Social media for financial advisors is no longer an optional piece of a successful digital marketing strategy. Where social media used to be its own separate channel, the lines are blurring between all types of online content. That means, specifically for financial advisors, that if you’re not participating in social media, the rest of your digital marketing efforts could go unnoticed. If you think of your overall digital marketing strategy as a machine, it will run without social media but will run much smoother and more efficiently with it.
Decide Which Social Channels to Utilize
If your financial advisor firm isn’t already on social media, decide which channels you want to start with. It can be overwhelming to dive in all at once, especially since different channels tend to have different techniques that work best for marketing to large audiences. Unless you have a full-time digital marketing person on your staff or have partnered with a digital marketing agency, it’s best to choose one or two channels to start and go from there.
Create a Complete Profile for Each Social Channel
It’s not enough to simply set up a profile. Consider every aspect of your social media page a part of your financial advisor website and use best SEO practices throughout. And since your profile is essentially free real estate, make the most of it and be sure to fill it out completely.
Another reason this is important is that search engines, such as Google, take into consideration all online sources of your information, not just your webpage. Incomplete social profiles, as well as directories (such as Google My Business), can hurt your SEO.
Content Always Wins
Social media is becoming an increasingly crowded space. That means that what you share matters. The best option is to share and promote different types of content, from your own library as well as 3rd party sources.
When creating original content, think about having a good mix of evergreen content as well as timely, newsworthy topics. If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that information needs to be able to be shared quickly sometimes and social media is often the best and fastest way to do it.
Cross-Promote
By sharing your content across other social media platforms, you’re making a stronger case for search engines to place you higher in search rankings. Also, you’re making the content you’ve worked hard to create work even harder for you. Keep in mind that as mentioned before, different social media channels often have different social content that works best.
For example, Instagram is mainly photo and video-based, whereas LinkedIn is primarily used for thought-leadership and professional connections. This may mean you have to re-purpose and re-package content differently for these channels.
Provide a Value/Service to Your Audience
Investors can be smart and they catch on quickly when they’re being sold to and nothing else. Financial advisor marketing has to be better than that. While there is a definite line between offering general information and providing specific advice, it’s possible to become a trusted source of information on social media.
The key is to provide value such as commentaries on recent market movement as well as hold informational webinars or zoom calls where participants can ask questions. If people like what they see and hear, they’ll keep coming back and potentially turn into a client if they aren’t already.
Image Alt Tags
For SEO purposes, alt tags on images are a simple thing you can do on social media and elsewhere to improve overall SEO. While this might sound very technical, it’s not actually hi-tech at all. Simply put, any image used on your website or on social media has a filename. Depending on where you acquired the image may determine its name.
For example, if you downloaded the photo from a stock photography website, the filename may be something related to the image itself or the photographer’s name, etc. By renaming the file with a naming convention that mentions the content it’s appearing with as well as your financial advisor firm, you’re adding even more SEO value. Additionally, the ADA recommendations include naming imaged with alt tags on your website, so you’re also making it more user-friendly for the vision impaired.
Utilize Paid Ads
Paid social media is also now a crucial part of a successful social media and overall digital marketing strategy. From Facebook to Twitter and LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube, there are many ways to promote your content on social media outside of just your social page.
This can include ads, sponsored posts, or other types of paid social content. By paying to appear in front of a selected audience, you’re choosing which type of social user you want to see your ads. You can even exclude your current followers on that platform to maximize your budget.
Consider Partnerships to Widen Your Audience
As a financial advisor, you likely have business partners who work with you to help make your business a success for both you and your clients. Consider extending that partnership to social media. This could be in the form of trading links, guest posts or even collaborating on content such as a whitepaper, eBook, or webinar. By getting in front of that partner’s audience, and vice versa, you can both benefit from this extended network relationship.
Check Out Your Competition
In any type of business, it’s always a good idea to keep tabs on what your competition is doing. Sometimes it can be helpful in a way you’d like to emulate. Other times it can be a lesson in what not to do to promote your financial advisor firm on social media.
Regardless, knowing is certainly better than not knowing and it’s not hard to do. Simply search for that competitor online using the search terms you’re hoping to use your SEO to rank for. Take a look at who else shows up in the organic search results. Whether already known to you or not, this is where you’ll find out what the competition is up to.
