Social Media for Advisors: Silence is NOT Golden!

No matter how capable of a writer you are, the simple truth is that it’s vital you have an opinion and are willing to share it. Your clients are counting on that. If you want to be an excellent client service partner and an exemplary marketer, you need to have a voice. But what steps do you need to take to get your voice out there? 

Don’t be divisive to be different

There’s little doubt that controversy fuels much of the media. If it’s catchy, it sells – and controversial opinions garner attention and notice. For me personally, this fact made it extremely difficult to find my voice. While I may be “thoughtfully disruptive,” I’m by no means destructive. I’ve never been the type of person who needed to have an opinion for the sake of being contrary or different. I prefer harmony over discord. I’d rather work together and get along under a big tent with differing perspectives and opinions, but a common goal.

It wasn’t until about seven years ago, that I finally came to the realization that if you want to lead and want to be viewed as a leader, you’ve got to have a voice and a thoughtful opinion. You have to be willing to share your wisdom if you want to be viewed as a trusted source of insight.

My book,You’ve Been Framed, was truly a breakthrough for me in putting ideas out in the marketplace. It wasn’t that I was fearful because I questioned the value of my ideas – I knew they were solid and strong. But it was about putting them on paper and sending them out into the world and finding out whether others valued them as much as I did.

Start a blog! 

Many advisors steer clear of blogging for fear of possibly alienating or offending clients or prospects with their views and opinions. Petrified by the idea of narrowing the pool of potential clients, they choose to remain mute in hopes of maintaining as broad an appeal as possible. What they need to realize, however, is that the more they say to a particular audience, the more successful they’ll be in attracting just the kind of people they want to work with.

Blogging is also a terrific way to cultivate relationships with other advisors and build out your professional advocate network – a precursor to potentially broadening your service offering, expanding the quantity and quality of referrals, and even identifying possible acquisition targets and/or succession candidates. Make sure to submit call blog content to compliance with sufficient review time prior to posting.

Take a look at what other advisors are writing about. Subscribe to their blogs and use their insights as an incubator to help formulate and refine your own views and opinions. The Nerd’s Eye View (https://www.kitces.com/top-financial-advisor-blogs-and-bloggers/) maintains a ranking of the top 50 advisor blogs with links to them all. Personally, I subscribe to all of them. 

Consistency is everything. 

Get your entire team involved in co-creating content. Establish a quarterly content calendar in advance (with specific topics and assigned responsibilities) and stick to it, understanding that unexpected market or political events may necessitate last minute content changes. Social media is only effective if you're consistent about it, and when I say consistent, I do NOT mean posting 20 times a day. That is the #1 guaranteed way to lose followers. Be smart about it. Not sure of the rules of thumb regarding social media? 

 Coaching Questions from this article:

1. Think about your existing client relationships. How well do your clients really know you, your thoughts, ideas, feelings and opinions?
2. What particular financial topics capture your attention? In what areas do you have a unique take or slant on things that others rarely address?
3. Who else on your team seems to have a strong, clear voice and firm opinions on a variety of matters?