Industry player on how to handle press, good or bad

One industry player suggests all press about brokers is an opportunity to engage clients; his opinion coming on the heels of what many consider a negative story.

One industry player suggests all press about brokers is an opportunity to engage clients; his opinion coming on the heels of what many consider a negative story.

“I look at anything being reported in the news – good or bad – as an opportunity to educate my clients; our job as mortgage brokers is to market our services,” Jackson Middleton of First Foundation Residential Mortgages told MortgageBrokerNews.ca. “As a marketer, I believe publishing has to become the core competency of our business if we’re going to survive in the future.”

The article, published in MoneySense’s February/March issue entitled “5 things your mortgage broker isn’t telling you,” sparked a heated debate on MortgageBrokerNews between those who felt it was misleading and those who believed it offered some truth about the industry.

Perhaps more interestingly, though, was the conversation it started about how brokers handle press – and the importance of responding in a positive manner.

“Your reaction is speaking for you, regardless of your words (and) I would just advise mortgage brokers to use any opportunity you can, good or bad press, to educate your clients,” Middleton said. “In the digital age that we live in, if I want to find out information, there is pretty much information about everybody; I don’t necessarily care as much about somebody’s message, as to how they respond to something.”

After all, with the prevalence of social media, anyone can share a message that can be seen by anyone in the world.

“This is the age of social media; we are all self-ordained journalists,” Blair Anderson of MortgageResource.ca and Anderson Associates said in the comments section of MortgageBrokerNews.ca. “Share your valuable, front-line, in-the-field, opinions on current issues like this where they get noticed; use your Facebook page, LinkedIn groups, Twitter, Google+ to get your message out.”

Related:

Article misleads public about mortgage brokers