Module 3: Communicating with Mortgage Brokers

Social media has always been a key fascination of mine, ever since 'Nexopia' was launched when I was in junior high. At the University of Alberta, I studied Marketing and graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce degree in 2012. I toyed with Facebook and blogs for a while, but it wasn't until graduating that I really began to realize how powerful of a role social media can play in people's daily lives. My personal social media experience shifted from sporadic Facebook posts, to a blog documenting my travels in Ecuador, and then my presence today—on a number of social media platforms.

Source: Flickr. (Illustrated by Gerardo Obieta.)

I'm currently a Marketing Coordinator at Optimum Mortgage—a division of Canadian Western Bank. Our clients are mortgage brokers, who are looking for lending solutions that will meet their customers' needs. Communications, in general, plays a pivotal role in my daily responsibilities. Some of them are:

• Creating, editing and distributing weekly Optigrams (eNewsletters), to thousands of brokers across Canada. 

• Finding innovative ways to provide product and service messaging at conferences and tradeshows.

• Developing content for editorials, magazine ads, digital ads, and our website. 

More recently, I have convinced our management team to consider social media as another communication tool. Through my own research, I've found that there are many brokers who use social media to connect with their own clients. Every week, I analyze trends in what brokers are discussing. Any trends I see are then used in the creation of our weekly Optigram. 

On November 22, I'm planning to launch Optimum's first Twitter account, which will coincide with the largest Canadian mortgage conference of the year.