Loan Officers' Social Media Checklist: Best Practices to Help Build Your Brand

May 14, 2024

Loan Officer, Default Manager, Mortgage Insurance, Origination, Sales Tools

Loan Officers' Social Media Checklist: Best Practices to Help Build Your Brand

Social media offers a unique opportunity to connect with potential borrowers and business professionals, build your brand, and establish yourself as a trusted and reliable authority in the mortgage industry. However, building a strong social media presence requires more than just posting content. It's important to have a solid plan and foundation in place to ensure that your social media efforts are effective. This can include fully developing your social profiles, creating a content strategy, identifying your target audience, and selecting the right social media platforms to reach your audience. Additionally, it can be crucial to maintain a professional and consistent brand image across all social media platforms.

By taking the time to establish a strong social media presence, loan officers can build their reputation, attract new clients, and create lasting relationships with borrowers. Check out the checklists below to help optimize your profiles and posting strategies:

General Checklist

Use your registered business name
Professional photo of yourself
Short bio including your business, experience, location, and registered contact information and any applicable licensing information
Other relevant information
- LinkedIn Resume, Skills, any industry required disclosure information

Do you have a professional profile picture and cover photo that is simple and easily recognizable? (e.g.- includes your company logo)
Do you have a great headline?
- It is often used for current job titles but you can also add more detail like strengths, skills or what you’ve accomplished
Do you have a Summary?
- You can use the LinkedIn summary to tell your story. This will help colleagues and possible professional connections get a glimpse at who you are, how you are positioned professionally, and/or your future plans.
Ensure your Location is accurate and your Contact Info is up to date and is changed when you move companies
Ensure your Experience lines up with what you have on your current resume
Do you have a custom URL?
- This makes it easier for people to find you and to share your page. It is standard practice to use your full first and last name. If it is taken, add a middle initial or the industry you work in. You can create one by going to your profile page and clicking the "Edit" icon next to "Public profile & URL" on the right. Under "Edit your custom URL" on the right, click the "Edit" icon next to your public profile URL.
Is your profile set to Public?
- Click "Edit public profile & URL" on the right side of the page. Ensure that "Your profile’s public visibility" is toggled to "On".

Best Practices and Tips

Use: Where brands and individuals exchange intellectual capital and connect with their professional network.
Tone: Professional, formal, friendly, inspirational
Largest age group: 25-34 (51.6%)¹
Recommended posting frequency: 1-2 times a day²
- Consider a post length of 120 – 140 characters. If the post is over 140 characters, the user will have to click “read more” to see the rest of the content.
Incorporate LinkedIn Post Types
- Text, Links, Photos, Video, Live Video, Documents (pdf)
LinkedIn also offers the publishing of long-form content for users to build on their personal brand

Do you have a professional profile picture and cover photo that is simple and easily recognizable? (e.g. - includes your logo)
Do you have a Call-to-Action button set up?
- To set this up, you can click on “Add a Button” on your business page, located to the right under your cover photo.
Does your page have a description?
- Descriptions on Facebook are limited to 155 characters and will show up in search results. Ensure it includes keywords and is well-written.
Have you created a Custom Username for your page?
- This is a unique identifier in the URL to your page when created. (facebook.com/_____). This makes it easier for people to find or tag you on Facebook, so keep it short if you can. You can do this by clicking on the “Edit Page” button on your business page and clicking “Create a Username for This Page".
Do you have Tagging turned on?
- You can expand your reach by allowing other people and businesses to tag your page. You can do this under “General Settings” and ticking the “Others Tagging this Page” box.
Have you looked at your Message Settings?
- Facebook has an option to turn on a Response Assistance to deliver an automated response when someone messages your page. You can edit the template copy to align with your brand’s voice and to include whatever message you’d like. Learn more about this here.³

Best Practices and Tips

Use: Where individuals and service professionals connect and build consumer engagement and target potential customers. Facebook continues to be the most used social platform.⁴
Tone: Personable, friendly, humorous, informative
Largest age group: 25-34 (29.9%)⁵
Recommended posting frequency: 1-2 times a day²
Facebook offers a variety of posting types
- Photos, Links, Carousels, Facebook Stories, GIFs, Lists, Live Video, Polls
Tag businesses and brands where applicable

Do you have a clear profile picture?
Do you have a straightforward, short username?
- You should consider creating a username that clearly represents you and your brand that is easily read and easy to remember. You can start by trying your first and last name and adding your industry (ex. JohnSmithRealtor).
Create a Profile Name and Informative Bio
- Your profile name can be the same as your full name or company name. However, the profile name is searchable so you can include keywords if appropriate.
- Your Bio is limited to 150 characters, so you can use this space to give users a quick glance into who you are and what you do. (Protip: you can use the last line of your bio as a call-to-action for the link you can add to your profile)
Do you have a website link added?
- Consider adding your website or preferred link as this is the only place you will really be able to direct followers of your posts to learn more. Click "Edit Profile" at the top of the screen. Click "Links", then click "Add external link" to add the URL for your website.
Is your profile set to a Professional Account?
- Keep track of your profile insights by switching to a professional profile. To do this, click on "Settings," then "Account," and "Switch to Professional Account."
Sync with your Facebook Business Page (if applicable)
- This makes it easier for you to share posts across both platforms, allow you to use the Meta Business Suite in Facebook to schedule your posts, and monitor analytics across both platforms. Read more on how to sync your profiles here.⁶

Best Practices and Tips

Use: The home of visual information being shared with like-minded audiences or friends
Tone: Light-hearted, inviting, entertaining, inspirational, educational
Largest age group: 18-24 (31.8%)⁵
Recommended posting frequency: 3-5 times a week;² Instagram Stories, 2 per day
- Posting frequently on Instagram can increase your chances of showing up in the Explore feed, being featured/shared on another account, or appearing in the top search results for keywords and hashtags you commonly use.
Instagram offers a variety of posting types
- Photos, Carousels, Stories, GIFs, Lists, Live, Video, Reels, Polls
Tag businesses and brands where applicable
Hashtags are used heavily to join together topics/conversations and highlight trending conversations

Do you have a profile picture and banner image?
Do you have an appropriate handle?
- Consider making your handle closely tied with your business and brand. Keeping it short can help make it easy to find and tag. If your business name is already claimed by another user, consider adding a CTA at the start or end of your handle or an industry relevant term (ex. @JohnSmithTXRealtor).
Do you have your business description, website link, and location completed?
- You can use keywords and hashtags relevant to you and your business in your bio to help you show up in more search results.
Consider pinning one of your best tweets.
- While this seems like a minor detail, this will be the first interaction when someone visits your profile as it will remain at the top of your feed. Consider updating this pin regularly to help maintain relevant content.

Best Practices and Tips

Use: The home of visual information being shared with like-minded audiences or friends
Tone: Informal, personable, interactive, humorous
Largest age group: 25-34 (29.69%)⁸
Recommended posting frequency: 2-3 times per day²
Maximum length is 280 characters
Offers a variety of posting types
- Photos, Links, GIFs, Live Video, Polls
Reply, retweet and quote tweets to enter into and expand on existing conversations
Hashtags are used to join together conversations and highlight trending conversations

BONUS: YouTube/TikTok Best Practices and Tips

Use: Video-focused platforms allow you to share your personality and knowledge.
Tone: Varies! Depends on the kind of content you decide to focus on and how you plan to deliver it.
Largest Age Group:
- TikTok: 18-24 (36.6%)⁹
- YouTube: 21-34 (21.2%)¹⁰
Both are good for sharing informative and educational content
- TikTok posts are quick clips (15sec - 10min) whereas YouTube is used for long-form video
Identify relevant messages and teach people something they don’t know
Recommended posting frequency: depends!
- 3-5 times per week or more on TikTok;² the more you post on a regular basis, the more likely you are to get in front of a larger audience
- For Youtube, it varies from creator to creator but, quality and consistency is key. If you choose to post once a week, make sure you consistently upload quality new content weekly.¹¹
Learn more about setting up a TikTok Business Account here¹²
Learn more about setting up a YouTube Channel here¹³

If you want to learn more about social strategies and growing your network, check out our recorded webinar, Embracing the Social Generation: Strategies to Grow Your Social Media Presence.

^[1]Dixon, Stacy Jo. “Global Linkedin User Age Distribution 2024.” Statista, Apr. 2024, https://www.statista.com/statistics/273505/global-linkedin-age-group/.

^[2]Macready, Hannah, "How Often Should a Business Post on Social Media in 2024." Hootesuite, May. 2024, https://blog.hootsuite.com/how-often-to-post-on-social-media/.

^[3]"Set up automated responses in Meta Business Suite desktop." Meta Business Help Center, https://www.facebook.com/business/help/318238182723007?id=916550222172854.

^[4]Dixon, Stacy Jo, "Most popular social networks worldwide as of April 2024, ranked by number of monthly active users(in millions)." Statista, May. 2024, https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/.

^[5]Dixon, Stacy Jo. “Distribution of Facebook users worldwide as of April 2024, by age and gender” Statista, Apr. 2024, https://www.statista.com/statistics/376128/facebook-global-user-age-distribution/.

^[6]"How to connect or disconnect an Instagram account from your Page." Meta Business Help Center, https://www.facebook.com/business/help/connect-instagram-to-page.

^[7]Dixon, Stacy Jo. “Distribution of Instagram users worldwide as of April 2024, by age and gender." Statista, Apr. 2024, https://www.statista.com/statistics/248769/age-distribution-of-worldwide-instagram-users/.

^[8]“twitter.com Traffic Analytics, Ranking & Audience.” Similarweb, Apr. 2024, https://www.similarweb.com/website/twitter.com/#demographics

^[9]Cece, Laura. “Distribution of TikTok users worldwide as of January 2024, by age and gender” Statista, Jan. 2024, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1299771/tiktok-global-user-age-distribution/.

^[10]Cece, Laura. “Distribution of YouTube users worldwide as of January 2024, by age group and gender ” Statista, Jan. 2024, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1287137/youtube-global-users-age-gender-distribution/.

^[11]Web Dudes, "Optimizing Your YouTube Content Strategy: How Often Should You Post?" LinkedIn, Apr. 2024, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/optimizing-your-youtube-content-strategy-how-often-should-you-xusmf

^[12]McLachlan, Stacey, "How to Use TikTok for Business: A Step-by-Step Guide." Hootesuite, May. 2023, https://blog.hootsuite.com/tiktok-for-business/.

^[13]McLachlan, Stacey, "How To Create a YouTube Channel From Scratch" Hootesuite, May. 2023, https://blog.hootsuite.com/how-to-create-a-youtube-account-channel/.

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