The hosts of Loan Officer Impact, Kevin Broughton and Ryan Surratt, interview social media expert Rachel B. Lee on using social media to build a personal brand as a loan originator. The hosts acknowledge the challenging market conditions for loan officers in the mortgage industry but note that there are still opportunities for those who are strategic about their efforts. Rachel emphasizes the importance of building a personal brand on social media, which has become increasingly important in the era of COVID-19. She provides tips and strategies for loan officers to use social media to establish themselves as community experts and generate more business.
How COVID-19 Changed the Business
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the use of social media and other online platforms for businesses due to the inability to make in-person connections. The loan officers, lawyers, and investment bankers, also known as consultants, now work from home and rely on powerful platforms such as Google to search for information. People are now less receptive to cold calls, and 90% of a person’s decision is made before they talk to a salesperson because they rely on online searches. Rachel notes that the behavior change that started a decade ago has become necessary in business. People are also more active on social media while working from home, making it a powerful platform for connection and conversation. The author emphasizes that there is only one thing, human-to-human relationships, and social media provides a platform for such relationships. The focus is on creating human relations in an online forum since the ability to make such connections in person is limited. Finally, the author notes that there are specific strategies, dos, and don’ts, to maximize the use of social media for those in sales positions who want to increase their ability to make human connections. Some individuals have a strategic social media platform, while others do not.
Tips on How to Build Your Brand
Rachel B Lee, the founder of Standout Authority, shares tips on how to build a personal brand on social media in a podcast interview. She notes that the first thing to do when building a social media presence is to think about your brand, which is how others see you and how you see yourself. Lee advises people to consider their skills, superpowers, audience, differentiation, and passion. She says that you need to understand what you want people to know about you to be able to put yourself on social media because it will feel inauthentic. To build a personal brand value proposition, she suggests taking the four elements (skills, audience, differentiation, and passion) to help construct a one or two-line sentence to assist you in that process. She uses the formula: “I help x, x who is your audience, x do y, what is it that you help them do, what’s your product or service so they can achieve z, what is the outcome, the benefit, the so what.” Lee also highlights that building a personal brand is not just about social media but also about how you appear in everyday life. Therefore, creating an image and a narrative that showcases who you are, not just the person people see on social media, is essential.
Overall, Lee emphasizes the importance of authenticity when building a personal brand and notes that success is greatly improved if it is wrapped around something other than accentuating your skills, understanding who your audience is, what your differentiator is, and what you’re passionate about.
Thanks for tuning into Loan Officer Impact with Kevin Broughton. Week after week, Kevin interviews some of the Mortgage Industry’s top Loan Officers, Influencers, and Masterminds. Remember to like and subscribe to the podcast. You can find Loan Officer Impact on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and Audible.
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