businesssketch.jpg

1. Start By Building a Spectacular Website

1. Start By Building a Spectacular Website


Prospects who look at your profile on a social media site often click through to your website. But if your website is unimpressive, that prospect is likely to move on. “A bad website essentially cancels out whatever efforts you put into gaining attention in the social media world,” said T.J. Gilsenan, president of consulting firm The Interactive Advisor.

The takeaway? Invest in making your website one that draws people in rather than turning them off.

webnetposts.jpg

2. Make Sure Your Website Information Matters

2. Make Sure Your Website Information Matters


Too many advisors’ sites are templates that have nothing to do with the firm’s strengths or the needs of its clients. Prospects may visit your site looking for evidence that you ‘get’ their needs -- for retirement planning, for instance. If instead they find stock quotes and links to Google Finance or CNBC, you’ve failed to draw them in, or worse, immediately sent them away from your site, notes John Anderson, managing director of SEI Advisor Network’s Practice Management Solutions.

“If you focus specifically on retirees, I want to see information about long-term asset protection, retirement income planning and so forth,” Anderson said. “I’m not interested in streaming stock quotes.”

blog.jpg

3. Start a Blog

3. Start a Blog


The web is all about content, and your best bet for publishing online content is a blog, notes Gilsenan. A blog can raise your profile and help you project authority, but only if people read it. So make sure your blog is as widely distributed as possible.

“You can connect it to your social media profiles and use it to feed content to your followers, friends, likes, et cetera,” said Gilsenan. “They can then share your content with others in their network.” With any luck, the blog will prompt non-clients in your network to check out your website.

typing.jpg

4. Complete Your Profile Across the Social Media Landscape

4. Complete Your Profile Across the Social Media Landscape


LinkedIn and other social media sites are full of incomplete user profiles which means those users are missing an opportunity. The reason to complete your profile is not because people will necessarily read every word of it, according to Gilsenan.

A complete profile provides more catchy points of entry that can draw readers deeper. And it makes it easier for people who search social media platforms using keywords more opportunity to find you.

thoughtbubbles.jpg

5. Make Your Website (And Your Mindset) Interactive

5. Make Your Website (And Your Mindset) Interactive


Wherever possible, use videos, slide presentations, podcasts -- whatever you are allowed to post -- to engage visitors in your profile. “Remember: Offline it's unlikely a prospect will visit 10 or more advisor offices when looking for help,” Gilsenan said. “Online, that can be done in five minutes.”

Standing out is imperative.

seo.jpg

6. Track Your Site's Traffic For Clues, Feedback

6. Track Your Site's Traffic For Clues and Feedback


How many hits are you getting? Where are people clicking? Is your search-engine optimization working? You can find a wealth of information -- about your own site -- at Google Analytics (http://www.google.com/analytics/). Based on the free analysis, you might decide to change the keywords on your site to try to increase your number of hits. Or you might decide to beef up the most popular areas of your site.

“The worst thing you can do is to put something out there and not pay attention to it,” Anderson said.

celltexting.jpg

7. Learn the Language and Behavior of Your Audience

7. Learn the Language and Behavior of Your Audience


Go online for 30 minutes a week to ‘listen’ to the language of the prospects, centers of influence and other people you want to connect with. Hearing the phrases they use and learning which technology they refer to can help you communicate back to these folks in their own online language. Which sites and social media should you spend your 30 minutes on?

Ask 10 of your best clients what they read and then head there yourself.

googlealerts.jpg

8. Use Google Alerts

8. Use Google Alerts


Check out Google Alerts (http://www.google.com/alerts) for a free and easy-to-use tool that can help you keep abreast of clients and prospects and the subjects that are important to them. If one of your clients were, let’s say, General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt, you might set Google Alerts to scan the Web every day for “Jeff Immelt” and “General Electric.” The next time you chat with Immelt, you’ll be up to date on what’s happening in his world -- you might congratulate him on a great earnings report or a positive product review found another website or blog.

By the way, some advisors use Google Alerts to keep track of what their competitors are up to as well.

communicationschannels.jpg

8 Critical Tips for Advisors Looking to Build an Online Presence

8 Critical Tips for Advisors Looking to Build an Online Presence

MORE FROM FINANCIAL PLANNING