The biggest compliant when is ask if a loan originator is doing anything with social media is—“Yeah, I know I need to do it—but can’t seem to find the time!”
What if I could show you the way to not only create and add content to four social media channels and it will only take you 60 to 90 minutes per week to do so? (Check out the Social Media Retreat for Women Loan Originators, May 12 and 13 in Chicago at
In my humble opinion, your target audience should not be consumers, friends and family. Your target audience should be real estate agents and builders.
The top four social media sites (to connect with Realtors and builders) are Active Rain, Facebook Fan Page, Twitter and your personal blog.
Out of the four, Active Rain is the mother lode (of all the social media sites) to not only make connections with loan real estate agents, it’s a way to generate leads. You can also get Google Juice (be on the first page on Google in just one day), and best of all, you can teach your real estate agents how to use it advertise their listings and their expertise.
You only have to spend 30 minutes per week to post twice a week on the site. (
Coming in second place would be your Facebook Fan page. You are limited in the “word count” when you create a post. I suggest that you spend 30 minutes a week, write five Facebook posts at one time, and post your first one at 10 am on Monday; 2 pm on Tuesday; noon on Wednesday; 4 pm on Thursday; and 8 am on Friday. By writing all at the same time, your content will be consistent from day to day and it will take you only a few seconds to cut and paste what you have pre-written.
Third place would be Twitter. Again, you are limited to 140 characters (including spaces); but you can use the content you have already written for your Facebook posts, re-write it and tweet one per day. This should take you about 15 minutes to condense your content from your Facebook posts. The best part, there are services, such as Hoot Suite that will automatically post your tweets on the day and time you set up at the beginning of each week.
Then comes your personal blog. This is the site where you tell your stories. Stories of how you’ve helped someone get a loan, a lesson that you learned and/or a synopsis of a book that you read that might help others. I suggest that you write about 250 words and post it at the same time and on the same day every week. This should take you about 30 minutes.
You might be saying to yourself, "but where do I find content?" That’s the easy part—if you know where to look. Repost what others have said. Update your agents on the current mortgage rules that affect them. Post links to USA Today articles, CNN news stories or local industry updates and make a personal comment why the real estate agent should read it.
Out of the four mentioned above, the top two to initially concentrate on would be Active Rain and Facebook. Then add Twitter within 30 days. Then create your blog. When you sit down once a week to create content, you’ll be able to see the big picture (how you can tie your content together) and spend a minimal amount of time doing so.
If you are a woman loan originator, we are holding a two-day social media retreat with some of the top women loan officers who will show you how to set up your social media sites, where to get content and how to do it all in less than 90 minutes per week. Check
