5 Ways to Utilize LinkedIn in Your Mortgage Marketing Strategy

For Loan Officers, Lenders, and other mortgage marketing professionals, LinkedIn has become a great place to showcase your talents and expertise. LinkedIn profiles are more professional than Facebook profiles, and allow you to include much more in-depth information than a Twitter page.

Whether you are looking to network with fellow mortgage professionals or are looking for new customers, follow these 5 simple steps to make your LinkedIn profile more marketable and help you to grow your business.

1) Determine your business goals.
This is the very first thing you should do before you fill out your LinkedIn profile. Are you a Loan Officer looking to network with other Officers, or are you using LinkedIn in your own mortgage marketing strategy? Think about who you are trying to target on LinkedIn and do your best to make sure the content you include reflects that goal. Try not to make it sound TOO much like a resume (unless of course you are looking for work).

2) Optimize with keywords
After you determine your goals and define your target market, think about the types of keywords they are searching for. Insert these keywords throughout your profile. It is the same basic principle behind optimizing your website. Decide what your main keyword or phrase is going to be based upon the searches of your target market. The profile headline section plays a very big role in determining where you show up in search results, so make sure this contains your most important keyword(s). Then make sure you insert your keywords throughout the rest of your profile including your job descriptions and summaries.

3) Make it relevant
Chances are you’ve had jobs in the past that are totally unrelated to what you want to accomplish with your current goals (see tip #1 above). It might be better to simply take these off of your profile. If someone is searching LinkedIn for mortgage services, your previous job as a restaurateur likely won’t factor into their decision making process.

4) Word of mouth is huge
One of the great things about LinkedIn is the ability for your current and past colleagues to recommend your work. As a mortgage professional, you undoubtedly know how useful testimonials and client recommendations can be in gaining new business. LinkedIn has a great feature that allows you to ask your current connections to help you out and post a recommendation on your page. A great way to receive recommendations is to give them to your connections first, and then ask them for one in return.

5) Show your best side
At the end of the day, one of the best aspects of any social profile is that it allows you to show who you are and allows you to set yourself apart from the many other mortgage marketing professionals out there. So make sure your page shows some of your unique personality by adding a quality profile photo (try and keep it professional!) and write your content with words and phrases that you naturally use. You want potential customers to view you as not only approachable, but real as well.

Are you using LinkedIn in your mortgage marketing strategy? Please comment with your own advice on how it has helped you succeed.