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Social Media: Pathetic or Powerful for Advisors?

By June 1, 2016September 23rd, 2023Featured

Ah, social media. The buzz is everywhere about how you need to be “on it.” So, you’ve set up your business accounts, and you dabble on LinkedIn and maybe even Facebook and Twitter (X).  Do you wonder if you’re “doing it right?” Are you wasting your time? Try these seven actions to shift your efforts from pathetic to powerful.

7 Actions to Take Now to be a Social Media Power User

  1. Perfect your Personality: What is your brand persona? Who are you when you speak under your company name? How do you communicate with your target client? To reinforce and strengthen your positioning at every interaction make sure you know the difference between what is your personal profile’s voice and what is your firm’s. They may be different!
  2. Post Proactively: Ad hoc posting for 15 minutes a day on your various accounts cannot be your lead strategy. Shift from reactive contributions to proactive engagement with a content campaign. Break down your blog or video content into tiny posts that you share over time. What is important for your audience to learn? Display your expertise through an overall communications strategy that involves regular, planned tweets, posts, and updates.
  3. Power up with Pictures: Words are effective but pictures often convey so much more in a shorter period of time. If you’ve ever heard Seth Godin speak, most of his presentation is done through pictures. Why? People have short attention spans – you can make a stronger impression with visuals especially on social media platforms where content is viewed 6 or 7 seconds at a time.Business social media people network in a cloud of company speech bubbles colors.
  4. Stay & Share: If you think that simply posting is enough you probably won’t find success through social media. Hang out and interact: mention others, comment on, ‘like’ or ‘+’ their posts, and initiate conversations. Share content that your target audience finds valuable whether or not it is your own. As we all know it can, generosity pays off.
  5. Shoot for 100%: Fewer more robust social media profiles trump volume of accounts any day. In a rush to get on every social media platform advisors often fail at providing the information that will leave a prospect educated on whether or not an advisor may be a good fit. The social media channels make it simple to complete your profile by stepping you through the process. Fill in all of the information on one platform until you are 100% complete. Then move on to your next one.
  6. Go for Google!: Make it easy for your potential clients to find you and interact with you. Google dominates the search engine world, and you must be sure to show up on their results pages and their maps, especially as a local business. Your Google+ page lets you share content, including YouTube videos (of course!), and start conversations. A perfect place to deliver on #2 and #3 (above).
  7. Invite Others: So often we wait for the invitation to connect rather than extend one.  The value of social media comes in the connection with others. Don’t sit and wait for Friends and Followers! Consider researching the major influencers for your target audience by using a #hashtag on Twitter for key target descriptions. Who’s following these folks? Reach out and connect.

If you’ve been struggling with whether social media is worth your time and energy take a look at how you engage. Measure up your efforts with these seven actions. Are you a pathetic or a powerful participant?

To learn how to up your game in social media, download my free guide Beyond Likes, Connects, and Follows.

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Kristin is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional. Managing her own firm, she grew it from zero to six figures in less than three years, completely from scratch. In 2014 Kristin transitioned full time into training and coaching, where she now helps independent financial advisors to grow their firms.

3 Comments

  • I always enjoy reading your posts Kristin. They break down seemingly overwhelming topics and make them easy to digest – I’ll be sharing your post on our social media pages! I know that many advisors want to be on Social Media but don’t even know where to start, let alone how to excel. (I know this because our-most popular blog post each month is one we wrote months ago on the basics of Facebook for Financial Advisors: http://blog.twentyoverten.com/going-back-to-the-basics-of-social-media-facebook/).

    I personally love tip #5 – one of the biggest mistakes I see advisors making is wanting to create Google+, Instagram, Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and other social media pages ALL at once, and they don’t even have a blog yet to post original content!

    Anyways, hope all is well and that you are enjoying Australia! 😉

    Samantha

  • Thanks, Samantha. I appreciate your link to the facebook article — this topic comes up frequently with my coaching clients. Social media is a big space, so you just need to go in with a strategy. I have more coming on this one!

  • Kristin Harad says:

    It can be overwhelming at first. Start with one platform (LinkedIn, for example) and follow their prompts to complete your profile. Begin connecting with people you know well and expand from their. Write an article or short post relevant to your target audience and “share an update.” It takes practice and follow through to understand and utilize these platforms. Break it down and commit. Follow the 7 steps listed above and you’ll get the hang of it.

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