Social media has become part of our daily lives and is a powerful tool for connecting with others. In fact, your ideal prospects and clients are likely using some form of social media multiple times a week, if not every single day. Optimizing your social media presence is critical to staying relevant, visible, and competitive.
If you’ve been ignoring it, downplaying its importance, or trusting your social media marketing to someone unfamiliar with its nuances and possibilities, you’re missing an important opportunity. Simply having a presence on social media isn't enough anymore. To make the most of these dynamic platforms, you need to be active and follow a well-thought-out plan.
Here are some practical tips for optimizing your social media presence as a financial advisor.
1. Update Your Social Media Profiles
Optimizing your social media marketing starts with presenting your firm in the best possible light.
Something as seemingly simple as replacing dry and predictable team bios with well-crafted overviews infused with personality makes a difference. Highlighting each team member's qualifications, experience, and interests humanizes your brand, builds trust with your audience, and positions your firm as a leader.
By sharing engaging stories and insights about your team members, you create an emotional connection with your followers and foster a sense of community. Additionally, these bios showcase your team's expertise and credibility, which is especially important in the financial services industry where trust and knowledge are paramount.
The same holds true for your “about” section or company profile on your social media pages. Again, it’s an opportunity to position your firm as the premiere choice for your ideal clients.
While reviewing your social media profiles, assess the messages you put front and center. If you’re not using solid headlines that grab attention and convey the right meaning, it’s time for a refresh. The key is communicating your business’s unique value proposition and differentiating your firm from competitors, so don’t waste this space. Compelling calls-to-action (CTAs) are also beneficial in encouraging your audience to take the next step, whether that action is visiting your website, downloading a free resource, or scheduling a consultation.
Regularly reviewing and updating this information keeps your social media profiles engaging and up to date. This leads to improved visibility, new leads, and, ultimately, more customers for your firm.
2. Create a Compelling Cover Photo and Profile Picture
Choosing the right cover photo and profile picture for platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter is a small but essential detail worth getting right.
Your cover photos should include relevant branding elements such as your company logo, tagline, and images that resonate with your ideal client target audience. It's an opportunity to showcase your brand's personality, values, and unique position. To create a visually appealing cover photo, choose high-quality images and graphics that align with your brand and use typography and colors that adhere to your brand's style guide.
Check that your formatting and positioning are correct and sized appropriately to ensure your cover photo looks great on desktop and mobile devices. Because these numbers change often, it’s best to Google the display pixel guidelines to determine each platform's ideal width and height.
The profile picture you use on social media should represent your business well, as it’s usually the first thing people see when you share a post. Many advisors opt to use their company logo, and this is often the best choice for a business profile. Some platforms will display your profile picture in a circle and others in a square, so you want to be sure that it displays well, no matter how it’s cropped. Centering your logo on a solid background usually works well but test it out on each platform to be sure it displays properly.
Optimizing your social media pages’ cover photos and profile pictures can significantly impact how you’re perceived by customers and prospects who see your content.
3. Build a Quarterly Social Media Content Calendar
Managing social media channels can be challenging, especially if your firm needs more marketing support. One of the best ways to plan effectively is to work from a content calendar.
A quarterly social media content calendar helps you plan and consistently post content that is in sync with seasonal events and relevant to your target audience. Plus, the visibility you gain from regularly posting on relevant topics helps establish your firm as a trustworthy and reliable source of information.
Create a document that outlines the type of content you’ll be sharing on social platforms and the date and time the content will be posted. Include content themes, holidays, and seasonal events (i.e., tax season, open enrollment, etc.), content types, production schedules for creating or curating the content, and a posting schedule. You can even add in a space for monitoring performance.
Your calendar should be flexible enough to allow for adjustments and changes but detailed enough to keep your social media strategy on track. A systemized approach like this helps maintain a consistent brand voice and messaging across all social media channels. Remember, you can always repurpose existing content, such as blog posts or webinars, and keeping track of it all will simplify the process.
Creating a social media content calendar may seem daunting, but there are ways to make the process smooth and efficient by using spreadsheets, project management tools, and scheduling apps. Overall, it’s the best way to get the most out of your efforts.
4. List Your Social Media Profiles
One detail busy financial advisors may overlook is ensuring all their firm’s social media profiles are displayed properly, where appropriate. Whether it be your website, a search tool, or even other social platforms, visitors expect to see links to your social media outlets, so be sure they are there and linked properly. This simple step is an easy way to keep customers and prospects actively engaged with your business.
Include links to your social media profiles in your team’s email signatures. This is a simple but effective way to promote your social media presence to an already interested audience. Each time your advisors and staff send an email, the recipient will see links to your social media profiles, encouraging them to follow or interact with you.
If you send a regular email newsletter, be sure your social media pages are linked in the email footer. And don’t be afraid to occasionally shout out your social media presence from your newsletter body. This is a great way to get more engagement and followers who might overlook your other links.
Making it easy for people to find and connect with your business on social media allows you to showcase your expertise and build trust with your followers.
Optimizing Your Social Platforms Pays Off
Optimizing your firm’s social media channels requires a multi-faceted approach. Of course, a comprehensive strategy is designed to get results, but paying attention to the details and making sure you’re positioned for success matters too.
Putting an air-tight plan in place includes auditing, monitoring, evaluating, systematizing, polishing, and optimizing your social media continuously. By taking the extra steps and implementing effective strategies, you can increase your brand visibility and engagement and, ultimately, achieve your marketing goals.
In case you missed our previous tips from this series, Financial Advisory Marketing Solutions, you can view them here.
