Why all planners need to be using Facebook and LinkedIn
Philip Calvert, Founder of Lifetalk, Social Media Strategist and Speaker, shares his top tips
Many financial planners would argue that the jury is still out on whether social media has a part to play in their businesses.
Yet, when I work with advisers who say that it isn’t working for them, they all tend to have one thing in common – and that is that they do not have a formal social media plan or strategy in place. Indeed, many advisers and planners are using social media yet do not really know why. By way of example, a recent survey undertaken by the social networking site LifeTalk reveals that 83% of financial advisers have a personal LinkedIn profile, yet when asked if they know why they use the site, less than 10% were able to articulate a clear answer. There are also still a huge number of advisers who view social media as ‘new’ – this despite the fact that we know it has been around since 1998, with LinkedIn going live in 2003. This is worrying for a profession that offers so much, yet which is grossly under-utilising powerful online tools that can be used to dramatically enhance the perception of their professionalism, credibility, trustworthiness and expertise.
When we promote our social media workshops for advisers, our sure fire way to fill them up is to show how one adviser we know attracted £100,000 in fee income in 2015 just from his use of LinkedIn. Another attracted new investment clients on LinkedIn the very first time he used a technique we teach, with another regularly generating four or five high quality leads each month from their use of social media and niche networking sites. So what are these advisers doing that others can learn from? Here are just four proven tips out of several hundred we teach.
Have a planWe said this at the start – take time to look closely at your business, your goals for it and the markets you serve. Then write down what type of online activities will reach that market. Develop your plan and commit yourself to following it through.
Network like crazySocial media is not always about sales and marketing. Many of the most successful planners are great networkers who go out looking for opportunities in the 'real world’ to connect people and connect with people. Do the same online – use LinkedIn to build relationships with professional connections and introduce people to them. In short ‘give to get’.
Keep it localUse social media to build relationships with businesses local to you. Most will be on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Go out of your way to interact and engage with them. You are not looking to win them as clients – just engage with them the same way as you might chat if you met them in the pub.
They will see your activity and in turn will engage with you – giving greater visibility to your online presence. I personally have secured a number of consultancy, training and speaking engagements purely by interacting with businesses that are very local to me.
Pay to playMany people prefer to use social media to search for products and services than traditional search engines such as Google. Within the context of your social media plan, use promoted posts (paid) to dramatically boost the visibility of your posts and you will be astonished as to how many people will view them. In time, work towards running a programme of carefully targeted paid posts on Facebook – and indeed on LinkedIn.
In truth, social media is not a magic bullet for your sales, marketing, networking and communication activities within your business – but to ignore it or not have a plan will ultimately do you more harm than good, particularly now that we live in a world where searches for product and service providers in all industries almost always start online.
We used to say ‘If you’re not on Google, your business doesn’t exist’; now we are saying ‘If you are not visible on social media, people cannot find, assess, review or refer your business’.