Social Media Best Practices For LinkedIn

Person holding phone looking at social media.

While much of the success of your business comes from getting clients through your door, it also hinges on recruiting top-tier talent, networking with other industry professionals and keeping your skills sharp and in tune with what’s happening in the market.

Social media can help with all of that – but you need to be using the right platform. If your social media strategy doesn’t include LinkedIn, you could be missing out on the other factors that play into the success of your business. If you need to up your LinkedIn game, we’re here to help. Read on to learn more about the networking platform and how it contributes to the success of your business.

What Is LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is a professional networking site where professionals can house their online resume, connect with other professionals, share their knowledge and learn. It’s also a place many go to find a job, recruit others for their business, engage in business-to-business (B2B) marketing and transacting and reach out to business decision-makers. The platform is often referred to as the “Facebook for professionals.” Both individuals and companies can create a LinkedIn profile.

How To Use LinkedIn

While you may not reach many clients from LinkedIn, the site can still contribute to the success of your mortgage business. Here are a few ways you should be using LinkedIn as a loan officer or business owner.

Show Off Your Professional Side

While potential clients may not be actively using LinkedIn, chances are they’ll Google your name. And when they do that, your LinkedIn profile may be one of the first things they come across. Having a polished, up-to-date profile that showcases your experience can be invaluable. For a complete, professional profile, include these elements.

Profile picture: Have a professional photo of you for your profile picture. Clients will want to see you, not your company’s logo. To help instill confidence in your client, make sure it’s a professional headshot or, at the very least, a nice, close-up picture of you smiling.

Name and title: Have your full name and title, so people know they have the right person.

Summary: When it comes to your “About” section, don’t just explain what you do – talk about how your job influences people’s lives for the better. You’re helping people achieve the dream of homeownership. Get creative here.

Experience: The experience section is like a resume. Impress readers with your accomplishments and wealth of experience here. Include numbers if you can. For example, in 2021, you closed # loans or had an average closing of # days.

Skills: In the skills section, expand on that. What skills make you stand out against the competition?

Recommendations: Finally, get at least two recommendations from others you work with in the industry, coworkers or leaders and past clients.

Network With Real Estate Agents And Others In The Industry

Be strategic with your connections on LinkedIn. You should be trying to make meaningful connections, not trying to reach influencer status. Don’t just send out a blast of connection requests to people you don’t know. If too many people reject your request, LinkedIn may think you’re a spam account. Here’s how to be mindful when making connections:

Search for local real estate agents in your area to help build your network.

Connect with thought leaders, partners, people in your company and people who work in other parts of the industry, like Marketing or Technology.

Connect with your Account Executive and other team members from Rocket Pro^SM TPO.

Join groups that match your professional and personal interests and connect with other members.

When you send a request to connect, LinkedIn allows you to add a note. It’s wise to give a quick introduction, how you may have found them and why you think you should connect. This is especially helpful when you’re connecting with someone who doesn’t know you.

Show Off Your Industry Knowledge

LinkedIn allows you to write and publish your own articles right on the site, making it easy to share your expertise and opinions on what’s going on in the housing market and mortgage industry. Take the opportunity to become an authority in the industry, instill confidence in potential clients and partners, and help others in the business grow.

Better yet, if you or your business has a blog, share posts from it on LinkedIn. Not only will you be showing off your industry knowledge, you’ll drive traffic to your site as well. If you’re too busy to write an entire article, post informative content from other resources and insert your thoughts on the topic or your reaction to the writer’s comments when you share it on your profile.

Grow Your Industry Knowledge

There’s always something to learn. Continued education and mortgage broker training will help you develop new skills, stay updated on things like new mortgage guidelines and products and help give you an edge over the competition. Among the many ways you can grow your mortgage knowledge is to seek out education resources on LinkedIn. Here are just a few actions you can take on the platform:

Follow those making waves in the mortgage world
Follow mortgage and real estate publications
Join groups
Follow relevant hashtags
Read the things your connections are posting
Ask for book, podcast and blog recommendations

Find Top Talent

Many businesses use LinkedIn to post job postings and recruit talent. Once you post an opening, LinkedIn will match you with qualified candidates based on your job post, your company and its members’ profiles.

LinkedIn will walk you through the steps of creating a job post. There are easy-to-use templates on the platform, where you’ll add a job description and recommended skills. Then, you’ll add screening questions and choose how to receive applicants. You can even set the job post to automatically filter out those who don’t meet specific, required qualifications. Posting on LinkedIn is free, but you can increase the posting’s visibility by paying to promote it.

When you start getting responses, you can filter your applications and rate applicants to organize the inflow and find the best person for the job. As you rate more applicants a “good fit,” LinkedIn will use that information to find more people like them.

Now that you know what LinkedIn is and how to use it to your benefit, make sure you utilize these tips that will help you be more visible on the platform and provide better user experience.

Use 1 – 3 relevant hashtags in your post. For example: #mortgagebroker #housingmarket #loanofficer

Tag people and businesses in your posts. They may even share your post with their connections.

Use images and video to catch the attention of people scrolling through their newsfeed. Video helps your audience engage with your content more, while both images and video help you share information in an entertaining, easy-to-absorb way.

Engage with others. Like and share their posts. Start a conversation in the comments. You may make even more connections and those you engage with may return the favor. And when people engage with your content, it’s often shared with their connections, giving you even more visibility.

Have a mix of curated, created and promoted content. No one wants to see only posts about you or promoting your company. That means posts you created, posts that promote your business and posts you curate from others in the industry. By sharing others’ posts, you’re adding a mix of ideas to your profile and others may return the favor by sharing something of yours to their connections.