Social media creates a unique opportunity for financial advisors to break out of traditional communication models and interact with their clients and prospects on a whole new level. While the effort to becoming social media savvy may seem daunting, it can bring endless benefits. Whether you want to be active with outbound social media contributions or use more of an observer approach, there are several positives to consider.
- It is less expensive than using traditional marketing methods. You are able to use Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube for free, so your only investment is time and/or the people resources at your firm to go “social.”
- Content can go viral quickly as one person shares information with another and so on. As you publish pre-approved content, the format lends itself to quick forwarding or sharing, which can open the door to new prospects.
- It provides you with timely information about your clients. As they make posts or tweet, you will be “in the know” about their new job, addition to the family, etc. This creates a communication touch-point opportunity that you may have not otherwise known about.
- It increases awareness and demonstrates expertise. With the proliferation of information online, having a web site is simply not enough. Having a social media presence allows you to increase your online presence while at the same time demonstrate your knowledge and expertise through blogs, posts, etc.
Before you embark on your social media journey, one of the challenges of using social media is figuring out how to efficiently manage communication across multiple web sites. There are tools and resources that can help you maximize your social media activities. For example, HootSuite and TweetDeck allow you to post one update to multiple social media platforms, saving you time and effort.
From a regulatory perspective, it is a requirement that you have an archival and record keeping process in place. Surveillance tools can help automate the tedious tasks of capturing and retaining all your social media messages for compliance purposes.
While you may not have jumped onto the social media bandwagon yet, the benefits and evolution of technology to support your social media efforts makes this an opportune time for you to seriously consider adding it as part of your prospecting and client servicing strategy.