Guide to Social Media Content For Financial Advisors
Social media can be a powerful tool for marketing your advisory business. With billions of users, platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok can offer access to a built-in audience of people who may be seeking out professional financial advice. An effective social media marketing strategy starts with identifying your niche and who you want to target, then creating content that's designed to attract them. SmartAsset's SmartAdvisor can bring leads to you, freeing up time to focus on marketing your business.
Do Financial Advisors Need Social Media?
Social media is not a requirement to be a financial advisor. However, not taking advantage of social media's capabilities could cause you to miss opportunities to expand your reach. Here are some of the tips and benefits associated with creating social media content for financial advisors:
Being active on social media platforms can help to build brand awareness around your business.
Creating quality content can highlight your expertise and knowledge as an advisor.
Building a following is a form of social proof that can help to underscore your reputation and credibility.
Interacting with followers on social media is an opportunity to deepen connections with existing clients.
Posing questions to your followers can offer insight into their biggest concerns, which can help you better shape the scope of services you provide.
Aside from those benefits, social media can be a cost-effective way to market your advisory business, assuming you've done some thorough research beforehand. Once you know where your target audience spends their time online, you can focus your marketing efforts and budget on those channels only. That can eliminate time and money wasted on advertising or digital marketing tactics that aren't likely to generate a solid return on investment.
Examples of Social Media Content for Financial Advisors
Setting up social media accounts for your advisory business is a relatively straightforward process. The bigger challenge is deciding what to post. If you need some ideas for social media content, you could try posting any of the following to get your followers' attention.
1. Run a Poll
Polls are a fun way to gauge what your audience needs, as you can as them an open-ended question like "What's your biggest financial concern right now?" or "What are your top three financial goals for the next five years?"
Those are simple questions that can get your audience thinking about their financial needs. Posting polls can also lead to greater engagement since it encourages interaction with your content.
2. Share a Quote
Sharing finance quotes on social media can inspire your followers and even spark debate. For example, you might share a quote about investing or wealth that's considered controversial, then ask your followers to share their take. Or you may simply post something motivating or a quote that's become a personal mantra for you.
3. Tell a Personal Story
Creating social media content that focuses on a personal story can foster deeper connections with your audience. It can also open the door to increased engagement if you ask your followers to share in turn.
For example, you might discuss the biggest money mistake you made in your 20s or a financial lesson you learned from your parents. People are interested in things they can relate to and sharing your stories can make you seem more human while opening the door to an ongoing discussion.
4. Grab Attention With Videos or Infographics
Social media is by nature a visual medium and platforms like TikTok and YouTube underscore just how much people love video content. If you're not making videos yet, that's something you might consider exploring.
For example, you could do a short video offering a single targeted piece of financial advice. Or you might create long-form content, like a tutorial on how to use an online financial tool or a webinar on a topic that your audience is interested in.
If you don't have time for videos, posting infographics might be the next best thing. Infographics make it easy to condense valuable information in a way that's visually appealing. And your posts might help generate traffic back to your website or blog if other sites ask to share your creation.
5. Post Updates on Industry Trends
Sharing the latest industry news or trends is another go-to option when creating social media content for financial advisors. There's always something going on somewhere, whether it's increased volatility in the markets or new regulatory guidelines that investors need to be aware of.
If you come across an interesting news story, you can simply share it on your social media accounts and ask your followers what they think about it. That's a quick way to boost your engagement numbers, especially if you're picking a "hot" or controversial story.
6. Try Livestreaming
Livestreams can be an excellent way to connect with followers directly since they happen in real-time. For example, you could host a live stream using a Q&A format, where your followers can ask questions in chat, and you answer them. Or you could host a stream to discuss current events in the industry and what that might mean for investors.
Lives can give your social media accounts more engagement in the form of likes, comments and shares. Social media algorithms like those things and use them when deciding which content to show to users.
Social Media Marketing Tips for Financial Advisors
If you only have limited time to spend on social media marketing, then it's important to make every post count. But what constitutes "good" social media content for financial advisors? There are no hard and fast rules, but generally, useful content includes posts that are:
Relevant to your audience
Visual appealing
Engaging and shareable
Designed with a clear goal (i.e., spark debate, trigger emotions, etc.)
Concluded with a strong call to action
Content that checks off those boxes has a better chance of getting noticed in the sea of other social media posts. When people interact with content that they enjoy, they're more likely to share it. That can mean more eyes on your posts and bring more attention to your business. In a best-case scenario, your content is so well-received that it ends up going viral.
Studying what your competitors are doing can help you get a sense of what's working (or what's not) on social media. You may also want to spend some time on the different platforms that your clients use as an observer to see what kind of content tends to get the best response. At the end of the day, managing social media as a financial advisor comes down to knowing who you're creating content for.
If you don't have a lot of time to focus on social media, you may want to consider automating posts as much as possible or outsourcing social media management to a third party. You can also automate other facets of your business, such as lead generation so that you have more time to focus on serving clients.
Bottom Line
Social media can be an integral part of your marketing plan as an advisor and it's important to know how to use it to your advantage. Exploring different types of social media content and testing out various formats can help you find the formula that works best for your business.
Tips for Growing Your Financial Advisor Business
Increase your online presence. Clients are turning to online searches to find financial advisors to work with. If you don't have a website, blog or social media accounts, your business may be all but invisible to those prospects. Setting up a company website or blog and getting active on social media can help get prospects' eyes on your business. You can also use SmartAsset's SmartAdvisor platform to generate leads while you're working on growing your digital footprint.
Weigh the pros and cons of digital ads. Social media platforms can offer the option to run ads in exchange for a fee. Before spending part of your marketing budget on social media ads, consider how much of a return you're likely to get in the form of conversions and new leads. You may find that your money is better spent on an online lead generation tool instead, which can deliver prospects to your inbox.
Photo credit: ©iStock.com/MTStock Studio, ©iStock.com/Tirachard, ©iStock.com/alvarez
The post Social Media Content for Financial Advisors appeared first on SmartReads by SmartAsset.
