How social media is changing the world of brokers

[This blog comes from Karen Bennett, Head of Sales and Marketing, Commercial Mortgages] Social media has gone from unheard tech speak to a commonly used component of broker communications.

Shawbrook Bank
24th April 2013
Blogs
Personally, if you had asked me to tweet a couple of years ago, I would have failed to see the business relevance – does it really matter what you had for breakfast? However, social media has evolved and is now a great way to get closer to your contacts. By releasing small sound bites you can give your followers some insight into your business and brings to life the more personal side to your business and team members.  

Shawbrook Bank is active on Twitter (follow us @ShawbrookBank) and we’re always looking at our brokers’ feeds for their news and updates. Ultimately social media is about conversation and relationships, and we ‘talk’ to our brokers about everything from deals they are working on, to their latest completion or what new wild charity stunt they are pulling, which is always guaranteed to raise a smile! It’s a great forum to touch base informally and see how business is going. Feeling up to date with people who are perhaps geographically not very close is also really important.

Of course, nothing is more effective for the team here at Shawbrook than direct communication with our brokers and social media would never replace the strong personal relationships we pride ourselves on having. For us, social media is another way of sharing our news and joining in conversations with the broker community, and other audiences and also ensuring we are staying close to our brokers businesses. Brokers are at the heart of everything we do and taking the time to welcome new starters and express interest in any changes is something that we consider very important.

Broker specific publications, such as Financial Reporter, are also on Twitter and Facebook so brokers and lenders can now engage with them directly and share links of coverage to their followers or friends. We know brokers like a bit of healthy competition so it can be a good way to see what others are doing.

Having a strong social media presence can help build your profile for potential clients – I’ve heard more than one case of clients and brokers connecting and sounding out initial deals over Twitter. Twitter allows brokers to show a bit of the personality behind the business, which can really help if a client is considering a number of different broker options.

Brokers are followed by clients and lenders alike so if you are moving into a new market it is a great place to share the news. It makes people aware of changes you are making without having to actively seek out information. Got a new staff member? Update social media and we all know he or she is now part of the team straight away.

Social media is all about relationships between lenders, brokers, clients and relevant media. There is a great opportunity for brokers to showcase their businesses personality in an informal context and share their news. We, at Shawbrook, really enjoy keeping up to date with our brokers via social media so keep the updates coming!
More like this
Latest from Property Reporter
Latest from Protection Reporter
CLOSE
Subscribe
to our newsletter

Join a community of over 30,000 intermediaries and keep up-to-date with industry news and upcoming events via our newsletter.