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BLOGSThe Marketing Maven
Using a Social Media Strategy to Build Relationships Online
By Marie Swift
January 23, 2012
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Web 2.0 and the use of online social media is on the rise within the industry. It appears that reticent financial advisors are finally getting their arms around the real-time interactive web and wading in while others are still holding back with a bit of trepidation or saying “prove it’s worth my time” before they’ll invest any time and money in building anything more than a simple website to create an online presence.
But in my consulting work and travels, where I continually speak with hundreds of financial advisors every year, I am hearing stories – stories of naysayers who are now seeing it wasn’t quite as hard as they thought it would be, it doesn’t take up as much time as they thought it would, and it’s paying off more than they’d initially thought possible.
"Online Marketing Methods: Planner Best Practices," a white paper published in May 2009 by the Denver-based Financial Planning Association, states that 43% of advisors reported using social media/online networking sites. In addition, 32% of advisors said they used audiocasts and webcasts, while 17% reported they used blogs in their practices. Sixty percent of advisors who participated in online social networking generated at least 16 leads per year. The results were based on responses from 331 FPA members.
While it’s been approximately 2 ½ years since that study published, anecdotal evidence shows that advisors are realizing even greater success using today’s interactive, real-time web to amplify their voice and position themselves not just as thought leaders but as social creatures on a mission to educate the public on all things financial.
One advisor—an early adopter who’s been blogging, tweeting, and using Facebook, audio and video to communicate with his clients and the general public for sometime now—says he’s now getting about 50% of his new clients by being visible online. Clients with million dollar accounts are finding him online—and they’re bringing him their financial planning business and investable assets after a suitable courtship period, much of which is augmented using live webcasts and video chats, as well as recorded-and-emailed (or posted) digital communications.
Last week I presented “Social Media Blunders / Social Media Success” via webinar for the NAPFA Genesis group. Over the coming weeks, I’ll be sharing some of the insights I gleaned in talking with a handful of NAPFA members who are realizing success with social networking online. They even allowed me, quite generously, to share some of their social media blunders.
This week, we’ll look at the way social media and the interactive web are changing the way we do business.
Who Uses Social Media?
Perhaps you’re thinking that social media primarily for kids. That’s not necessarily so.
A report published in 2010, part of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, says that 47% of Internet users between the ages of 50 and 64 use social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn, as do 26% of users aged 65 and older. That is up from the 2009 figures of 25% and 15%, respectively.
As of August 2012, 65% of adult Internet users in the United States participate in social networks such as Facebook, Google+, Twitter or LinkedIn, up from 61% a year ago. These figures come from the newest report from the Pew Research Center, a not-for-profit research group that studies consumer behavior and the Internet. Moreover, for the first time, half of all U.S. adults—not just those who say they are online—say they have interacted on social networks. That’s a huge increase from six years ago, when 5% of U.S. adult said the same.
Mary Madden, a senior research specialist for Pew, said that while social media use has grown dramatically across all age groups, older users have been especially enthusiastic over the past year about embracing new networking tools. Between 2010 and 2011, the adoption rate grew 150% among users age 65+, increasing from 13% in 2009 to 33% in 2011. The rate doubled among users aged 50-64, increasing from 25% in 2009 to 51% in 2011.
Why Are Older Americans Using Social Media?
One of the main reasons for older adults' increased interest and use of social networking sites: They know Facebook and Twitter are where their kids and grandkids are spending time, and it’s a way to "bridge generational gaps." "There are few other spaces — online or offline — where tweens, teens, sandwich generation members, grandparents, friends and neighbors regularly intersect and communicate across the same network," she said.
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Marie Swift is a nationally recognized consultant who has for over twenty years worked exclusively with some of the industry’s top financial institutions, training organizations, investment advisory and financial planning firms. A top rated speaker at dozens of industry events including FPA, NAPFA, TD Ameritrade Institutional, Securities America, Schwab Institutional, NFL Players Association, Financial Network, Pershing and Lockwood conferences, Marie is dedicated to elevating the conversation in the industry.
Marie is also a prolific writer and contributes to many of the industry’s leading publications, including Financial Planning magazine. You can read Marie’s
newest content on www.financial-planning.com where she writes the weekly Marketing Maven column. She is also contributes content to the Networking 2.0 blog for Sourcemedia’s interactive, online destination created just for women advisors as an extension of the Women Advisors Forum events being held in cities across the country multiple times every year.
A thought leader for thought leaders, she is known for bringing some of the industry’s best and brightest voices together for dialog and debate. Her Thought Leader Round Table series is just one example how Marie generates interesting conversations with movers and shakers in the financial services industry.
Her Best Practices in the Financial Services Industry blog provides additional insights and advice, including podcasts, articles, videos and other helpful content for independent
financial advisors and the institutions that serve them. Find it at www.marieswift.com.
Prior to establishing her own firm in 1993, she served as Director of Corporate Communications for Worldwide Investment Network in Irvine, California, where she helped FNIC’s then #1 Top Producer attain and maintain that title for five consecutive years. She managed a staff of twenty that supported two-dozen successful registered representatives,
estate planners and wealth managers.
As president and CEO of Impact Communications, Inc., Marie leads a dedicated team of marketing communications and PR professionals serving financial institutions and a select group of independent advisors on an exclusive basis. Marie resides in Leawood, KS and can be reached through her website, www.ImpactCommunications.org. For breaking news, follow @marieswift on Twitter -www.twitter.com/marieswift.
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