Can you be yourself on social media websites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn?
I sure hope so, because I've made a point of it for quite some time now. So often I see personal facebook pages that seem to display nothing but listings and mortgage loan programs. I'm certain these items are of value to a person's business. I am after all, a partner at LeaderOne Financial Corporation; a mortgage lender. I do post items that I feel will be of importance to my clients, business partners and employees. However, I still have friends out there and social media is a great way to keep in touch! I really don't want to manage more than one Facebook or Twitter account, nor do I want to water down my personality in order to impress the public. So, what is the answer? Sure, I have a business fan page, but I tend to market my office on there completely separate from myself as an originator.
The answer for me is simply to be myself. I think people are aware that we have lives outside of work. I also believe that our friends are aware that we have business lives. There was a point in time that I had "groups" set up on facebook and hid certain posts from friends and others from my business associates. However, I have completely changed that tact. I no longer have my contacts categorized into "friends" and "business". I have decided that I have a unique opportunity. I am not running for public office, so I have no need to be "politically correct". Before the advent of social media, I always made it a point to work with people I like. I am a military veteran and have many friends who are either active duty, retired or prior military. I do a lot of VA loans and can comfortably say that I'm an expert on the topic. I very often post VA Mortgage related articles and they are read by industry professionals and laymen alike. Then again, I'm also a fan of Tosh.0, UFC, NFL Football and College sports. I like to make political commentary as well. I like to laugh and rather enjoy making my friends and family members laugh. I never go too overboard, but I'm not afraid to make a tongue in cheek comment from time to time. I'm simply not afraid for my business associates to know what I'm about outside of the office.
A good friend of mine who is a motivational speaker and CEO of a business consulting firm came up with a theme for this year in business called, "Care Enough To Be Unreasonable". For me this means that being a professional and knowing that I am quite possibly the best option for a mortgage for my friends and family members, I make sure they have the same opportunities to take advantage of my knowledge of the industry as my clients and referral partners. There is a tremendous cost to working with the wrong company. Some friends may not like seeing my business posts and they're free to ignore them. Some business folks may not enjoy my reposts of adult humor, but they can also ignore what they don't like. Some may even "unfriend" me. I think that's okay. We should all strive to play well with others. After all, the real estate and mortgage industry is a smaller sandbox than people would think. However, we spend far too many hours working to not enjoy it.
I truly love what I do and I work very hard to be good at it. I enjoy the people I work with and most of my business relationships ultimately become friendships. I'm not one to sell a bill of goods. What you see is what you get and I'm not going to change that any time soon.
Jeremy P. Stump - Assistant Vice President
LeaderOne Financial Corporation- Colorado
http://www.leader1.com/jeremy-stump
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jpstump
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jeremypaulstump
Business Page: http://www.facebook.com/leaderonecoloradosprings
Comments(30)