I understand that when homebuyers sign closing documents, they are routinely required to sign a blanket form allowing the lender to access IRS records with no time limit. The form says not to sign it unless dates are specified on the form, but lenders routinely insist they be signed without any specification as to which years of IRS records are covered.

When I have objected, the lender has told me to either sign the form as is or forget about getting a loan. I think this is an outrageous practice and wonder if there are any restrictions on lenders being able to do this. –Barbara

DEAR BARBARA: I personally object to the requirement that lenders impose on potential buyers that they sign IRS Form 4506 authorizing the lender to access the borrower’s tax return from the IRS for possibly an unlimited number of years into the future.

Lenders understandably want to make sure that the information they receive from their potential borrowers is accurate, including the tax returns that the borrower gives the lender during the loan application. Accordingly, lenders want the right to do their own search by asking the IRS to provide those returns. And the IRS will not release anyone’s tax return unless they receive a signed Form 4506.

What is the Ideal Time to Post on Facebook?

 

 

Posting on a Friday at 17:00 and on Sunday at 03:00 on Facebook will produce a different amount of response.

If you are doing social media marketing anyway, you might as well be getting the most out of it, right?

This post is about the best times you can post on Facebook, as well as how you can make sure that a maximum number of people get involved on your post (by either commenting, sharing, or simply liking).

You Got To Love The Weekend!

Posting content on weekends produces the highest mean number of responses (maximum interaction). If you are after comments, shares, and likes, get started from Friday afternoon!

Interactions start dropping after late Sunday night.

Do Something Else on Wednesdays

Use that particular day of the week to do anything but social media marketing. Posting content on a Wednesday generates the minimum amount of interaction (it’s actually below the average for the entire week).

So write content, create more offers, mow the lawn, do anything you want, but do not post anything on Facebook on Wednesdays!

You will notice that big brands actually do it the other way round; they post on Wednesdays while being idle on the weekends. Why? I’m not sure. But it’s probably due to the fact that the social media marketing guys these companies hire don’t work on Saturdays. It’s sad for them, because they are definitely missing out on the sheer number of people who actually use their Facebook on that day.

Variations

Of course, these are just guidelines. They are not set in stone. Actually, different niches have shown to have their own optimum days.

Gardening might convert more on Mondays while Clothing does so on Thursdays.

The only way to know really what works for your niche is to market it everyday for the first couple of weeks, and see what days get the highest response.

People use Facebook at Work

It might seem sensible to post your content at night, when everyone supposedly checks his or her Facebook. But this is not how things work. People mostly spend their time on the social network when they are at work, so you have a better chance of having your post in front of their eyeballs between 09:00 – 19:00.

Max 2 Posts

Don’t be one of those people who just post random stuff a whole day long. You must have noticed that these people do not get a lot of attention and interaction on their profile. This is due to 2 reasons:

• Facebook actually penalizes excessive posting (and they do not appear in people’s newsfeed).
• It’s just plain annoying.

One post per day is awesome. 2 posts is cool. 3 posts starts getting too much in my books.

 It’s Social Media, Not Your WordPress Blog

Give them something long to read often enough, and they will stop reading whatever you post soon!

Keep your content short and to-the-point. The majority of Facebook posts are more than 80 characters long. How do you stand out? By being 80 characters long only or less! Short posts on Facebook receive a high interaction rate.

If you want to share something longer, do that on your blog. And if you want to share that as well, use 80 characters or less telling people why they should read that post on your blog. You will have a better response this way. Social traffic is fast moving traffic.

Ask Questions

Interrogative posts generate a larger amount of comments compared to affirmative posts. This is probably because people want to share knowledge, give feedback, or simply want to be social. You are more likely to respond to a stranger if he asks you “It’s cold, isn’t it?” than if he tells you “It’s cold”.

Use Descriptive URLs

It’s social media. People want to know where they are. If you give post an outbound link, I feel that it’s important for your URL to indicate where it’s going, instead of being random. For example:

Market.com/sale/clothing instead of Market.com/cat=04&pid=298

Use Emoticons

The social audience loves the use of emoticons as well. It is more likely to get involved on your post if you include emoticons in it.

If you do not have the money to shell out for advanced link tracking, you may start out with the basic tracking features of bit.ly, but tracking is definitely something you will want to do at some point to measure your social media marketing efforts.