Financial Advisors: How Do You Rank vs. Your Peers with Social Media?

The following guest post has been contributed by Jamie Needham, digital-marketing strategist at American Century Investments.

Whether they use it for gathering insights, sharing content with clients, researching prospects or promoting their business, the fact is that successful financial advisors are using social media to grow their business.  And the number of financial professionals doing so is growing each year.  So what is it that advisors are doing on social media? Should you be one of them?

According to the 4^th annual Financial Professionals Social Media Study from American Century Investments, nine out of 10 advisors have a social media profile, and one-third are using it for these specific business purposes:

Gathering Information – Reading insights and monitoring industry news is the top reason that 59% of financial professionals cite for why they use social media. The abundance of content available on the internet quickly becomes overwhelming. Thankfully, there are certain social media sites, like LinkedIn and Twitter, that offer a way to simplify information gathering with resources that can be tailored to sources you deem most relevant or credible.
 

Distributing Content – Nearly one-third of financial professionals plan to use social media to distribute news and/or content relevant to their clients in the upcoming year. Another 14% have plans to post their own personal commentary on social media sites. Why? The sharing of valuable insights and information may help a person be viewed as being more knowledgeable or credible. Plus, it’s a great way to stay top of mind with clients and prospects. Not sure of the best place to distribute content? The most popular sites reported by investment professionals for business use are LinkedIn (79%), Facebook (34%) and Twitter (16%).

Building and Nurturing Relationships – Nearly 30% (27%) of financial professionals cite that they are able to use social media as a means to get to know their clients – their needs and interests – as an alternative when face-to-face conversations aren’t possible. 16% of advisors also have plans to use it as a means to gather customer feedback and create engagement opportunities.  Again, the top three most-used social media sites by investment professionals – LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter – are probably the best places to go to gather such information.

The use of social media can create opportunities to get to know your clients in a way you never have before, enabling you to offer solutions best tailored to their situation --ultimately, a win-win for everyone.

Interested but not sure where to start?
The ever-growing choices of social media tools and sites can be overwhelming when trying to determine where to start or even focus your attention. The important thing to realize is that each social media site has its strengths and weaknesses, so start by determining your objective, then let that influence your site selection.  

For additional insights and observations on how successful financial advisors use social media, please download the complimentary ClientWise Learning Tool below: