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7 Facebook Basics for Financial Advisors<br><br>

People feel the same about Facebook as they do about global warming. They either believe the evidence that it is real or they just flat out don'’t believe anything relating to it at all.

There was a survey done recently that stated that over half of all people will not ever use social media, especially Facebook. Now I am paraphrasing here, but really? Our great-grandparents (probably) said the same thing about the rotary phone. You can try to fight it, but remember when you said you were never going to get a cell phone? You have one now, don’t you?

So, since Facebook is here to stay and it is how all younger generations willingly communicate, regardless of the stock prices, you need to start getting comfortable with it, personally and professionally.

Here are 7 tips to get you up and running on the world'’s largest social network.

Source: Matthew Halloran, co-Author of the upcoming book The Social Media Handbook for Financial Advisors and one of the top advisor coaches in the nation. .
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1. Create your own personal Facebook page.<br><br>

Yes, you will want to jump right in. Creating one is quite easy. Just follow the instructions and familiarize yourself with the terrain.
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2. Be selective about what you share.<br><br>

Only put in information you want shared with the world. You do not have to fill out every field Facebook asks you to fill out. If you do not want people to know where you live, do not put it in.
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3. Connect with old friends.<br><br>

No, this is not to rekindle that old high school flame, even though it is really great to see how they’ve aged. It is to get familiar with posting, liking, and accepting friend requests. Do NOT have clients on your personal page.
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4. Use if for at least 3 months, weekly.<br><br>

When you get up early on Saturday morning, fire up that old PC (or tablet if you have one) and your Internet connection, get online and see what is going on in your friends’ lives.
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5. Prepare for business application.<br><br>

This is an important step. You will need to mentally prepare to set up your Facebook Fan Page. This is going to be your business face on Facebook. Check with your compliance department for the rules, make sure you have some way to archive, then at the bottom of your news feed, you will see and click on, “Create a Fan Page.”
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6. Get local and get approval.<br><br>

You are a local business, so click on that box. Then follow the prompts. Since you are more familiar with Facebook now, you realize it is not Big Brother and you are not going to be assimilated. Do NOT publish your page yet! Before you publish your page, you will need to have your compliance department look over it. Once it is approved, publish it.
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7. Create Your First Milestone<br><br>

Now that your page is live, create your first milestone. This is one of your choices on a fan page when you want to post something. Put in when your company was founded. You are now a real business on Facebook.


Now you can advertise, post fresh content that your clients and centers of influence can read. This allows them to feel more connected to you and your practice. Stay tuned for more ways to use social media to build your practice and make more money.


Also see:

10 Critical Social Media Tips for Advisors

Getting Social: The Rules

10 Steps to Twitter Success for Financial Advisors
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