Social Media for Advisors: Understand your Audience Understand your Platform

Sheri Fitts

ShoeFitts Marketing, Inc.

Understand Your Audience,

Understand Your Platform

Smarsh Social Media Webinars for Financial Advisors

@missfitts

@SMARSHInc

@AdvisorTweets

© ShoeFitts Marketing, Inc. All rights reserved.

Meet aBoo!

Eight year old, 116 lbs, Little Girl Newfie: aBoo!


Today’s Purpose

• A short review: value proposition,

voice and content.

• Exploring a new realm: social selling.

• Your audience and your platform(s).

Thank you!


You Face a Changing Landscape

Reminder and Recap

• Clarify your WHY

• Your audience drives your content.

• Content is king.

• Content is queen.

• You’ve got to have content.

what?

how?

why?

Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle

Your what? The services you sell or

the products your offer.

Source: Simon Sinek, www.startwithwhy.com

Your firm’s how often translates into

your value proposition.

Your why is your purpose, cause or

belief. It is the core of why your

company exists.


Be Specialized, Be Specific



it’s not business it’s personal


87 percent of

buyers have a

favorable impression

of a salesperson

introduced to them

through a social

network.

Only four percent of

buyers have a positive

impression of a

salesperson contacting via

a cold call.

Social Selling

© ShoeFitts Marketing, Inc. All rights reserved. Source: LinkedIn.com

Sales professionals who use social networks

for sales achieve a 16 percent gain in

year-over-year revenue, four times better than

at typical companies.

Social Selling

© ShoeFitts Marketing, Inc. All rights reserved. Source: LinkedIn.com

Your Audience

• Where are your prospects and clients most

likely to be?

• What type of information do they want to

receive?

• How might you reach out?


Social Networking


Women are from Facebook and Twitter.

Men are from LinkedIn (and Google+).

© ShoeFitts Marketing, Inc. All rights reserved. Source: Entreprenuer.com, Mediabistro.com

76%

66

%

18

%17

%

19

%

24

%

64%

U.S. Online Adults Using Top Social Sites


More Social Stats

• YouTube reaches more US adults between the

ages of 18 and 34 than television

• 45 to 54 is the fastest growing demographic on

both Facebook and Google+

• The fastest growing demographic on Twitter is

between 55 and 64.

• 79% of users on LinkedIn are 35 or older.

• There are over 1 Billion users on Google+

Source: wishpond.com, businessinsider.com, fastcompany.com, convinceandconvert.com, techcrunch.com, jeffbullas.com

© ShoeFitts Marketing, Inc. All rights reserved. @missfitts

“Networking is

getting what you

want by giving

others what

they want.”

~ Zig Ziglar

© ShoeFitts Marketing, Inc. All rights reserved. @missfitts

My Golden Rule for Social Media

92% Giving 8% Getting

Follow other financial services

organizations (banks, mutual funds,

advisors) to see what their organizations

are posting. Check out Mint, HelloWallet,

Mountain America Credit Union and

American Century.

Post links to educational articles for

investors. (Host the pre-approved content

on your web site.)

Create weekly polls on a variety of

financial literacy issues. (Do you balance

your checkbook everyday? Do you use

cash instead of your debit card? What is

the dollar amount of your teenager’s

weekly allowance?)

Consider fun, community building of

contests. Something like a New Year’s

Debt Diet – if so many people reduce

their debt in 2015, the president of your

firm will do the polar bear swim next

January. (Oh, and post pictures on FB!)

Ask your followers to post their favorite

money-saving ideas to the community.

FacebookYour clients and potential clients want to

get a glimpse behind the scenes and see

your human side. Post images of your

volunteer work in the community, your

team outings, or an inside tour of your

offices. Facebook posts with photos

generate 53% more likes than an

average post without photos.

Sync your LinkedIn update stream with

Twitter. It is an easy way to double down

on getting your message out.

Follow industry influencers and

columnists in the financial services

marketplace. If they tweet something

interesting just RT (re-tweet).

Use the hashtag function “#” to find

specific conversations – then jump in.

Examples: #401k, #money, #retirement.

Twillert is a great way to stay on top of

key words.

Think up all of your two to five tweets in

the morning. Then schedule them using

Buffer – a free online social scheduler.

Follow your clients, prospects and

centers of influence Twitter feeds.

Retweet!

Twitter is also a visual medium. Post

images of your team and or work in the

community.

TwitterTwitter requires more attention with about

three to five Tweets per day. Your

frequency depends on a number of

variables such as your audience, purpose

and business objectives. Did an employee grab a photo of you

dressed up as Santa at the holiday party?

Great! Post it.

Prior to every new client meeting, review

their LinkedIn profile to learn a bit more

about their background.

If you work with retirement plans, follow

your clients’ Company Pages. Each week

check for new employees, send them a

“Welcome to Your 401k Plan” card. Pay

close attention to people with decision-

maker in their title.

Post regular updates regarding your

firm’s activities, new clients or press. If

you have a regular newsletter: First post

it to your website, then include links to

individual articles in your updates. Join Groups associated with organizations

in your local community. Share interesting

and appropriate information about the

issues facing folks in retirement. Connect to all of your clients, prospects,

centers of influence and industry

supporters. Pay attention to their

activity—they may change jobs, post

articles associated with their firm and

more. Be interested.

LinkedIn Once or twice a week on LinkedIn is just

fine for small businesses. Be certain to

pay attention to LinkedIn Publisher. It will

be rolled out to the full LinkedIn

community soon! Pay attention to your Centers of Influence

posts and be certain to share and promote

within your community.

Joining Communities on Google+ is a

great way to learn the ropes. Much like

LinkedIn Groups.

Much like the other social platforms,

Google+ provides an opportunity for

engaging visuals and infographics. Also

know that embedded videos from

YouTube make perfect sense.

Many experts – if there are any in the

social space – think that Google+ may be

the next Facebook. Try to get your arms

around it within the next year.

The more you post, the more Google

search visibility your

company/organization/brand has! Feed

the beast.

Google+ is a bit more serious than

Facebook – and a bit more male. Ensure

that your content considers this audience.

Google+Posting once a day on Google+ is fine.

Understand that content posted on

Google+ is searchable on Google! Fresh

and unique content is a must.

Some Overall Rules

• Don’t be boring! Please don’t say: “Read our

fourth quarter newsletter.” Or, “Here’s our new

blog post.”

• No one wants to learn about dollar cost

averaging on Facebook.

• People will ignore self-serving content. Offer

valuable, helpful content.

• Images work well. Infographics are awesome.

• Conversations make connections.

A New E-Book!

shoefitts.com

www.smarsh.com/whitepapers/financial-advisors-guide-social-media-strategy-policy/

Next Up: Social Media for Advisor Series

Is Anyone Listening?Tips on Developing a Listening Channel

Wednesday, October 15, 2014 10:00 - 11:00 AM PT

Use Storytelling to Create ContentPeople-oriented businesses demand relating to others, and

basically, telling good stories. Use that gift to create your

social media content.

Thursday, November 13, 2014 10:00 - 11:00 AM PT

Sheri Fitts

www.shoefitts.com

www.linkedin.com/in/sherifitts

@missfitts

www.facebook.com/shoefitts

www.advisortweets.com/blog


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Social Media for Advisors: Understand your Audience Understand your Platform