As a reminder, Hank wrote: "I want to get involved in social media, but I don't know where to start. I have Face-book and LinkedIn pages, but I don't know what to do with them. Right now they are pretty much idle. I really don't have a lot of time to devote to the project, but I know I should be doing a better job because my prospects are online checking me out. Do you have any advice?" 

Dave: I previously wrote about the goals of social media involvement and the minimal goal of having a professional presence. This included presenting a complete and professional profile. Another part of the profile, which is vitally important, includes testimonials/recommendations. This goes back to the fact that every loan officer claims they give great service. Only third-party endorsements can solidify that fact. It makes sense that, if your prospective clients and referral sources are going to check you out online, you should have more than just a professional presence. You need to have positive reviews on places such as Google, Yelp and Zillow. But also, your social media and personal web presence should be bolstered by recom-mendations.

Where should these testimonials appear? For one thing, they should appear on your website. LinkedIn also provides your connections with the ability to endorse you for basic services but also to write a more detailed testimonial. How do you get connections to write testimonials? There are two keys for achieving this goal. First, write testimonials for them. This invokes the law of reciprocity in the recipient's mind. The second key is to send them sample language so that you make it easier for them.

When you have testimonials from other real estate agents on your LinkedIn page, an agent you are approaching for a meeting will be more likely to meet with you--especially if they see a recommendation from an agent or vendor they know. You can take this concept one step further by moving to leverage these testimonials to garner more referrals. How do you do that?

Real estate agents and their referrals will be perusing these pages before they decide to meet with you, especially if they are shopping you. Imagine if your competition has testimonials posted and you don't? That is why we say this is a minimum level of commitment you must have.

But these testimonials also provide an opportunity to garner referrals. According to the law of reciprocity, when you have delivered value to someone, you put yourself in a position to ask for something of value. Thus, when your client or agent tells you that you did a wonderful job, you should call them and thank them for the wonderful testimonial. It is at that juncture that you can ask them if they know anyone else you can help, as you take great pride in helping people as you have helped them. By the way, for those of you who have a reluctance towards asking, the language above gives you an easier way to ask as you are interested in helping someone they know. That is easier to cite as opposed to "do you have a referral for me?"

Dave Hershman is Senior VP of Sales of Weichert Financial and the top author in the mortgage industry. Dave has published seven books, as well as hundreds of articles and is the founder of the OriginationPro Marketing System and Mortgage School – the online choice for expert mortgage learning and marketing content. His site is www.OriginationPro.com and he can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..