Thanks to the rapid expansion of social media, getting the word out on the Internet about your company or business is easier than ever and is something that you, or someone in your office, can do for free. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+, among others, are all tools you can use without cost right now to interact with new prospects and existing clients as well as to drive those prospects and clients to your Web site.Click to continue

Your customers are active people that want real-time information about the mortgage market. Social networking allows your company to get your message across quickly, and with easy-to-master tools. Merriam Webster defines social media as “Forms of electronic communication (as Web sites for social networking and micro blogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (as videos).”Click to continue

We love our social media sites for many reasons, but have you noticed how comfortable we all have become with sharing information? The word “transparency” is taking on a whole new meaning. We “share” where we are, what we just did, are doing or about to do. We “share” those impromptu-taken on-the-go pics, we share what we just ate, where we ate and what we thought about it. We even share what we are thinking. You name it; we are “sharing” via social media just about everything under the sun with our online community.Click to continue

The mere act of putting up a social media page does not guarantee traffic. You can create a killer business page on Facebook, post every day and even get some comments—only to find that after months of effort, fewer than 50 people “Like” your page, which has yet to drive any measurable new business. What we stress to our clients is that it is important to build a strong base of followers as quickly as possible, incentivize them to get more people involved and actively engage with them long-term.Click to continue

Just thinking about the term “social media” alone can be a little overwhelming. There is Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc. ... almost every day, something new pops up and with it, a new account to open, new connections to add, someone to friend, tag or pin, pictures to post, advertising to inform the Internet world of your expertise and on and on and on.Click to continue

Each month, National Mortgage Professional Magazine will focus on one of the industry's top players in our "Mortgage Professional of the Month" feature. Our readers are encouraged to contact us by e-mail at newsroom@nmpmediacorp.com to be considered for a future "Mortgage Professional of the Month" feature article.Click to continue

Referrals are the lifeblood of any successful mortgage firm and mortgage professional. Do right by a homebuyer, illustrate expertise in navigating the mortgage system, and credibility is built with the client. “Use my guy,” says the client to family, friends and co-workers. “He really knows his stuff.”Click to continue

Social media and social networking are terms that have blown straight to the top of the list of over-used and over-analyzed techniques to build buzz for businesses in recent years. But why have they become so powerful in today’s marketplace? It’s simple … because they work. Unfortunately, presenting the wrong online persona and using these tactics incorrectly makes it easy to develop a hard-to-reverse negative trend about your brand.Click to continue

You can’t battle a down market with passivity … it will eat you alive, with a side of green beans. You need to get out there and claw for business. The good thing is that if you do just that, the business is still out there. Often when things get bad, businesses react by cutting their marketing budget. You can see why: It saves money, people won’t respond anyway, etc. The problem with that theory is, if you market, people will respond and actually in higher numbers than if the economy was wonderful but why?Click to continue

Welcome back. This is the sixth installment in a series of articles on “Leadership.” Given this month’s article on "communication," it seems an appropriate occasion to communicate a special "thank you" to those of you who have taken the time to e-mail me or send me a LinkedIn message to communicate how much you have enjoyed and benefited from this series of articles. I truly appreciate your encouraging feedback.Click to continue