Social Media for Advisors: Understand your Audience Understand your Platform
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The document emphasizes the importance of understanding your audience and platform for effective social selling in the financial advisory space. It highlights the significance of creating valuable content that engages potential clients, utilizing various social media channels strategically. Key statistics indicate that social networking can enhance revenue for sales professionals and that different demographics engage differently across platforms.
Social Media for Advisors: Understand your Audience Understand your Platform
- 1. Sheri Fitts ShoeFitts Marketing, Inc. Understand Your Audience, Understand Your Platform Smarsh Social Media Webinars for Financial Advisors @missfitts @SMARSHInc @AdvisorTweets © ShoeFitts Marketing, Inc. All rights reserved.
- 2. Meet aBoo! Eight year old, 116 lbs, Little Girl Newfie: aBoo! © ShoeFitts Marketing, Inc. All rights reserved.
- 3. Today’s Purpose •A short review: value proposition, voice andcontent. •Exploring a new realm: social selling. •Your audience and your platform(s). Thank you! © ShoeFitts Marketing, Inc. All rights reserved.
- 4. You Face a Changing Landscape
- 5. Reminder and Recap •Clarify your WHY •Your audience drives your content. •Content is king. •Content is queen. •You’ve got to have content.
- 6. what? how? why? Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle Your what? The services you sell or the products your offer. Source: Simon Sinek, www.startwithwhy.com Your firm’s how often translates into your value proposition. Your why is your purpose, cause or belief. It is the core of why your company exists.
- 7. © ShoeFitts Marketing, Inc. All rights reserved. Be Specialized, Be Specific
- 8. © ShoeFitts Marketing, Inc. All rights reserved.
- 9. © ShoeFitts Marketing, Inc. All rights reserved.
- 10. it’s not business it’s personal © ShoeFitts Marketing, Inc. All rights reserved.
- 11. 87 percent of buyers have a favorable impression of a salesperson introduced to them through a social network. Only four percent of buyers have a positive impression of a salesperson contacting via a cold call. Social Selling © ShoeFitts Marketing, Inc. All rights reserved. Source: LinkedIn.com
- 12. Sales professionals who use social networks for salesachieve a 16 percent gain in year-over-year revenue, four times better than at typical companies. Social Selling © ShoeFitts Marketing, Inc. All rights reserved. Source: LinkedIn.com
- 13. Your Audience •Where are your prospects and clients most likely to be? •What type of information do they want to receive? •How might you reach out? © ShoeFitts Marketing, Inc. All rights reserved.
- 14. Social Networking © ShoeFitts Marketing, Inc. All rights reserved.
- 15. Women are from Facebook and Twitter. Men are from LinkedIn (and Google+). © ShoeFitts Marketing, Inc. All rights reserved. Source: Entreprenuer.com, Mediabistro.com 76% 66% 18% 17% 19% 24% 64% U.S. Online Adults Using Top Social Sites
- 16. © ShoeFitts Marketing, Inc. All rights reserved. More Social Stats •YouTube reaches more US adults between the ages of 18 and 34 than television •45 to 54 is the fastest growing demographic on both Facebook and Google+ •The fastest growing demographic on Twitter is between 55 and 64. •79% of users on LinkedIn are 35 or older. •There are over 1 Billion users on Google+ Source: wishpond.com, businessinsider.com, fastcompany.com, convinceandconvert.com, techcrunch.com, jeffbullas.com
- 17. © ShoeFitts Marketing, Inc. All rights reserved. @missfitts “Networking is getting what you want by giving others what they want.” ~ Zig Ziglar
- 18. © ShoeFitts Marketing, Inc. All rights reserved. @missfitts My Golden Rule for Social Media 92% Giving 8% Getting
- 19. Follow other financial services organizations (banks, mutual funds, advisors) to see what their organizations are posting. Check out Mint, HelloWallet, Mountain America Credit Union and American Century. Post links to educational articles for investors. (Host the pre-approved content on your web site.) Create weekly polls on a variety of financial literacy issues. (Do you balance your checkbook everyday? Do you use cash instead of your debit card? What is the dollar amount of your teenager’s weekly allowance?) Consider fun, community building of contests. Something like a New Year’s Debt Diet –if so many people reduce their debt in 2015, the president of your firm will do the polar bear swim next January. (Oh, and post pictures on FB!) Ask your followers to post their favorite money-saving ideas to the community. Facebook Your clients and potential clients want to get a glimpse behind the scenes and see your human side. Post images of your volunteer work in the community, your team outings, or an inside tour of your offices. Facebook posts with photos generate 53% more likes than an average post without photos.
- 20. Sync your LinkedIn update stream with Twitter. It is an easy way to double down on getting your message out. Follow industry influencers and columnists in the financial services marketplace. If they tweet something interesting just RT (re-tweet). Use the hashtag function “#” to find specific conversations –then jump in. Examples: #401k, #money, #retirement. Twillert is a great way to stay on top of key words. Think up all of your two to five tweets in the morning. Then schedule them using Buffer –a free online social scheduler. Follow your clients, prospects and centers of influence Twitter feeds. Retweet! Twitter is also a visual medium. Post images of your team and or work in the community. Twitter Twitter requires more attention with about three to five Tweets per day. Your frequency depends on a number of variables such as your audience, purpose and business objectives. Did an employee grab a photo of you dressed up as Santa at the holiday party? Great! Post it.
- 21. Prior to every new client meeting, review their LinkedIn profile to learn a bit more about their background. If you work with retirement plans, follow your clients’ Company Pages. Each week check for new employees, send them a “Welcome to Your 401k Plan”card. Pay close attention to people with decision- maker in their title. Post regular updates regarding your firm’s activities, new clients or press. If you have a regular newsletter: First post it to your website, then include links to individual articles in your updates. Join Groups associated with organizations in your local community. Share interesting and appropriate information about the issues facing folks in retirement. Connect to all of your clients, prospects, centers of influence and industry supporters. Pay attention to their activity—they may change jobs, post articles associated with their firm and more. Be interested. LinkedIn Once or twice a week on LinkedIn is just fine for small businesses. Be certain to pay attention to LinkedIn Publisher. It will be rolled out to the full LinkedIn community soon! Pay attention to your Centers of Influence posts and be certain to share and promote within your community.
- 22. Joining Communities on Google+ is a great way to learn the ropes. Much like LinkedIn Groups. Much like the other social platforms, Google+ provides an opportunity for engaging visuals and infographics. Also know that embedded videos from YouTube make perfect sense. Many experts –if there are any in the social space –think that Google+ may be the next Facebook. Try to get your arms around it within the next year. The more you post, the more Google search visibility your company/organization/brand has! Feed the beast. Google+ is a bit more serious than Facebook –and a bit more male. Ensure that your content considers this audience. Google+ Posting once a day on Google+ is fine. Understand that content posted on Google+ is searchable on Google! Fresh and unique content is a must.
- 23. Some Overall Rules •Don’t be boring! Please don’t say: “Read our fourth quarter newsletter.” Or, “Here’s our new blog post.” •No one wants to learn about dollar cost averaging on Facebook. •People will ignore self-serving content. Offer valuable, helpful content. •Images work well. Infographics are awesome. •Conversations make connections.
- 24. A New E-Book! shoefitts.com
- 26. Next Up: Social Media for Advisor Series Is Anyone Listening? Tips on Developing a Listening Channel Wednesday, October 15, 2014 10:00 -11:00 AM PT Use Storytelling to Create Content People-oriented businesses demand relating to others, and basically, telling good stories. Use that gift to create your social media content. Thursday, November 13, 2014 10:00 -11:00 AM PT
- 27. Sheri Fitts www.shoefitts.com www.linkedin.com/in/sherifitts @missfitts www.facebook.com/shoefitts www.advisortweets.com/blog © ShoeFitts Marketing, Inc. All rights reserved.