November 6, 2018

Social media is at the height of its peak and it keeps growing. Everyone is sharing their personal lives on social media with sites such as: Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and LinkedIn. Even though social media started as a way to connect with your friends and family, it has now become an efficient way for mortgage lenders to market to homebuyers.

Stats, Stats, More Stats

Instagram continues to grow rapidly each year. The photo sharing network has already reached 1 billion monthly active users! For some reference, only a year prior in 2017, Instagram sat at 800 million active users. Instagram looks to add to its success by increasing the amount of users, posts, and activity that happens on a daily basis.  They looked to achieve this by adding their new feature, IGTV. IGTV is a new app feature for watching long-form, vertical video from your favorite Instagram creators and brands. Instagram created IGTV to bring yet another way to connect to the people who inspire you.

There’s good news for your mortgage business too. The photo and video social platform released that 80% of users follow at least one business profile. Through Instagram, another 60% of users learn about new products and services. This makes Instagram a great opportunity for mortgage companies to educate first-time homebuyers.

Business owners are listening to consumers. For that reason, an estimated 71% of US businesses use Instagram. Don’t be a part of the 29% of businesses that do not utilize this essential marketing tool. These brands have chosen to go the way of the dinosaur in their marketing efforts. Take advantage of this amazing platform for your marketing strategy – it is beneficial to mortgage companies and it’s free!

How to Market

When it comes to marketing to potential homebuyers on Instagram, there are different ways to reach your audience with fresh and exciting content.

Stories and Live Video

Use Instagram Stories ads or Live videos to tell your unique brand experiences with homebuyers.

One drawback of Instagram is the platform’s new algorithm. Through its updates, users discovered different methods for using the app that work successfully for reaching their followers. One new feature is that posts are not presented in chronological order, but rather tailored to you based on posts that you would most likely interact with. By using Instagram Live videos and Instagram based advertisements, loan officers and mortgage companies can overcome this barrier. Now more than ever, people are watching video. They are loving it, and they are engaging with it much easier than before. With no surprise, the amount of hours per day watching video has been growing exponentially every year.

Hashtags

Use mortgage industry-related hashtags for people to compare other posts that you have created.

By using housing and mortgage industry-related hashtags you can really help customers and clients sort through different posts. The benefit of using hashtags is that it allows your services and products to be categorized with other similar businesses. These hashtags are also key components behind some of today’s best marketing campaigns. For instance, the hashtag #LoanOfficer has 100,000+ users actively using it today.

Geotagging your content

Tag places in your posts so that people searching those places can discover your content.

Tagging your location can actually make such a difference; even though many people think otherwise. Maddy Osman explains, “Posts with location have 79% more engagement than those without.”  Besides informing people where your mortgage company is located, adding a location gives insight into where your company is and what’s around you for others to see.

Engagement

Engage and interact with your followers through social media. Instagram is not set it and forget it nor one size fits all. You need to stay active with your clients and prospects.

While utilizing Instagram to build your business, being present in the gift economy of the Internet is important. The gift economy concept highlights the importance of returning follows, likes, and comments on other users’ postings. You should never ignore user comments or mentions. They’re going out of their way to talk about you. Give a gift–Receive a gift. This opens doors to more networking!

Knowing all of these Instagram facts are useful, but unless your mortgage company actually goes out and implements these tactics, you won’t be reaching any new clients. Implement these strategies and you will see how much a difference it can make for your mortgage company.