Loan originators don't necessarily need more followers. They need more conversations.
That was the message Kyle Raineri, founder and CEO of RealEstateContent.ai, repeatedly brought mortgage professionals back to during a National Mortgage Professional webinar on using artificial intelligence to scale social media marketing.
“Good social media gets people off of social media,” Raineri said. “It has nothing to do with how many likes and followers and views that you get.”
Instead, he said, originators should ask whether their social media strategy is producing “more phone calls, more text messages, more meetings.”
Raineri demonstrated how AI can help with everything from research and writing to videos, graphics, and social scheduling.
But the broader lesson for LOs wasn't simply to produce more. It was to use AI to take some of the work out of consistently showing up in front of borrowers and referral partners.
Answer The Questions Borrowers Are Already Asking
Raineri organized his approach around three broad areas: educational content, real estate listings, and news and market updates.
For educational content, his advice was straightforward.
“Post content that answers people's questions,” he said.
A prospective borrower who finds an LO online may be evaluating that originator well before making contact. Raineri argued that answering common financing and homebuying questions can begin establishing credibility before the first phone call.
“If you can answer a question that somebody has, without them ever having to go out of their way to ask you personally, what that does is it boosts your credibility,” he said.
AI can make producing that content considerably faster, including helping create scripts and videos. But Raineri stressed that technology alone doesn't make content compelling.
“You have to give someone a reason to watch it,” he said.
Use Content To Build Agent Relationships
Raineri also encouraged originators to think differently about real estate listings.
Instead of viewing listing content only as something for agents to produce, LOs can use their own marketing capabilities to help promote properties and create another touchpoint with referral partners.
“Promoting someone's listings for them is a huge win,” Raineri said.
AI tools can now turn property photos and basic listing information into multiple types of social content with considerably less production work than would have been required previously.
But for an originator, the more important piece may be what happens before and after the post: using content as a reason to connect with an agent and provide something of value.
“It's a great conversation starter, and it's a great way to buy more goodwill,” Raineri said.
Become The Interpreter, Not Just The Messenger
Market news was the third piece of Raineri's strategy.
Mortgage professionals already have a steady supply of potential material: mortgage rates, housing inventory, home prices, Federal Reserve decisions, and other developments affecting buyers and homeowners.
The opportunity, Raineri argued, is to do more than repost the news.
“There's no better way to create hyper-local content than owning the narrative of your location,” he said.
For LOs, that can mean explaining what a national housing development actually means to someone trying to finance a home in their particular market.
And regardless of the format, Raineri said content should ultimately give the audience somewhere to go next.
“You need to capitalize on that attention,” he said.
AI Should Reduce The Work — Not Add To It
Raineri also raised a problem that may sound familiar to originators experimenting with AI: accumulating so many individual tools that managing the technology becomes another job.
“You got into AI for one goal — to make your life easier,” he said. “You've accumulated all these tools over the course of your career, and the act of managing them in itself makes you less efficient.”
During the webinar, Raineri demonstrated RealEstateContent.ai, which brings multiple content-generation and publishing functions into one platform.
Because Raineri is the company's founder and CEO, the demonstration focused on his company's own technology. But the larger question applies regardless of which platform an originator chooses: Is AI actually eliminating work, or just adding another piece of technology to manage?
There's another consideration for mortgage professionals, too: accuracy.
“AI can always miss things,” Raineri acknowledged.
That's particularly important when AI-generated content touches rates, loan products, program guidelines, or other information that can change quickly.
AI can help research, write, design, and publish. The originator still owns what goes out under their name.
Followers Aren't The Finish Line
Raineri also discussed the growing role AI itself may play in how consumers discover mortgage professionals online, including through platforms such as ChatGPT.
Exactly how businesses surface in AI-generated answers continues to evolve, and no content strategy can guarantee placement. But Raineri's broader advice was to build a stronger body of useful, original information online that demonstrates what an originator knows and the market they serve.
For LOs already overwhelmed by the idea of becoming full-time content creators, however, perhaps the most relevant point of the session was also one of the simplest.
“You do not have to have a lot of followers,” Raineri said. “In fact, you don't have to like social media to be good at it.”
AI may make it easier to create the content. But the measure of whether it's working remains decidedly human: Is it helping start more conversations?
Want more ideas for building your mortgage business? Visit NMP's webinar hub for upcoming sessions and more conversations with mortgage industry experts.
