REQUIRED READING: When discussing the new dominance of social media in daily communications, Bob Dorsa is not shy about acknowledging his combined feelings of intrigue and bafflement.
‘It is different than anything I've encountered as a means of communications,’ says Dorsa, president of the American Credit Union Mortgage Association (ACUMA). ‘I get it, but I am still trying to figure out how to use this in a business environment.’
Dorsa is hardly alone in his mixed emotions. As Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and a number of additional online channels play a stronger role in the ebb and flow of daily life, the business world is trying to make sense of how these popular sites can be used for sales, marketing and corporate communications.
For the mortgage banking industry – including its trade associations, vendors and even the federal housing agencies – this new digital environment is requiring a significantly new approach to messaging. This is especially challenging for a relatively conservative industry with little tradition in lacing its corporate communications with a warm and friendly personality.
‘Transparency is the key,’ explains Tyler Osby, branch manager and certified mortgage planner with Fairway Independent Mortgage in Urbandale, Iowa. ‘I don't want to be seen as a mortgage guy who happens to be a human being – I want to be seen as a human being who works in the mortgage business.’
‘My basic belief about social media is that it is best used in any business to engage an audience,’ adds Molly MacDonald, former Internet marketing manager with Shore Mortgage, based in Birmingham, Mich. ‘It is like an actor understanding the power of emotional engagement which comes in the form of entertainment, whereby folks leave feeling informed and inspired and may take action. When those four things come together – engage, inform, entertain, inspire – one creates opportunity, which can further the relationship, result in a sale of a product or service, or an action taken.’
Anthony Demangone, vice president at the National Association of Federal Credit Unions (NAFCU), believes that some entities are reluctant to give away too much of themselves via social media. He recalls that when NAFCU initially launched its compliance blog, there was a fear that the organization was making a business mistake.
‘At the time we did it, some people were nervous that we were giving away information because the blog is free,’ he recalls. ‘But we have seen the complete opposite: New people who didn't know we existed have us as part of their regular workday.’
Even more jolting to some people is the sense of vibrant – and, often, unpredictable – engagement that arises in the social media communications process.
‘The words 'control' and 'social media' don't go together,’ says Eileen Coleman, Web management officer with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Video outreach
Unlike traditional marketing and public relations strategies, social media endeavors can be launched with minimal expense and staff. Griffen Hock, chairman and CEO of Troy, Mich.-based Berkshire Capital, does triple duty as the star, cinematographer and distributor of his YouTube video commentary series on mortgage banking issues.
‘It is as simple as using a Flip video camera,’ says Hock. ‘In the beginning, it took a while, but once I practiced, I was able to get good at. Most of the time, I can do the videos in one take.’
A somewhat larger operation is maintained by the Independent Community Bankers Association (ICBA), which has set up an in-house studio for its video productions. According to Chris Lorence, ICBA's chief marketing officer, YouTube offers the association the best platform for getting its message out.
‘Videos are difficult to e-mail, so this is the easiest and most efficient way to get out a promotional video for bankers to download and use on their own,’ says Lorence. ‘And if an issue arises, one of our staff experts can come into our studio, and we can shoot a video.’
ACUMA is also following this route to get its message out. ‘I went to YouTube to post Realtor-related clips,’ recalls Dorsa. ‘I can take my iPhone, make a few minutes' worth of video and upload it to YouTube.’
But for some people, using YouTube strictly for business-focused videos seems like a contradiction, especially in view of the site's history as the launching platform for zany viral videos.
‘You cannot just put out stuffy videos – it is YouTube, and that won't work,’ says HUD's Coleman, who notes that her department strives to inject humor into its online video offerings.
One of the more notable recent examples of injecting humor into a mortgage industry video belongs to Rockville, Md.-based Coester Appraisal Group, which heralded the return from retirement of founder Tim Coester.
‘My Dad wanted to come and start working again, and he said that he's coming back like Rocky did,’ recalls Brian Coester, CEO of Coester Appraisal Group, referring to the classic 1976 film. ‘We joked about doing it.’
Coester, working with Lansdale, Pa.-based Branded Productions, took the joke to life with a video parody that placed the elder Coester in a Rocky-worthy workout regimen, complete with a triumphant run up the stairs of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
‘We woke up at 2:30 a.m. on a Saturday and drove to Philly,’ continues Coester. ‘We got there around 6:00 a.m., as the sun was rising, and had a blast for about two hours making the video. It's just a fun way of welcoming someone back.’
Coester, who has been on YouTube for two years with a series of informational videos, is comfortable with the medium's ability to mix serious messaging with levity.
‘We use YouTube as an outlet – or, really a feed – to get educational information out to the mortgage and appraisal community,’ he says. ‘It has never been so simple to just create something and share it with the world. We like to have fun with our videos, but we also like to create something of value where the viewer can be amused by some and educated by others.’
Finding a niche
While it appears that everyone is migrating to social media, some sites might offer wider audiences than others. Sylvia Kains, chief operating officer for San Jose, Calif.-based AppraisalWorld, learned just that when her company began planning its social media strategy last year.
‘We did a survey of our customers to see how we could better reach and interact with them,’ she says, adding that the company was initially unsure of whether Facebook or Twitter would be more efficient. Kains' survey found that AppraisalWorld's customers preferred Facebook, and the company set up a page that served as a communications portal featuring product releases and news announcements.
‘It was originally used for one-way communications,’ Kains continues. ‘But then, we started to see some interaction on Facebook. People began to ask questions, and not necessarily related to what we put out on Facebook. We then began to use Facebook for customer satisfaction and support, and we are even using it as a tech support tool on products that may not work.’
Embrace Home Loans took to Facebook with even greater depth: The Providence, R.I.-based lender has created Facebook pages for each of its 18 branches.
‘We wanted the individual branches to develop their own local personality,’ explains Chip Leakas, social media coordinator for Embrace Home Loans. ‘On these pages, the local loan officers would be featured each weak, and the individual branches would be able to have their own different focus and local flavor.’
As a communications tool, Twitter offers a greater challenge of getting across a message that cannot exceed 140 text characters. Osby finds that this actually encourages a greater sense of intimacy among those who follow a particular Twitter channel.
‘I've had a lot of success on Twitter – I've built my own clique of people with whom I have been able to gain trust and respect,’ he says. ‘If you're an outsider and try to act like a Twitter user, you're immediately rejected.’
Yet Osby notes that for pure business-to-business interaction, LinkedIn is a required social media outlet.
‘I am a very big believer [in LinkedIn],’ he says. ‘My LinkedIn profile has lots of testimonials, and those are very good for selling my services. I am very strict on who I connect with on LinkedIn – I have personally met and I am 100 percent comfortable with those connections.’
On the other end of the spectrum is HUD's example of creating its own wiki in 2010 to gain public feedback on a Notice of Funding Availability for the Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant Program. The wiki, called Starting Point, currently has 360 registered users and, according to Coleman, was encouraged by HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan.
‘It has been very well received,’ she says. ‘We have gotten a lot of feedback, and we have allowed followers to edit any entry.’
Before you set forth�
According to Gregory Kohs, a Philadelphia-based consultant who works with companies on wiki-based projects, this aspect of social media can require extra levels of maintenance.
‘A financial services firm or a government agency seeking to crowd-source the difficult task of information aggregation might be better served by copying the Wikipedia model and simply creating a custom-tailored wiki of their own,’ says Kohs. ‘A word of caution, though, to any enterprise opening up a wiki to the crowd: Either have ample staffing to monitor the spam and vandalism that will appear, or institute sufficient identity checks – such as e-mail verification – to opt in, and captcha tools to confirm human editors. Otherwise, your wiki will begin to look like a junkyard.’
Coleman says this is also necessary for HUD's wiki. ‘It is monitored very carefully on a daily basis,’ she says. ‘Spam and foul language are immediately removed.’
Indeed, social media is not without its potholes. James Brooks, director of product management at Cyveillance, based in Arlington, Va., warns that there is a darker side to this realm.
‘Security concerns run the gamut,’ he says. ‘There is the social engineering aspect, where individuals can pose as other individuals. There are also numerous ways to use phishing and malware attacks, or hack someone else's account. These sites create an environment for these attacks to occur.’
There is also a need to stay focused on a consistent message. Demangone at NAFCU believes that inconsistent or vague messaging will ruin outreach efforts.
‘You need to know your audience and stay true to it,’ he says. ‘I have seen blogs where I don't know what the focus is.’
But that is assuming that the target audience can access the social media sites. ICBA's Lorence found that out the hard way.
‘We did a member poll and found the majority our banks block YouTube at their bank offices,’ he says. ‘Other than the bank leadership, no one in the banks can see our see our videos. So we have to host our YouTube channel on our website to allow our banks to watch them.’
The situation is also similar among credit unions. ‘A lot of credit unions have IT protections that you cannot penetrate with anything except a bland e-mail,’ says ACUMA's Dorsa.
Dorsa adds that social media outreach is not a fad and will need to be a part of every company's sales and marketing program.
‘Either we understand and embrace it, or we hire some younger guy to do this for us,’ he says.
