We know we need to be on social media. But how do we know our efforts are working? Can we continue to post randomly, and lurk behind the scenes? Or do we need to build a road map so the energy we invest produces a worthwhile effect? With 86% of financial advisors on social media, and 60% using more than two platforms a day, we ask Kasina’s senior research analyst Jenny Chu how to assess if our endeavor is worth our time.
“A lot of people were jumping on and using social media as a listening tool. They may have a page, but they’re not actively designing strategies or engaging. At this point we should be past that. You can’t be vanilla on these platforms. It’s good to be on social media and seeing what you’re competitors are doing. But you’re missing more. You need to have a good strategy and it needs to meet objectives you want to achieve. Otherwise it’s a lost investment.
For financial advisors, there are three objectives. One is in terms of brand awareness. Two, is about generating awareness of your product. And three is nurturing loyalty. Retaining new clients continues to be a bottom line in terms of getting new business. So you want to use social media to nurture existing relationships, and put forth leadership content that [clients are] looking for, oriented for the investment concerns.
Brand awareness is highly quantifiable. You have a number of followers, or users on your site. You can quantify that simplistically. For generating consideration on a product, this is where you want people engaged. You have to understand what you set as your metrics, then you can calculate a return, such as if [prospects] reach out to you and ask questions, or sign up for a newsletter. You have to decide the point of conversion and decide if that’s what we’re getting from this platform. If you have five different sites running, different platforms, with the manpower needed for all of them, that’s not sustainable and effective. You have to understand you own client base and their behavior and build a strategy. Because you’re never going to see a return until you do.”