You wouldn’t go to a summer barbecue and try to originate an auto policy, would you? Social media is that barbecue, and you’re better off posting pictures of your cat than news of your best rate.

"Social media is social first,” says the self-proclaimed Internet Doctor, Jay Izso. “We have to start realizing the personal transforms into the professional.”

Indeed, Izso says a mortgage agent’s personal page is the most important, and encourages all originators to abandon their business profiles.

“We start with the personal, not the professional,” he said. “It's about you, not about [mortgages]."

But there is a way to garnering business from social media, and it stems from becoming a broker that people know, like and trust.

"There is a key to all of this social media,” Izso said. “We do not give our money and time to people we don't trust, we don't trust people we don't like, and we don't like people we don't know.”

Social media, Izso continued, gives brokers the opportunity to let their clients and prospects get to know the “real” them. Do you have a passion for hiking trails in the city? Or maybe you’ve been to every farmer’s market in town. Highlighting these special interests can make you more approachable, and potential clients will certainly appreciate that.

“If you're not developing knowing, likeability and trust via social media,” Izso said, “you're doing it wrong."