Innovator: Casey Crawford, CEO of New American Mortgage
Recent Innovation: Using social media to build a mortgage business
Why It Matters: Young consumers are using social media and it's turned out to attract borrowers
What's Next: Online reviews via Yelp!
Casey Crawford, the CEO of New American Mortgage, admits that back in 2008 he didn't think much about social media as a way to grow his new business. That indifference changed quickly when one of his new hires tweeted news to her Twitter followers about a drop in interest rates and quickly produced 37 mortgage applications. That got Crawford's attention and he's been building on the power of social media ever since. Today the ex-NFL player's company has 375 employees and expects $50 million in revenue this year based on $1 billion of loan volume.
The Virginia-based lender put its Facebook link on its web landing page more than a year ago as a way to build brand awareness. Today the page has garnered 2,646 likes. There's not much information about interest rates on the Facebook page, but there are quirky, seemingly random posts about poisonous plants, deck makeovers, the kind of place New American is to work and the people who work there. Videos include birthday wishes to employees, co-workers grooving to the car radio, testimonials and some soft selling of real estate.
New American's Twitter page features posts about the company's work with local charities such as Habitat for Humanity and links to articles (e.g. "Check out this article written about us in one of the most respected Banker publications in the country!" referring to our own John Adams' profile of the company last August). This is a trend among banks that have been successful in social media; rather than push marketing messages out, they encourage their social media contact people to inject personality, a sense of fun and local color into their posts.
Crawford's profile page on New American's website links to his own Twitter stream, in which he posts comments about football (Crawford played tight end for the Carolina Panthers), his family, inspirational quotes and very occasionally a Tweet about his company. "Only about 20 percent or so of what you have on Twitter or Facebook should be business," Crawford told us last year.
Despite the light touch - or perhaps because of it - some New American loan officers close four to six loans per month through social media alone, Crawford says; these channels require no large marketing budget and only demand about 20 minutes of a loan officer's time a day. One very effective use of social media for New American Mortgage has been to take pictures at the mortgage closing and post congratulations on Facebook. All the purchaser's friends and family are notified, which prompts a round of congratulations and helps New American build brand awareness. And soon, Crawford says, loan officers will be taking iPads to closings to encourage clients to post immediate reviews of their experience online via Yelp! "It's a powerful shift to build brand awareness through these social networking sites."
Crawford says the company has four social media coordinators on staff with two primary responsibilities: First, make sure the loan officers understand the social networking sites and are connected to the appropriate databases built upon these relationships. Second, the coordinators run training seminars for New American's realtor-partners every day to help develop their own social media strategies.
While conducting business via social media is not widespread-its use as a business tool is growing and is more likely the younger the consumer. According to a 2011 Javelin Strategy & Research survey, 78 percent of all respondents said they would never interact with a bank via social media, but among Millennials that dropped to 57 percent.
