3 Social Media Tools No Mortgage Broker Should Be Without (you’ll thank us for them later)

Start 2016 on the right social media foot with these essential timesaving tools.

Did you know that there are now 1.49 billion monthly active Facebook users? That includes a staggering 16 million Australians. And in case you were wondering how many of those actually log on daily, earlier this year, for the first time ever, one billion people used Facebook in a single day.

No business today can to ignore social media. According to Nielsen’s’ Global Online Consumer Survey, there’s at least one good reason why you should grasp its commercial potential: more than two-thirds of consumers say they trust opinions stated online.

If you’re not using social media to connect with consumers, you can bet your competitors are – which means it’ll be them, not you, who consumers turn to for advice when it counts.

The challenge for mortgage brokers, as with any business owner or solo-preneur, is that there is already so much spilling over on your to-do list. How do you invest time into social media to get the results that will make a real difference to your business and the bottom line?

It’s time for you to start thinking about getting automated. There are lots of tools out there that will take your social media activity to the next level, beyond just building ‘likes’, without you having to compromise any hard-earned downtime. In fact, these tools make updating your social media as easy as ordering your morning coffee.

Here are 3 tools we believe no mortgage broker can be without:

Feedly: Discover new and interesting things to share

Let’s say your objective is to make your social media community the place to go to for the latest insights, news, trends and advice. You need to share fresh and relevant content as it happens, on a regular basis. Don’t have the time, desire or skills to produce this content yourself? Feedly is the smart solution.

Feedly is a news aggregator where you can source interesting content and news for your site, all in one place. No need to hunt for it because Feedly brings it to you. You simply search for topics relevant to your clients and let Feedly do the rest.

The beauty of Feedly (other than the fact that it’s completely free) is that you can organise your content into collections. When you’re ready, just tap to share the content to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and more

Hootsuite: Master the art of good timing

Creating and publishing great content can be a lot of work. The good news is there are lots of tools out there designed specifically for that purpose. You simply set and forget. Hootsuite incorporates a number of scheduling tools, including AutoSchedule, which precisely times your social media posts so that they are broadcast at times when they will have maximum impact, and Bulk Schedule where you can set up multiple posts to be published, all at once.

There are paid versions of Hootsuite, but the free version lets you control your different social networks on one dashboard and schedule hundreds of targeted messages easily. You can also link it to Feedly.

IFTTT: Automate everything

IFTTT (If This Then That) is the ultimate time saver. A web-based tool that connects devices, apps and social networks, IFFFT help you automate actions across pretty much anything digital, using “recipes”. The most powerful recipes are “IF” recipes – for example:

If I post a picture on Instagram, then automatically save it to Dropbox
If [competitor] creates a blog post about [subject], then text me
If I post to WordPress, then post it to my Facebook page

You can even create simple conditional triggers that identify key words or statements in emails, and send you an SMS or send out an automated reply.

Finally see a return on investment from social media

Setting up these tools is surprisingly easy. When you’ve got a strategy you can commit to, social media marketing becomes a lot less daunting. It can also greatly improve your chances of transforming ‘likes’ and ‘followers’ into powerful advocates and valuable new clients.

So how do you power up your social media marketing for killer results? Download our free resource guide for essential tips to get the most from Feedly, Hootsuite and IFTTT.