We work with financial advisor partners around the nation, and one thing that many have in common is that they know social media is important, but they don’t have time for it. Here at Quantum, we provide social media support for them, primarily by curating general articles related to consumer finance, and developing content memes for holidays or specific topics (such as facts about Social Security) which may be of interest to clients and prospects. We do this primarily to help advisors expand their digital footprint.
Your Digital Footprint
Our social support is designed to enhance your digital footprint and your presence on search engines, especially Google, Facebook and LinkedIn business pages which utilize your company name. You can consider each social media platform as a separate piece of real estate and use them as a way to dominate search when someone types in your company name on Google. (According to one source, Google handles 90% of queries; Bing’s current market share is 2.77%.)
As you can see below in a recent Google search result, our website takes up the first five positions, followed by our LinkedIn company and Facebook business pages. On the right is where Google local business listings appear. (These are tied into Google Maps now.) Depending on your company name, you may dominate your search results page even more.
What About Instagram?
We are asked this question quite often, and indeed, Instagram is another great platform to use if you have the time to generate original and unique photographs, videos, or graphics and you target younger demographics. Quantum doesn’t support it at this time. Instagram doesn’t display article links, and its intention was for users to post directly from smartphones.
If you are targeting Millennials or Gen Z, Instagram is perfect; below were the stats for Instagram in 2022. And stay tuned, because the use of Instagram is growing, especially by Gen X males.
13-17 years old: 8.5%
18-24 years old: 30.1%
25-34 years old: 31.5%
35-44 years old: 16.1%
45-54 years old: 8%
55-64 years old: 3.6%
65 years old and up: 2.1%
How Quantum Social Media Support Works
Social media support may be included in the marketing plan for our advisor partners that have an optimized, branded website—or after we create one for them. We develop approximately 2 – 3 posts per week, and for those advisors who so desire, we also post for you. (Some advisors prefer that we supply the content and they post it themselves, that’s totally fine too.)
Approximately two weeks prior to the beginning of the next month, we send a Word document with planned posts so that you and your compliance team can see how the proposed article links and other content will display on social (including headline, text and graphic) for your approval. Then we use our social media publishing tools to schedule the entire month’s posts for the advisors who approve.
How To Get Engagement
Your presence on search is one thing, engagement—meaning likes, comments and messages—is another. It’s important for advisors to recognize that they will get limited engagement unless they or their office staff get personally involved in creating content. Social media is precisely that—it’s social.
Furthermore, Facebook displays 2% (or less) of your content to people who follow or like your page. What will get through your feed are personal, one-of-a-kind, candid photos and videos. Things like bringing your dog to work, taking a bike ride to go get coffee, birthday cakes and celebrations, event pictures, and other similar content are what can generate engagement with your firm on social. We are happy to help you publish these popular posts, but we can’t be there to take the pictures or videos for you. That is up to you. It’s also up to you to answer comments and messages.
Many advisors don’t see the benefit of posting personal pictures or content on social. But remember this: people like to work with people they like, and they trust people they feel they actually know. By posting some “behind the scenes” content, you will actually be building trust and credibility for yourself and your firm, and proving that you are very real, and that there is much more to you than a slick suit working hard to master the money game every day.
If you don’t have time right now, that’s understandable. In the meantime, we can keep you current on social media when clients and prospects search for your firm. Because they will, and they will expect to see you there. We are here to help you!
If you have any questions about social media, please give us a call at 800.440.1088.
Sources:
https://www.oberlo.com/statistics/search-engine-market-share#:~:text=
https://blog.hootsuite.com/instagram-demographics/
Lita drives and manages both Quantum and advisor marketing projects, serving as our marketing liaison with key advisors. She enjoys sharing marketing strategies and tips, helping advisors grow their practices and enhance their brands. Learn More
