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Social Media Monitoring - Best Practices for Mortgage Lenders

October 3, 2019 BY MQMR Blogger

Monitoring loan originator (LO) and other employee activity on social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. isn’t just a good idea – it is a must for lenders and financial institutions. In today’s digital age it’s hard to know where to begin. Below are a few best practices you can implement to get you started on the straight and narrow.

  • Develop specific social media policies and procedures (P&Ps) with “do’s and don’ts” for appropriate social media usage and content. The P&Ps (or a summary of the “do’s and don’ts”) should be distributed to staff at least semi-annually and should require corporate review and approval of posts and any other content related to the company. Content requirements should include company and individual LO NMLS numbers, the Equal Housing logo or language, applicable state disclosure requirements and restrictions against using trigger terms without proper disclosure, as well as including false, deceptive or misleading language (this includes superlative terms like “best”, “lowest”, etc.)
  • Include social media in the training program for all new hires, and annually review social media P&Ps (see number 2 above) with all employees, including an attestation that the policy has been read and that the employee understands it and agrees to comply with it.
  • Obtain a list of LOs’ social media presence at the time of hire, and perform an initial target review, as well as periodic follow-up audits.
  • Appoint a qualified individual or individuals responsible for reviewing and managing social media content for the company.
  •  Create a list of trigger words to monitor. Examples include free, best, approve/approval, rate, low/lowest and expert.

The speed, reach and ease of social media make the channel a powerful instrument in a lender’s marketing toolbox and organizations must be mindful of the industry-specific risks social media poses in order to monitor accordingly. While this list is by no means comprehensive, it does establish a baseline to ensure social media risks are being monitored and addressed.