The Liars and the Lying Lies They Lie About

As part of my job as Founder / CEO, I’m always looking at our competition. I think it’s a healthy (and unhealthy) thing that you must do as a business owner. It’s also a marketing fundamental. I mean, you need to know what other options your potential customers have so you know where you stack up—that’s the healthy part. The unhealthy part is that it a) causes you to play the comparison game, which is never good, and b) it can make you really mad.

Today, the latter of the two happened to me. There are a number of companies out there who will post to your social media accounts on your behalf. Busy and non-tech savvy professionals like you love it because you don’t have to do anything. You just sign in and you’re done! They make claims like, “we’ll post stuff while you sleep and leads will start coming in.” But it’s all lies! Here’s why.

My Brief Social Media Soapbox

Now, some of you might be thinking, “But Cody, YOUR company does that, too! Does that make you a liar?” While we do help with social media, there is one critical difference in our approach: we don’t take you out of the equation.

You see the problem with claims like the one I mentioned in the intro is that they’re lies! They’re promising you something that, in all honesty, ain’t gonna happen.

Now I am NOT saying that social media doesn’t work for getting more business. Social media can keep you in touch with your past clients and it can spread your name across their spheres as well, resulting in new connections and new conversations.

But it takes a lot of work, a personal touch, and a unique approach.

It doesn’t happen from re-posting links you find around the web and it certainly doesn’t happen without any involvement from you! Because there’s one thing I want you to remember about social media:

Social Media is SOCIAL!

It’s Like a Cocktail Party Online

I was attending a happy hour last month with a group of Realtors here in Portland, and one Realtor made the analogy (which I’ve used before and LOVE) that social media is like a cocktail party. You’re not going to close a sale at the party, but it’s a great way to meet new people, get to know what makes them tick, tell them a little about you, then agree to keep in touch. It’s the start of a conversation which, in time, leads to a sale.

You’d never bust into a cocktail party and ask, “Who here wants a loan?” You would never send someone else to a cocktail party to do your mingling for you (how would that even work?). You should never show up to the party and only talk about yourself the entire time, because yawnfest! Remember, people love to talk about themselves, so the best thing you can do is listen and contribute when you can.

Social media is the same damn thing. You can’t pawn all of your social media off on someone else and expect it to work. People want to meet, see, and get to know you. They want you to meet, see, and get to know them.

Our Clients’ Most Successful Posts

By far, bar none, the BEST posts that provide our clients with the most engagement, reach, and satisfaction are posts that have to do with them, their clients, and their business. They are posts that apply only to them, not the things that are recycled or thrown together from around the web.

They are things like Carol Flanagan’s Voodoo Donut giveaway:

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Or Graystone Mortgage’s Loan Officer Spotlights:

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Which, by the way, had a post reach of 637. Here’s the screenshot to prove it:

Graystone Mortgage Loan Officer Spotlight

And this client closing photo from Brent Roy in Bellevue, WA:

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Don’t Forget to Be Social

As you can see, social media posts that perform the best are the ones that are social in nature. They have to do with you, your clients, and your business. It’s content that they won’t see anywhere else, because it’s personal. You’re sharing your successes and sharing in your clients’ happiest moments. You’re allowing your clients and friends, and their friends, to revel in your success and the good times of those you help.

So, the next time you want to sign up for a service that guarantees you overnight success on social media without you having to lift a finger, take a second look at it first. Ask yourself, “is this really what my clients want to see? If I weren’t in mortgage, would I want to see this from my Loan Originator?”

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