Stephanie Armstrong Speaks on ‘Tremendous’ Branding Opportunity for Industry Members

(Stephanie Armstrong, by Anneliese Mahoney)

NEW YORK–The Mortgage Bankers Association’s mPower networking organization hosted Stephanie Armstrong, CEO of Moxie Creative Studios, at its Secondary and Capital Markets Conference May 19.

Armstrong provides guidance on strategic branding and visibility, and emphasized how the world has shifted over the past few decades, particularly in the era of social media. “Seventy-three percent of first impressions happen online. Before you ever meet them in a board room, before they ever get on a call with you, they’re going online to do their research and make their selections,” she said.

Focusing on LinkedIn, Armstrong noted that she looked at the landscape as she prepared to speak. “I said, ‘My goodness, this industry is one of the most credentialed industries in the country, but almost all of you are completely invisible online,’ ” she stated.

As a result, people who are not necessarily credentialed or qualified are more visible on social media, she explained. “What I found is that 42% of the industry influencers have no relevant credentials to this industry,” she said. “So, this is a tremendous opportunity for this industry to grab ahold of a new way to put yourself in front of the clients you want to close.”

Another big change over recent years, Armstrong said, is that customers are now interested in company leadership–making establishing a personal brand all the more important.

Armstrong walked the crowd through some best practices when it comes to populating LinkedIn profiles, such as ensuring specific descriptions to serve as a “headline,” creating an “authority hook” that describes what problems you solve for customers, presenting a unique value proposition, emphasizing your expertise and making sure you’re posting a few times a week, among other recommendations.

She noted an interesting paradigm when it comes to LinkedIn: The vast majority of users are just lurkers–meaning they scroll through but don’t post or engage. “So what does that mean? That means that LinkedIn is also wildly uncompetitive,” said Armstrong. “You don’t have to be a social media guru to crush it on LinkedIn.”