-The following is a guest blog post by Amy Sitnick, Senior Marketing Manager for the SEI Advisor Network and self-described social media addict. Connect with her on LinkedIn or follow her on Twitter now –@SEIAmyS.
You might be shocked to hear that Facebook is my favorite social network for financial advisors. You were probably expecting me to say LinkedIn, but I consider LinkedIn a given. Your LinkedIn profile is the base for your professional persona online; it helps you become found and displayed as you would want in Google searches, and makes it easy for prospects to validate who you are professionally.
Why should you, as a financial advisor, use Facebook?
I’m going to answer that question with another question. Why did you become a financial advisor? What I hear most often is that advisors became advisors because they enjoy helping clients realize their personal goals. Usually that entails helping clients at all stages of life – saving for a house, preparing for a baby, graduations, vacations, anniversaries, retirement.
More than any other social network, Facebook is the one where people go to share their life experiences, and very often, these are the same key life events that an advisor is there to help prepare for.
Through Facebook, you have the opportunity to connect daily with those whom you currently advise, while also expanding your reach to their friends (hint: opportunity for referrals!).
The How: Facebook Tips for Advisors
So, enough of the reasons why you should be on Facebook. Here’s an example of the types of content to post to your firm’s Facebook “fan” page:
- Your events: Facebook is the perfect (not to mention low-cost) way to invite all of your clients to upcoming events, such as golf outings or wine tastings, or an educational economic updates. What’s more, once you create that event, your clients’ friends will be able to see that you’ve invited them on their walls and event calendars. If you have friends who are truly “advocates” of your firm, they can even proactively “Share” your event with their friends. If your “A” clients associate with like individuals and are connected with them on Facebook, you’ll be better positioned for your clients to invite their friends to a swanky new restaurant for an intimate event (and for the prospects to want to attend!). Excellent referral potential.
View “How to create a Facebook event”
- Posting pictures: People do business with people they like on a personal level and respect professionally. Sure, you can list your hobbies on LinkedIn, but on Facebook, you can show your hobbies. For example, if you like wine, not only can you talk about wine, but you can share pictures of your latest wine tasting client event and tag your clients. When you post pictures to your wall and tag your clients (or even centers of influence), they’re then shared with everyone that that person is connected to. What should you post? Try pictures of your client events, your employees, or local events around town. All great fodder for Facebook. One tip – be sure to verbally ask your clients if it’s okay to post their pictures on Facebook, since they may or may not want their likeness posted online.
- Investment news: By providing timely articles, your clients hear the latest investment news from you, allowing you to position yourself as an expert and the go-to source for all things market-related. Need ideas on what to post? Try market commentaries from your broker-dealer or a provider such as SEI, or news from trusted publications such as the Wall Street Journal.
A couple of tips before getting started. First, be sure to speak to your target audience and DON’T be too technical. Also, be careful not to give investment product recommendations online as this could trigger additional compliance review. And always, check with your Broker Dealer to confirm what is permissible in this area.
- Saving for Life Goals: As your clients go to Facebook to peruse the latest pictures of their grandchildren, you can add value by providing articles on saving for college (i.e., setting up a 529 plan). Other topics that you might consider include saving for retirement, getting financially (and emotionally!) ready for a baby, planning for the future for a child with special needs or assisting with aging parents. This type of information might be even more helpful and interesting to your clients than run-of-the-mill investment commentary.
- Showcasing who you are: Did you go fishing this weekend? Did your kids graduate from high school? Share your life experiences as well. Clients do business with those whom they relate to personally. Here’s your opportunity to shine.
In my opinion, Facebook is an excellent way to really bring to life everything that you might already be doing from a marketing and client service perspective. It’s a conduit to your clients and prospects.
Should every advisor have a Facebook page?
The short answer is no. There are a couple of rules of engagement:
- You need to be committed. You can’t just start a Facebook account and then let it die on the vine. I’d suggest creating an editorial calendar to plan out what you’re going to post. You can even have certain days of the week dedicated to certain kinds of content (Friday fun day, etc.).
- Put a dedicated staff member (hopefully not you) in charge of posting to your account on a daily basis. This is a great opportunity to get your entire staff involved in determining what to post handling the day-to-day mechanics of your social networks, and coordinating your feedback (because you’ll want to respond to comments).
- Set goals for what you want to accomplish. Are you going to use Facebook to stay in touch with clients? Potentially tap into new referral sources? It’s important to measure if your Facebook activity is meeting your marketing goals. Instead of just measuring “likes” and comments, you’ll want to identify whether Facebook contributed to your getting more clients to read your newsletter or prospects to attend your events.
- Don’t make it boring. Yes, posting investment commentaries can help position you as an expert, but if you’re only posting the content that an investor could access on your website – forget it. It needs to be engaging.
What do you think? Does your firm have a Facebook account? If yes, what have your experiences been thus far? If not, what’s holding you back?
