This information only tends to justify what many of us have assumed; it is too early to spend siginificant amounts of marketing dollars on this media. However, if only small amounts are dedicated, the result can be a steady drip of lost marketing dollars. Marketing in this media still looks a little premature, although steps should be taken to be prepared in case things heat up.

I would disagree with ynic. Social media marketing is viable TODAY when applied correctly. It's about building relationships. I predict that those business owners in the senior market who do not start building their online community relationships today, will spend HUGE amounts of money in a few months trying to play catch up. You can't buy relationships, trust, or credibility. The smart business owner is WELL engaged in online social media marketing, or is paying someone to do it for them correctly.
Valerie VanBooven

Ms. VanBooven,

Interesting response but the stats from Facebook seem to indicate otherwise at least as to FB. While some forms of the social media attract some seniors, it certainly is not the suceess it is with those under 55.

I think most of us know relationships, trust, and credibility cannot be purchased. Forgive us if some of us doubt that significant numbers of seniors will be finding relationships, trust, and credibility in the next few months on the social media. The prediction of "a few months" seems a little optimistic at best, although one never knows.

A single on-line strategy , such as A) setting up a website, or B)joining facebook, in itself, is useless. Remember, Social media is an infant! Building a brand online takes time, and with social media, even longer. The notion is that someone that you know is looking to help a friend by recommending someone they trust to handle a reverse mortgage for them, and as a result of on-line social media, THEY CAN !!!!

EXAMPLE - "DOES ANYONE KNOW SOMEONE WHO CAN ASSIST MY MOM WITH A REVERSE MORTGAGE?"

You can logicallyt assume that a networked person, who is online and active, and TRUSTED by their friends, will be glad to recommend another "friend" online.

The point I make is this - without a proper overall online strategy that uses ALL of the arenas available (including social media), you cannot expect business to pour in! But, as a recent example.....a 56 year old , married to a 65 year old found me on-line and we are writing their loan asap, as they are indeed needy.

And so Kevin, what are you doing to protect the younger spouse, and how did you define "needy"?

Awaiting your response.

I am with VanBooven, but then again I am in my early twenties. With that being said, I have always located seniors using my marketing efforts in the past and I don't see why this would be any different. Look out Social Media, here comes REVERSE MORTGAGES!!!!!!

KidReverse,

No, look out seniors on the social media here comes a guy who can really help you. It is guys like you and Mr. Reichard who will use this media to its highest and best use. For you, guys, delay is your enemy.

For those who understand the media and can exploit it with sweat equity, go for it. It is as you have RELIABLE success that the rest of us will respond. If Ms. VanBooven can present and demonstrate the compelling case that an individual loan officer will find a terrific ROI based on paying cash for services and at the same time paying the price of time in learning the media, then I hope she will do it because every few of us have a full plate. Too many of us saw huge amounts of marketing dollars wasted in the early days of other media, not to be at least reasonably cautious.

How do you calculate ROI for Social Media Marketing Campaigns?:

No marketing program has value that can be measured separately or independently. The value of marketing derives from its ability to help the organization implement its strategy … Marketing programs seldom have a direct impact on financial outcomes such as increased revenues, lowered costs, and higher profits. (Rather,) Marketing affects financial outcomes through chains of cause-and-effect relationships.


The problem with trying to determine ROI for social media is you are trying to put numeric quantities around human interactions and conversations, which are not quantifiable.


Or as David Meerman Scott is fond of saying, "What is the ROI of putting on your pants?"


Some basic objectives to measure include:


•Attention. The amount of traffic to your content for a given period of time. Similar to the standard web metrics of site visits and page/video views.

•Participation. The extent to which users engage with your content in a channel. Think blog comments, Facebook wall posts, YouTube ratings, or widget interactions.

•Authority. A la Technorati, the inbound links to your content - like trackbacks and inbound links to a blog post or sites linking to a YouTube video.

•Influence. The size of the user base subscribed to your content. For blogs, feed or email subscribers; followers on Twitter or Friendfeed; or fans of your Facebook page.

•There's an "x-factor" that comes into play well: Sentiment. The spirit driving user participation matters. The net result of these adds up to a score for social media engagement.

So what's the monetary value of a visit, comment, link, or friend? Well, the only honest answer is "it depends." Only you know how much these interactions matter to your brand, regardless of industry, channel, or competitive results.


(Until) we can measure the impact of a conversation between an employee and a prospect at a coffee shop, it (will be) difficult to measure social media…


What are you trying to accomplish? … (The) trick is to figure out what your goal is first – is it to spread a message among a community? Is it to reduce support costs? Is it to learn from your community? In each of these cases you'll have to then assign the right attributes to measure against.


So, yea, basically it's tough to measure ROI for Social Media. This doesn't mean it is not worth doing! It just means that the justifications that professional marketers will make to qualify for budget are as likely to be anecdotal as analytical/quantifiable.


Lessons?


Know your objectives in advance. Start small, when possible: think "proof of concept." Track the metrics obsessively. Make sure that your interactive marketing efforts are tied to the sales funnel (e.g., your vp of sales ought to be able to determine where most leads are coming from online). Report frequently.


Lather, rinse, repeat.


Here's another look at how to measure ROI for social media marketing:

Budget, not fudge-it

Prior to writing word one, creating app one, or snapping photo one, put in place a budget for measurement. More times than I care to recall, marketers would eschew this as 'cost savings' up front, preferring to "get on with" the creative. Inevitably, someone (CFO, COO, etc.) somewhere else in the organization raises questions (usually just after the initiative begins, or worse – as budgets need slashing) about effectiveness, ROI, accountability. The base investment budgeted before 'the work' begins anticipates this, and puts in place a means for continuous improvement to the content marketing efforts.

Bench 'em

This goes hand-in-hand with both setting objectives and budgeting. Again, before the initiatives are introduced to the marketplace, take a benchmark reading of your planned metrics. Comparing post-effort results with pre-effort marks is valuable for new initiatives to existing efforts and brand-new initiatives alike. Remember, tracking studies compare similar metrics over time, and they have to start sometime. No time like the present.

Old Softie

Legacy efforts, as well as off-line efforts, often look to 'soft measures' to determine effectiveness. Mostly determined by four- through ten-point scale, these softer metrics seek to measure customer self-reported awareness, attitudes, and intention. Traditional thought suggests there is a large enough disconnect between reported intent and actual behavior to render these softer self-reported metrics ineffective; however, the most recent views on the subject find 'reported intention' as a better predictor of brand loyalty when compared to actual behavior – which can suffer from tactical promotions more readily than deep felt intention.




Oh, Behave!

Our digital age provides the opportunity to link actual behavior directly to content marketing efforts. Metrics such as time spent on site, page views per session, repeat visits, and even click-throughs can indicate activity from the result of content marketing. Marketers with ecommerce capabilities can measure the ultimate behavior, transaction, and the role content plays on cross-sell, up-sell, and retention, amongst other metrics.

A Little Experiment

Our forefathers in direct marketing have passed along to us in modern day integrated marketing the building blocks of segmentation, test/control, A/B testing, and other disciplines based in the creation of Experimental Design.

On the most basic of levels, a simple Experimental Design will hypothesize what your Content Marketing Strategy aims to achieve on behalf of the Marcomm objective, then puts in place a test to measure it. Choose a target segment that you believe will be most influenced by your content efforts and test that against a secondary segment. Or take a key segment and randomly separate out a test portion (those who receive the content) and a control portion (those who do not) and measure the effect over time. You'll need the assistance of a data analyst, but will be pleased with the quality of measurement your data will unleash.

It's in the Hole!

While this is a simple primer of a checklist for involving measurement in your content marketing strategies, remember these two key points:

1.Measurement is about planning. And if we fail to plan…..
2.More than simply protecting your investment, measurement is about learning – and applying these learnings toward enhanced engagement and increased results.
Keith Wiegold is Chief Content Evangelist at Nutlug Content Marketing, and creator of C.A.R.E ™, a proprietary strategic framework for Customer Acquisition and Retention through Engagement. He can be reached at keith[at]marketingcontentstrategy.com.

"Mr Eagle"
Please stay on topic - If you'd like to call me out, and even raise a question about my ethics or professionalism, do it in person, my phone number is 877-825-6320. Back to the topic - if you had told the group of us back in 1990 that we'd be sharing ideas and opinions on line with instant feedback, beamed by a satellite directly to the phone in your pocket, many would understandably have their doubts. So, ask your kids and grandkids how many text messages they send a day. Or how facebook has taken over emailing friends. It's all new folks, plain and simple. Analyze away, and in the mean time, some of us will continue to use what is available for our benefit.

"there are three types of people:
those who MAKE IT HAPPEN,
those who WATCH it happen,
and those who wonder ....'what the %#$@ jsut happened!?'"

Mr. Reichard,

Sometimes we “live or die” by our own words. The "Legal Eagle" is simply bringing up some legitimate questions based solely on your comment. You seem to believe that anything less than positive reactions to what you say is a “calling out”.

For example, you point us to your website. If someone reads it and questions you about it, you react by accusing them of doing extensive research on you.

We all can see you are putting in a real marketing effort. You do a really good job with it. The trouble is some of us doubt the substance. You may want to be thought of as an expert in this field and maybe you are; some of us just have “a ways to go” to see that side of you. This is not to say I personally doubt your persistence, hard work, work ethic, dedication, or other considerable qualities; I do not.

As one observer, you have a lot to offer in the area of marketing. There are many of us who could learn a lot from you. Social media marketing is one.

Maybe KidReverse and you can point out things the both of you consider basic, fundamental, and elemental to having a low cost but effective presence in the social media with estimated minimum weekly time commitments. If we are unfamiliar with this media, what would you two suggest we do to accelerate the learning process so that we are at least functional and can gain some presence before investing substantial amounts of time and money with an unknown vendor.

'there are three types of people:
those who MAKE IT HAPPEN,
those who WATCH it happen,
and those who wonder ….’what the %#$@ jsut happened!?’

Kevin, you are always worth a good laugh!

Nice overview, you are right on track. There is currently NOTHING in the world that can challenge the OVERALL power of the internet. If there is something, please let me know and I will get right on it.

KidReverse

Critic,

Here is my advice.... Learn for yourself!

Ha-ha, I don't mean to offend you, but it is a competitive market and I don't give out secrets. You will all have something to compare your online presence to real soon. Keep your eyes open, it won't be long.

However, in answer to your question, it takes tech skills to make it cheap and effective, oh and about 500 hours of labor. Nothing is cheaper than your own labor.

Kid - you will learn that even if you give the "secret" away, very few will have the courage, energy, or work ethic to actually implement and see it through. I share everything, and have seen it time after time. Read Frank Runbaskis, or others, and the 10% rule rings true from their examples as well. Best of luck with your online efforts!

Ms. VanBooven,

As an individual loan officer, your ideas are interesting but provide no tangible evidence to compel one to commit significant (or any) dollars to it. These arguments are not new and were heard in one form or another throughout the dot com era.

As to the silly argument about putting on pants, most gentlemen in this industry would not have many sales without their pants. But as to dollars and time invested in social media, most of them for the foreseeable future will still have almost as many sales with or without it. Not exactly an argument that will induce loan officers to get involved before sales seasonally drop off this summer and at year-end.

Good point Kevin,

This is very true, but I am still not helping :)

Personal Opinion: You share "everything" to market yourself, not to help people. If I am wrong, I am sorry for offending you.

KidReverse,

Your show your youth by how you value your time. As the saying goes: "Youth is wasted on the young."

If you did not give the advice you did, I would doubt its value. Keep up the good work. I look forward to seeing your "work of art." I hope it pays off but then maybe not (LOL).

Have a great weekend!!!

Mr. Reichard,

I am glad to hear your willingness to provide the information. Some will benefit and like you said the vast majority will not; that is what gives Ms. VanBooven her opportunities.

Online presence is something you appear to excel at. Quite frankly keeping a relevant presence is not easy.

Yeah those darn computers are holding me captive! I am sure that when I 60 I will be looking back and saying "why didn't I spend more time in the Bahamas?" Then I will realize that it was all about the paycheck. I envy those trust fund babies :)

Have a great weekend, too!

Critic - I don't mind negative comments, it's making it personal that I have a problem with. John's blog is not the format, in my opinion, for personal attacks or interactions. No one wants to read it, and it is usually irrelevant, as it is in this case. Let's stick to the thread and keep our comments on track!

We were discussing on line social media, I used an example to show that an under 62 year old found me, and the Eagle wants to go in that direction.....(FOR THE RECORD, she has life insurance policy in place to cover the loan in case of the older spouses death, we discussed this at length prior to her counseling....)

So.....next week, I will update my video blog(which you can find on iTunes), and cover building an online brand. You can also find the blog here: http://www.thereversemortgageschool.blogspot.com/ and subscribe. Maybe you are on twitter? ( @thereverseguy )That way, the Critic and others can comment directly to me next time, making personal or not!!

Have a great weekend as well!

Mr. Reichard,

Boy, where to start. It seems appropriate that the Legal Eagle brought this up even if it could have been done more delicately.

I have heard too many in this industry give the very poor advice that if the wife has adequate life insurance, all will be well or at least be taken care of in cases like you describe. I do not know what happened in this case but it gives me the opportunity to bring out some important points.

I read that you discussed this with the wife at length; that is good. Did you advise her or better yet insist that the wife in particular seek the counsel of a legal advisor?

The problem is the wife no longer has any interest in the home. What happens in the case of divorce?

Under applicable state law is the life insurance policy owned by the husband, the wife, or both? Can the husband force the wife out of the home in case of divorce and also cut her off as the beneficiary on the life insurance policy or on his portion if owned jointly?

Does the wife make sufficient income so that if she owns the life insurance policy she will be able to pay for it following divorce? What about "blended" families and implications on inheritance again in case of divorce?

What about the loss of the step up in income tax basis in case the wife dies before the husband? There are so many issues.

Loan officers more so than even counselors who advise on these issues need to have substantial E & O insurance. Even as a CPA with a masters in taxation and with specific training, knowledge, and experience in this area, I always advise borrowers in such situations to seek the advice of a competent and knowledgeable practicing attorney who is experienced in such matters. I hope you do the same and do not treat it lightly.

Too many insurance agents believe that insurance is the answer to all too many problems. It is simply not the case. Life insurance in particular only provides financing to the person who is the beneficiary of record at the time of the insured's passing, who may not necessarily be the wife who was taken off of title even though she may have survived the husband.

Be careful when giving advice. Things are many times far more complicated than they appear. Again I am certainly not accusing you of doing anything inappropriate or wrong but your statement opened the door to bring up the foregoing points.

That’s enough. On the West Coast, it is the start of the weekend and the Lakers are about ready to play. Mr. Reichard, I hope you have a great weekend.

Mr. Reichard,

I look forward to looking at your video blog.

Mr Veale,

You are correct, there are many issues to discuss with ANY potential borrower, especially so when one is going to come off of the title in order to qualify.

Without missing the tip off, I can assure you that a)this particular case involves an incredibly well informed, well protected couple, and b) I NEVER try to advise anyone one way or the other, only recommend that they fully educate and protect themselves! They have covered all of the issues that you point out and then some!

I look forward to discussing this topic further, as it indeed needs to be covered in detail.

http://thereversemortgageschool.blogspot.com/

Blogpost discussing this topic.....as promised!