The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) issued a notice regarding final guidance for activities conducted through social media by banks, savings associations, and credit unions, as well as nonbank entities supervised by the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (CFPB). This is effective immediately and the final guidance document is linked below.
FFIEC Issues Notice Regarding Final Guidance on Social Media
Social Media can complicate things for Banks.
Do your ads use endorsements or testimonials? The FTC’s endorsement guidesestablish guidelines for advertisers.
In an effort to make themselves more relevant, Title Companies are offering document storage and communication platforms for agents and loan officers to use. I understand why they are doing it but if you take a step back it does not make much sense for real estate professionals to utilize these services.
In order for this to be effective you would need to use the same title company on every deal. What are the odds of you using the same title company on every deal? According to ALTA (American Land Title Association) there are at least 15 in Las Vegas that only has a population of 596,424 people according to the 2012 census. The amount of title companies is staggering in larger populations. You would need to manage multiple title company systems on top of already having to manage multiple customers, transactions, vendors, and communications. The other issue is that the title company is introduced later in the transaction for their systems to be useful. As a loan officer and agent you need to keep all of you correspondence for auditing purposes. Have two sets of records does not make much sense and the FTC now requires you to have encrypted email. Making many email services obsolete.
So what are you to do?
You need to find a system that that you control and manages your correspondence, transactions, documents, and signatures. You need a system that is yours and you can keep records all in one spot. This will give you the independence you need to operate in this ever changing environment. This will save you from using multiple systems at one time and possible loosing your mind in the process. There will only be more regulations in the future and you need to adapt now. These type of systems are becoming the wave of the future. Become an early adopter and cover yourself and give your clients the type of experience they deserve.
Today’s clients are looking for product that differentiates from the rest of the pack. If this were not true then the everyone would have the same phone, car, or house. We would all wear beige clothes, drive practical nondescript cars, and have black generic phones. Would you settle for that kind of product? Why should you clients? Like it or not, you are a product.
MBA Online has an incredible infographic that shows what happens in one day on the internet and the numbers are staggering.
Once you see this data you will see why you must differentiate yourself or die in this internet age. Social Media, online marketing, and digital tools for your clients is not for everyone, but the ones who do it well will thrive.
In one day:
Enough information is shared to fill 168 MILLION DVD’s.
294 BILLION emails are sent.
2 MILLION blog posts are written. (This post is one of 2 million just for today)
172 MILLION different people visit Facebook.
40 MILLION visit Twitter.
22 MILLION visit LinkedIn.
20 MILLION visit Google+.
17 MILLION visit Pintrest.
4.7 BILLION minutes are spent on Facebook.
532 MILLION status are updated.
250 MILLION photos are uploaded to Facebook.
22 MILLION hours are watched on Nextflix.
You get the point. Visit MBAOnline to see this powerful image.
Watch the video to see how a start-up company had an incredible idea for a business and how they got the message out. After you watch the video think about how this may inspire your marketing efforts. This video had over 555,000 views in 2 days and it was posted on YouTube March 5, 2012.
Now it has over 12 million!
Mike from DollarShaveClub.com you are a genius. Enjoy the video. Please leave some thoughts.
Go out and hustle
Actually doing the work is easier that looking like you are doing the work.
This is the time of year where we need to be reminded that what we today will help us tomorrow. Many people fall flat for the first two months of the year, because of what they didn’t do for the last two months of the year.
There are many people who have wondered why the Law of Attraction isn’t working for them. I know may in the industry who subscribe to this philosophy. Here they are with their goals all nicely worked out, their vision board beautifully made up with amazing pictures, poetry, even some multimedia bits. Yet nothing has come about.
One can plan, one can write strategies and one can draw the best charts that anybody has seen before. But if you do not take any action towards your goals you will not reach them.
Your affirmations open your mind to what can be done. Your visualizations let you work out how your holidays will look and how you will feel while in that picture. But if the good ideas you get to actually make these dreams become a reality are not acted upon you are going nowhere.
When you take action, things start to happen. If you attend a course you need so that your career will progress you could end up meeting students or lecturers who could help you further.
Taking action to go on that dream holiday could mean saving money, learning a bit of the language that the people speak in your holiday spot. You could meet people who give you advice on how to travel for less money.
You want that special car? You might end up working over the weekends as well. You hope to graduate with honors, then start teaching other students. Nothing is quite as good for revision than having to know enough to teach somebody else.
You want to take part in a marathon and get fitter? Check out the details of a running club and join this week. It doesn’t matter if you can’t afford those expensive running shoes as yet. Go and run in your old sneakers.
Start towards your goal by actually taking the first steps and doing something. Get the journey started. To get the success you hope for yourself, take the same action as other successful people in your field have taken.
If you want to start earning some money as a real estate internet marketer then read what other internet marketers are doing. Are they setting up a blog? Then start on one yourself. Do you need to research for relevant keywords? Then that is what you need to do. And the list goes on.
Follow the path that successful people have taken and make it your own. Create your own plan and take action. That is take physical action, don’t just imagine the action. Write an e-mail, introduce yourself to an important person in your field, sign up to a course, write your first article for your new blog.
Whatever it is, do it. Regrettably in life, nothing will happen if you don’t take action. No amount of recorded motivational speaking will get you to your goal. No hours of visualization will get you your new car. No hours of reading other people’s success stories will make you successful.
Take action. Make that first move. Do the very first thing that you have noted in your action plan. And then take the next step and the next. Eventually moving along will have its own dynamics, and you will find yourself moving along steadily and surely towards your goal. Just do it!
Now go out and hustle
We posed the question “What is communication?” This is not it. You will either die laughing or get a head ache. Enjoy!
Simple question for you.
What is communication?
CoreLogic Market Pulse report October 2013
Price-to-income ratio continues to increase.
Social media marketing is still relatively new. Even though Facebook and Twitter have been around for a few years, few real estate industry professionals understand how to tap into the vast marketing potential on these sites. The key is in the name. These sites are “social.” You have to treat them as such.
The Secret To Social Marketing
The secret to social marketing is simple (in theory): you have to be social with your market. You have to engage them without pitching products and services to them. This means setting up a fan page on Facebook that doesn’t sell products and services. Instead, the fan page shares stories or interesting ideas with your potential customers. Social media is not the place to pepper them with a sales messages. In fact, you might drive them away if you do.
Offer Free Bonuses
Give away coupons for discounted services or products from a local company, but don’t ask customers to buy anything. Just post up a coupon nonchalantly on your fan page or via Twitter. Give away free informational reports and white papers without asking your potential customers to sign up for any kind of mailing list. You’ll dumbfound them, but they’ll be impressed.
Post Video
Post a video of yourself talking about a variety of subjects related to your business. Try to make your services relevant to your customer base. You’re not going to appeal to everyone, but you will appeal to some and those are the people who will eventually become your customers. Video is also very engaging. If you post up a video, and put yourself in front of the camera, you suddenly become a real person. Over time, people get a “feel” for your personality and may become more comfortable doing business with you. You’re not just words on a screen.
Resist The Urge To Do Stupid Things
There are some rather ineffective marketing strategies making the rounds on sites like Facebook and Twitter. Buying “likes” on Facebook, for example. Buying tweets is also popular. Don’t do this. You will eventually be found out by your fans. When they find out, you’ll look completely phony and you’ll lose them. Part of being social is being genuine.
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