trade body, we spent a long time on whether we should get involved but decided to be an early mover and then there was a lot of caution over how to do it which is why the CML has never had a blog. If you’re a press office your audience
is anyone in theory but you don’t want to have an engagement with 11 million borrowers so you aren’t necessarily inviting reactions, you’re giving statements out from a central body point of view. So again what is the purpose, you have to understand and measure that in terms of feedback. DJ: The way you’re actually getting the 140 characters over to somebody, it could come out all completely and utterly wrong. So you’ve got to be so careful about what you write and how you write it. It’s really difficult to express. KT: I think that’s a key point. Without social media platforms we’ve got now, how often would you pick up the phones to one another or communicate with one another. The answer is far less often. You and I speak daily, but I’ve never met you till today. It’s a classic example of how it works so well.
SD: iS it a FaD or Will the role oF Social meDia get more anD more imPortant? JK: It’s not a fad, at the moment it’s definitely underutilised. We’ve got to get over the barrier of what it’s there for and the benefits from a business perspective because at the moment it’s still seen as a very personal tool for communicating with your friends. SL: I think if you look at the age segmentation that could come into this. Age 55s, they aren’t being served properly for what they want out of these things and
that’s going to explode over the next 12 months. LK: That said Facebook lost 100,000 people over the month. AM: To Twitter. LK: There’s a lot going on saying don’t rely on Twitter or any social media, they all have a lifespan. AM: Facebook is on its way but it’s been there, done that. It lost six million people in America alone to Friends Reunited. Twitter was nowhere a couple of years ago. MC: Use of media will increase for business purposes. If you use social media for business purposes, it will be a fad because it won’t work.
SL: Our industry talks about educating the consumer. I think really what we mean by that is engagement. This kind of vehicle is the best way currently to engage with the consumer. MS: It’s the best way for businesses to learn from consumers ironically. We can sit here and talk about how we need to educate consumers but using Twitter, it’s the other way around, the consumer can teach a business. MR: I think if you look at my 20-year-old daughter and the way she embraces social media, she just does it. My son’s 18 and he’s the same. It’s just there and they use it.
SD: iF there’S one thing broKerS ShoulD be taKing aWay From thiS DiScuSSion, What iS it? JK: Just do it and embrace it. LK: I’d say the same thing. MS: The smaller the business, the more they’ll get out of it. MCall: Start listening. AH: Be open-minded, listen. I’d say don’t get too hung up if you decide it’s not for you. For some people it’s not going to be right for them. If you feel you’re getting into it just because everyone else is getting into it that’s where it becomes the emperor’s new clothes because everyone is doing it. DJ: The problem is though, are we going to have a route where in two or three year’s time, we’re not going to talk to each other and it’s all going to be done on social media? AB: I think it’s made me have more real conversations over actual physical conversations not less. JK: For brokers expecting to get business from word of mouth, they should be integrating social media. n
All the best Tweets @mortgagechat mortgage introducer JUNE 2011 45
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