In today’s modern landscape, maintaining an active social media presence is essential for anyone attempting to sustain or grow a business, including mortgage loan officers. However, the increasing number of social media platforms and the growing expectation to post content regularly can be overwhelming to those who are simultaneously handling the primary responsibilities of their business.
Some mortgage brokers attempt to complete their social media related tasks in a piecemeal fashion throughout their day – logging in to all of their social media accounts, posting when they expect to get the most views and engagement, and checking back at a later time to respond to comments and messages.
Attempting to keep up with this persistent cycle while you are also seeking new contacts, communicating with lenders, and working with clients is unsustainable and will decrease your effectiveness by dividing your attention.
One surefire way to keep your social media accounts active and thriving, while also ensuring that you have enough time to actually get your job done, is to automate your social media posts.
The tools of the major social media platforms allow you to create posts ahead of time and schedule them for later publication. You can use these tools to schedule your social media management work around your other responsibilities, rather than having to drop everything and post at whatever times the algorithms tend to privilege.
Additionally, planning your posts and content ahead of time allows you to bring your best to each post, story, image, or video. Posting intermittently throughout a given day may result in half-baked ideas, typos, or other mistakes when you are crunched for time.
Let’s take a look at four great tips for mortgage loan officers to effectively automate social media posts to eliminate tiresome busywork:
Craft Posts to Best Fit the Format of Each Platform
It is unlikely that you will have (or even should have) a presence on every social media platform. There are simply too many to engage with absent of having a full-time social media manager. However, for the platforms you are using, creating posts early and scheduling them ahead of time allows you to create content that takes into account each platform’s unique format.
For instance, messages that are sent out via Twitter will have to fit the 280-character limit that a single Tweet accommodates. If that length seems restrictive, you can always attach a photo or video that includes additional information.
Facebook, on the other hand, is intended for longer-form messaging – allowing 63,206 characters per post. These are only two examples and formatting parameters will vary from platform to platform.
Deliver Content that is Geared Toward the Communication Strengths of Each Platform
Because different platforms require different formats for content, the types of communication and messaging that will be most effective on each platform will vary. When designing content for Instagram or Pinterest, focus on engaging visuals. Photos are only one option. You might also consider creating infographics, videos, or making a sequence of images that detail an impressive client success story.
These first two tips converge, because it is crucial to both choose your messaging and shape that messaging with the format of the relevant platform in mind.
Curate a Range of Content for Each Platform
Automating your social media posts will give you a chance to plan your marketing strategy ahead of time, rather than posting whatever content you have on hand in a given moment. When scheduling your content ahead of time, be sure to alternate the kinds of posts you are publishing on any single platform.
Consider posting a variety of content, such as:
- Images that personalize you as an LO
- Videos of client success stories
- Infographics that simplify the loan process
- Bold text that highlights your accomplishments
If you only post client success stories, for example, you will be missing opportunities to give your audience other important information about specific opportunities or your own personal strengths as a mortgage professional.
Additionally, posting too much of the same type of content is one of the quickest ways to lose the interest of your audience.
Use Engagement Information to Schedule Posts Strategically
Automating your social media posts will allow you to look back over your posting schedule on each platform to help you understand what kinds of content is driving engagement on each platform you use. Having this information can help you take a strategic approach to your upcoming scheduled content, learning from patterns and trends in previous engagement.
Do posting images result in more clicks? Are brand new contacts more likely to reach out as a result of posting an infographic? The answers to questions like these can be incredibly valuable for strengthening your social media marketing reach over time.
BNTouch Mortgage CRM gives you the ability to integrate your social media accounts with your CRM, allowing you to manage your Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter accounts alongside your marketing.
Connect Your Social Accounts to BNTouch Mortgage CRM: Manage Your Social Presence
