As a Mortgage Broker, it is always important to be building your personal brand, and ensuring that clients can find you easily. One of the most immediate ways that Brokers can do this, is by building social media sites to accurately and clearly represent them and their business. As clients increasingly use online search sites to vet businesses, it is becoming more and more important to build these profiles in a way that positively represents you – and ultimately your professional brand.

Take an up-to-date, clear photo

This is one of the easiest, and possibly strongest, ways to immediately boost the look of your LinkedIn profile. If your picture is outdated, blurry, or simply not professional, it can have a serious negative effect on the way that you are perceived by potential clients. When taking a LinkedIn photo, make sure that you are dressed professionally, the lighting is good, and the background is not too distracting.

Another photo strategy is to take a picture that shows part of your business. A photo of you helping clients on a closing day would show potential clients one of the most impactful moments of your daily career. Alternatively, if your business is focused around a certain geography or neighborhood, you could also make your photo even more relevant to your business, by taking it in front of a recognizable local landmark.

Bonus: Adding a cover photo can really bring together the look of your profile, and this is a great place to show off your geographic focus, or personal branding.

Write (or rewrite) your LinkedIn Summary

Like your profile photo, your personal summary can quickly become out of date, and it is a good idea to refresh it every year or two (at a minimum). Be sure to include your experience, specific accomplishments, and also your professional goals.

Additionally, this is a great place to talk about what makes you great at what you do. Whether it’s your passion for helping people afford the home of their dreams or your great knowledge of the neighborhoods that you serve, you bring something unique to the table. If you have testimonials from clients, this can be a great spot to show off one of two clint quotes.

Add Volunteer Work

It may not seem like the most important part of building a professional profile, but adding volunteer work can help potential clients see you as a human, and not just a brand. It can help clients feel more comfortable working with you as a person and might even be the humanizing factor that makes them choose you over someone else! Having certain local volunteer organizations listed on your profile will also not only show clients which cause you care about, but also open up your personal network. Other people in those organizations will be able to easily find you on LinkedIn if you have the company listed.

Ask for Recommendations

This tactic for building out your LinkedIn profile can take a bit more time, but it certainly has a strong payoff. Many people overlook the fact that there is a section on LinkedIn where people can write you a recommendation. This can be a great way to show how your clients and business partners feel about working with you.

While this isn’t something that you can simply add to your profile, it is simple to reach out to happy clients for a recommendation or testimonial. If you’re uncomfortable asking clients directly, you could start by asking other professionals, like real estate agents or other brokers, to vouch for your work. An easy way to get more feedback is by first writing a recommendation on someone else’s profile, and then asking them to return the favor. This will help you build up a good group of recommendations in no time!

Contribute an Article with Your Expertise

This is likely the most impactful way that you can use your LinkedIn profile. Writing LinkedIn articles to share your unique expertise, can help clients see the valuable insights that you bring to the table. If you can offer an opinion, knowledge, or a different perspective about the mortgage process, clients will see you as an authority in the industry.

Writing about industry trends, financial advice, and local news can also help with the discoverability of your brand. Not only will your relevant writing be likely to get shared within your network, but it will also contain keywords that may help your profile show up in relevant search results.