March 27th, 2019

Social media continues to grow each year with new perks on each platform to keep it engaging and fun for all users. Instagram, one of the most popular social media platforms, has over 1 billion monthly active users, and more than 500 million of them use the platform every day. This serves as a great opportunity for mortgage professionals to reach out and engage with prospective homebuyers, ultimately creating a notable online presence for themselves.

Instagram in the Mortgage Industry

Of course, there are different ways to reach prospects on Instagram. One of the most common ways is to have your mortgage company set up a business profile. On Instagram specifically has both business and personal profiles. Using the business profile option lets mortgage professionals run ads to help their business grow. Also, it provides analytics for the company. On the other hand, a personal profile has everything but those two benefits.  When creating a business profile, it would also be a good idea to choose a recognizable and searchable username, paired with a memorable profile photo. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to include a call-to-action in the “bio” section, and include a link to either the company’s homepage, or the loan officer’s branch page. All in all, ensuring that a mortgage company is working off a business profile is critical to their success.

Producing Creative Content that gets Followers Engaged

Sometimes, producing content that stands out can be a challenge, especially within the mortgage industry. Some ways you can create content that engages your viewers is by changing the content often. Instagram allows people/businesses to post pictures, videos, live content and stories. Don’t make all the content mortgage related. People also want to get to know their loan officers. Offering more personable posts can establish trust between the potential buyer and loan officer. For example, here at WebMax we like to share little pieces of what our daily life in the office entails.  This helps in relationship building, and branding the company’s culture. By utilizing these different features you can bring a variety of content to your page.

Instagram Features

Stories

Instagram stories allow users to post photos or videos that disappear after 24 hours, and can’t be viewed after the 24 hour period. In the mortgage industry, it might be beneficial to run an ad or graphic in a story to capture your potential home buyers attention. However, this could also be a personal aspect out of your day.

Live Videos

With live videos, users have the ability to live stream to followers through video. This allows engagement through real time and can be useful if a loan officer wants to connect to a potential homebuyers on a personal level. They even have the opportunity to ask any questions they may have.  Afterall, purchasing a home is a big decision and its important to buy from someone you trust.

Pictures and Video posts

Users can post pictures and or videos to their profile as often as they would like. You can also go back and delete what you posted if need be. Posting content often helps you keep your audience engaged. A profile that is never active is dull and boring and will eventually lose interest of their audience. However, be mindful that your followers don’t see four posts in a row from you as they’re scrolling through their feed.

Overall, Instagram is a growing platform that tends to do best when focusing on a specific demographic. This applies to  mortgage companies as well. Knowing your target audience is extremely important when you’re trying to grow your followers and boost your business organically. Producing content that is relevant to what your viewers want attracts more people to come across your account and possibly give your company a follow. Instagram has proved to be a leading social media platform for influential mortgage professionals, especially when following best practices.

On April 11th, Ashley Gravano, Vice President of Product Solutions at Mortgage Cadence, will be speaking on the topic of Instagram Mastering Social media in the Mortgage Business Half Day Seminar at the 36th Annual Regional Conference of the MBAs located at Harrah’s in Atlantic City, NJ.

Ashley Gravano can be found here online at:

Website:www.mortgagecadence.com
Instagram: @ashleygravano
Twitter: @AshleyGravano
LinkedIn: Ashley Gravano
Facebook: Ashley Gravano