of the country’s top producing loan officers.
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Last month I attended the annual Mortgage Girlfriends event to really explore the marketing phenomenon of social networking. There I met loan originators who were using multiple approaches and systems for developing business through social media. Now, I have to be brutally honest and tell you I am not tech savvy and I really wasn’t clear about the hype surrounding social media.
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I just heard from a loan officer, who attended the mastermind event, just moved to a new state and used Twitter, Facebook and ActiveRain to secure 6 meetings with Realtors! Needless to say, I’m in.
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Here’s how Karen Deis explained the best way for a social media newbie like me, to understand the various social media sites:
- Your website is like a yellow page ad
- Twitter is a party line
- ActiveRain is the Match.com for our industry
- Facebook is a huge cocktail party
- Blogging is “all about you”
So, I decided to launch a new social media site each month and report the results!
Last month I originated 3 loans from my new VA (Veterans lending niche) Facebook page. This happened from inviting friends on Facebook to “like” the VA page. In addition, I originated 2 loans from customer referrals.
It's the simplicity of it that is so enticing to be involved with social media. We set up the VA fan page; we requested that our personal friends "like" it with no special message; it triggered friends/clients who wanted to refinance, to contact us, or other friends/clients to refer us to someone they know who wants to refinance.
All told, I invested $2,400 upfront to build Twitter and Facebook Fan pages. The 3 deals have covered all the expenses within the first 30 days.
Additionally, we met with 2 VA benefit administrators (there are several in CT) in drop-by appointments and discussed the site with them. They all said they are regularly in a position to refer and never knew anyone! We immediately found them on Facebook and requested that they like the VA site. No referrals from them yet, but we're sure they will come.
We aren't coming up very high in the search engines so we have Tracy Close working on that now. We put our brochures, (yes paper!) in VA hospitals and VFW halls. The plan is to drop them off at VFW halls and VA hospitals again around Veterans Day.
Next month I will tackle creating my group, and blogging on ActiveRain. Stay strong and productive this month and I look forward to reporting on my social media experiences next month!
If you would like to get caught up on Kelly's $100K Marathon, here are the previous articles:
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