How Loan Officers Can Use AI in Their Social Media Strategy in 2024

“I just don’t have time for social media.” – Loan officers not using AI

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a rapidly growing tool for social media marketing. Let’s talk about how you can employ AI to save time, personalize your messaging for your target audience, and boost engagement. 

The Rise of AI in Social Media

AI isn’t new to the mortgage industry – we’ve seen things like desktop underwriting in play for years. However, as the technology improves, its potential grows as well. 

80% of marketers shared that they believe AI will be a game-changer for how they market and win business in the next five years. Not only is AI becoming more user-friendly, it’s also a cost-effective way to analyze data and get to know customers on a deeper level.

The Benefits of AI for Loan Officers on Social Media

We’re already seeing expansive results for loan officers who turn to AI to optimize their social media. Consider these four benefits:

Enhanced targeting and ad segmentation to reach ideal customers

Digging through data is time-consuming. AI can expedite the task by identifying what your ideal customers are looking for, and serving targeted ads to the right market.  

And as we can all guess, when your targeted ads reach the right customers, you’ll see a better ROI.

Automated content creation and curation for efficient posting

The same principles from ad spend apply to your social media content calendar. Say goodbye to writer’s block and hours spent staring at a blank screen.  

Instead, let tools like our integrated ChatGPT caption-generator give you the lift you need to get started.   

AI-generation can also be used to help create lists of content topics, video scripts, and even transform a few bullet points into a blog post. Keep scrolling to view our 6 generative AI prompts for content creation, or save them for future use here.

Real-time customer service through AI chatbots for quicker response times

Your customers come to you with their questions, so make sure you aren’t leaving them hanging (or worse, on read). Send timely, personalized answers to messages using AI chatbots that offer real-time support.

Conversational marketing through AI chatbots offer 24/7 personalized communication that knows your customers’ past queries and future needs in order to deliver the best level of customer service possible – all with the help of AI.

Predictive analytics for better decision-making and strategy optimization

Guide your social media strategy with automatically-generated predictive analytics, perfect for providing you with actionable steps for achieving your goals by analyzing existing metrics.

Understanding AI Technologies

At SocialCoach, we scout out emerging trends and technologies to provide you with cutting-edge resources and tools. Here are some key AI technologies and terminologies (say that five times fast) that are happening right now in the social media landscape.

Machine Learning: You’ve likely heard social media users talk about the algorithm, but how does the algorithm know what users want to see? Machine learning.

Social media platforms are making predictions about the content you’re likely to engage with through machine learning. It does the same thing with your content, analyzing who is most likely to engage and pushing it to the right audience. Machine learning is most beneficial for boosting your ROI on social media posts and ads.

Natural Language Processing: Instead of endlessly scrolling the internet, Natural Language Processing can be programmed to analyze user-created content for you. This is useful for examining the audiences’ feelings about your brand. It can also fine-tune chatbots and better respond to customers’ questions.

Predictive Analytics: Get ahead of trends using Predictive Analytics, a component of AI that allows savvy marketers to identify upcoming trends using knowledge of historical data.

Integrating AI into Your Social Media Strategy

With the booming usage of AI, it can be tough to know how to get started. Consider starting by setting specific goals and determining customer needs, and then working backwards to address those elements through your content.

Next, ask yourself: Which tools will help you reach those goals faster or resolve customer needs in more depth?

For example, if you’re looking to increase your brand awareness using AI, you may ask AI to generate a social media calendar designed to increase brand exposure and write SEO-optimized captions for your posts. (Psst…SocialCoach’s mind-blowing AI integration is specially programmed to assist with writing mortgage-themed captions!)

Best Practices for Using AI in Social Media

We’re energized by the benefits of incorporating AI as a tool. However, AI should be the first step of your process, not a replacement for your content creation process entirely. 

The mortgage industry is a relationship business, and that personal touch can’t be forgotten. Don’t forget that building a community will have a much more significant long-term impact than racking up vanity metrics. 

Our advice? Use AI to create templates, brainstorm ideas, and write first drafts – then tweak it to personalize the content to match your brand and voice.

And of course, especially when it comes to data and accuracy – trust, but verify!

It’s also important to be aware of the ethical considerations of using AI.

For example, using AI to generate images can be controversial, as some AI platforms don’t acquire permission from artists before using their art to train the AI bots.

Using AI for data collection and usage can also be a privacy concern, so it’s important to review company policies and establish your own for your website and social media before trusting AI with client information.

Measuring the Impact of AI on Your Social Media Efforts

When adding AI to your social media strategy, outline your key performance indicators (KPIs). Take a look at a few possible KPIs:

Engagement Metrics: Evaluate your likes, comments, saves, and shares on your social media posts. Your posts’ click-through rate (CTR) can also be a strong metric for determining if your calls to action are performing well.

User Interaction: Are users engaging with your tools? Try implementing an AI chat bot to survey clients using a quality rating at the end of the conversation. Shortened response times are another way to evaluate the impact of your AI, as faster responses can yield happier customers.  

Content Effectiveness: Take a look at your goals and use AI to identify if your content is hitting the mark. Are your ads driving customers to sign up for your webinar? Your video views may have increased, but are they being shared or commented on?

Audience Growth: We’re not here for the vanity metrics, but a growing following is a healthy sign of increased brand awareness and opportunities to attract new eyes. Use AI to monitor growth and segment your followers to optimize targeted content.

Use these KPIs to evaluate your social media effectiveness, make data-driven decisions, and improve user interactions – or use SocialCoach’s activity and engagement analytics to make this even easier!

Challenges and Considerations

With each new advance in technology comes a new set of challenges and considerations.

For example, loan officers take pride in building their businesses on a personal level, which raises the question: Does the use of AI eliminate that personal touch? When done properly, it shouldn’t.  

Tools like our AI-integrated caption generator function are designed to help you maintain that balance of simplifying content creation while maintaining a personalized touch. 

Another consideration for loan officers using AI in their social media marketing is the cost. Like with all business tools, there are upfront costs for the software and on-going maintenance.

If you have a team, you may want to budget for training as well.

Your business will also want to consider the privacy and legal considerations of data collection and compliance requirements ahead of your AI implementation.

(Good thing SocialCoach has compliance filters and a review feed built right in. Handy, right?)

Conclusion

To stay competitive in any market, it’s important for loan officers to incorporate the newest tools and technologies – where and when it makes sense for your business. 

AI offers exciting prospects for mortgage social media marketing by saving time, improving ROI, and upgrading the customer experience.  

SocialCoach is proud to offer cutting-edge technology that is simple to use and simplifies social media management for individual loan officers, brokers, and compliance managers alike. 

Curious if we’re a good fit for you? Click here to get a demo of SocialCoach in action.