How Financial Advisors Can Use Social Media To Connect With Current And Prospective Clients
It can be quite nerve-wracking to delve into the world of social media marketing, and it can be especially stressful for those who may not use social media platforms on a regular basis already. For any successful marketing plan, the first and most important step is to determine the main purpose and goals for any activity. Before even considering leveraging social media to connect with current and prospective clients for your advisory firm, you should consider:
- What is my goal when I post online?
- What feelings or emotions do I want to evoke in current and prospective clients when they are reading my posts?
- When visitors view my posts, what follow-up action do I hope they will be compelled to take?
- How do I want this post to ultimately be remembered?
Consider following these steps for posting on your social channels
- Consistently align your product or service, message and strategy with each post
- Compile potential posts in advance (articles, pictures, commentaries, etc.)
- Schedule and organize your posts to better understand what your future posts should entail
- Measure your results through analytics so you can see how and what to post in the future
What to post
Once you’ve determined how you want your firm to be portrayed online, the rest becomes fairly simple, and in fact, rather fun. This is the part where you are expressing your work and your ultimate passion. I strongly believe that within your business, every online post should truly be meaningful to you, the owner. The posts should portray your company values and what you believe your company ultimately brings to your community, customers and even society in general.
You may also want to provide insight into your own personal interests or thought-provoking ideas. What we have learned from trying a variety of social media posts at Twenty Over Ten, is that personal posts have received the highest engagement (meaning that many people click into the post and are acknowledging it). For instance, a simple “Happy Birthday to our team member, Nick!” post received a huge success rate because it exemplifies a little insight into the person behind the screen.
Think about what you want to post online – pictures, quotes, blog posts, news articles, etc. If you come across an article you feel passionate about, save it, so you can share it later. Create a bookmark and save all links and relevant content. When you post an article or link to social media, include your own short personal commentary, write about a conference you attended (while mentioning and tagging the conference in your post), or simply write about how great the food was at the new restaurant from your neighborhood (don’t forget to tag the restaurant!).
Contributing to the online community
Remember, the more you tag others, comment on others posts, or reshare others’ content – the greater the audience that may be exposed to you and your business (and vice-versa when others tag, comment or share from your page). For instance, on LinkedIn, if I comment on a friend’s post and say “Great post, I actually just wrote a blog article on this myself” (and link to that blog article), now all of my friend’s connections will also potentially see my comment and may choose to click over to my blog post. This activity may ultimately result in allowing you to grow your online community and more importantly, your business.
Social media marketing can be a tricky but rewarding tactic for financial advisors simply because it is constantly evolving, especially with new trends and platforms. In order to grow successfully online, keep in mind these key takeaways:
- Align your business and message with your posts
- Compile and organize posts in advance
- Track your success to take future action
It’s important to express your business, its values and its purpose within each post. But above all, it is especially important to enjoy and be proud of what you post. Online marketing is no longer an option but something your financial planning business must do today to connect with current and prospective clients. Happy posting!
To learn more about finding using social media for your financial planning firm check out Twenty Over Ten’s other helpful blog posts.
Samantha Russell, Director of Sales & Marketing for Twenty Over Ten Samantha is the Director of Sales & Marketing at Twenty Over Ten, a web development company that creates tailored, mobile-responsive websites for financial advisors. Samantha has spent the last 5 years empowering advisors to market themselves effectively online using digital tools. With a background in Marketing, Social Media and Public Relations, Sam focuses on helping business owners understand the value of their online presence and connecting them with the marketing tools and digital solutions they need to effectively manage their brand and engage clients. Learn more here.