It’s Not Just Social Media: You Want Social CONNECTION

There’s no way around it—adoption of social media by your firm requires coordination between departments and roles including Marketing, Distribution, Compliance, IT, and more. As marketers, we face a particular challenge to overcome the tendency to treat social networks as merely a new set of publishing mediums, where familiar types of content are distributed to end users.

Instead, Marketing should take up the challenge to perform true social networking by using social platforms to build direct connections with customers and prospects. To achieve this, marketers must answer key questions about our goals for social business, including:

• What messages does your firm want to deliver via social media?
• Will your use of social networking go beyond standard business communication?
• How will you drive real engagement—conversation—rather than simply publishing more content?

Marketing User Group Asks: “Social Content? Or Social Conversation?”

At Socialware’s latest Marketing User Group meeting, several members talked about the different types of content they have tried using to foster conversations on social networks. One member said that her firm had tried (with limited success) to start conversations around regulatory issues and accounting issues. Another member recommended putting oneself in the consumer’s shoes: “What do I want to hear from a company? Do I want them to sell me something?” In many cases, consumers probably do not want “brochure” content that aims to sell the firm’s products.

One attendee made the good point that content will differ based on the advisor and the type of clients served. Advisors ought to know what their clients want to hear, and prospects choose advisors based on styles of communication they like. This helps explain, for example, why some advisors constantly ask for more research to share, while others don’t want any. The goal of this particular attendee’s firm is to provide as much content as possible so that advisors can pick and choose what they need.

Should Marketers Start Conversations around Non-Financial Content?

As a marketer, do you believe it’s your responsibility to create content that is not financially related? For example, would you send out a message commemorating MLK Day?

In general, our User Group members agree that there should be a mix of messages, including topics outside of finance. One attendee said that his firm actively pursues other topics, for instance with content about families, living healthier, or keeping kids safe on Halloween. They find that this mix of non-financial messages is good for both retention and lead generation.

One attendee said that his company is focused not on pushing out just financial information, but on brainstorming articles and publishing content—financial or otherwise—each day that leads to conversation with prospects and clients.

Running the “Marathon” of Social Conversation

“You are embarking on a marathon.” That was the reminder offered by my colleague Carolyn Pawelek, who facilitated the User Group meeting. From everything we’ve seen, many advisors don’t know what to say via social media—and so they don’t say anything. Carolyn’s marathon analogy is meant to drive home the point that Marketing departments should provide tools for advisors to continually broaden their networks over the long haul.

Excitement and activity around social media creates intangible benefits like a greater sense of trust and connection between clients and advisors. These in turn lead to tangible benefits, from greater share-of-wallet for an individual advisor to higher revenue for the firm. But these benefits emerge most strongly when marketers and advisors invest the time and energy to build meaningful social connections.

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