If you’re a mortgage broker who’s ignoring social media, you’re a broker who’s missing out on closing more small-balance commercial mortgages. While it’s easy to see the benefits of a LinkedIn profile and company page right away, it’s also a great idea to get involved in less business-focused social networks like Twitter. This site has major reach with 288 million active monthly users, some of whom own their own business and need financing. Here’s how you can get started reaching out to these people:

Understand the site

Before you send out your first tweet, you need to understand how Twitter works. Each tweet has a limit of 140 characters, so brevity is crucial. You need to condense your message to only the most relevant content. A great way to develop an understanding is to follow other mortgage companies and financial institutions on Twitter and observe how they operate their accounts. Twitter also has a guide for business owners.

Stick to a schedule

Tweeting at least once a day is a great idea, and it’s important to schedule your daily tweets so that your followers know when to expect to receive information. Make sure that you vary your content day-to-day so that your followers don’t get bored.

Provide relevant information

Whether you’re tweeting about the goings-on of the commercial mortgage industry or information about your company, make sure it’s information that will be interesting and educational for potential borrowers or referral sources.

Include a call to action

In order to drive in business, it’s important to include calls to action, which in this case is a tweet designed to prompt a user to click a link and continue to engage with your company. Make sure to include a link to your website, your blog or another social media account.  If you’re worried about a long link taking up too many characters, you can use a URL shortener.

Twitter is a powerful tool if you can learn to use it properly. Be sure to learn how the site works and how to use it before you begin tweeting. Come up with a schedule and stick to it, and be sure to provide information that will be helpful and engage your followers. Within each tweet, try to include a call to action, and make sure your followers have an incentive to click the link. Once you understand the basics, you can begin to use Twitter to drive in more borrowers and close more commercial mortgages.

‍