Social Networking NOT Working for You? You May Be Doing It Wrong!

A recent article by Investment News (For Advisers, it’s more like social notworking - December 22, 2011)reported that “social media has been a big bust for most advisers so far”!

Ron Shevlin, a senior analyst with the Aite Group llc is quoted as saying “I think that to a certain extent the hype around social media has been overplayed.” I actually agree with this statement, but not the reasoning behind it.

In the article, Mr. Shevlin points to an Aite survey of 437 financial advisers from earlier this year as evidence of social media not working. The survey indicates that social media use among advisers has increased since 2009 to a point where just under 50% of advisers are using it professionally. However, only 19% confirmed that they’ve reached a new client through social media, and only 6% responded that social media helped increase revenue. Therefore - obviously - social media has not worked! I would argue that in most cases the data probably reflects instead that social media is being used ineffectively with unrealistic expectations.

Social Media for Lead Generation

I have written in previous posts that an effective online marketing effort requires more than just facebook. As Mr. Shevlin says, advisors are hearing “you gotta be on Facbook and Twitter, but they get on and it doesn’t produce any results.” This is the case for many small business owners. When discussing internet marketing, they automatically think of Facebook because of all of the attention it receives. The reality is however, that social media will probably not be the answer to your marketing prayers - unless you are famous or only marketing “locally” it will not be a case of “build it and they will come”.

Social Media is only one aspect of internet marketing. To be effective as a lead generation tool, it at a minimum needs to be combined with a website that is optimized for capturing leads.

In most cases, for best results, it should be aligned with a website that is optimized for Search Engines and lead generation, a strong blog, an email marketing strategy, and an electronic compliance solution.

Social Media for Networking

“Mr. Shevlin discounts the stories of investors surfing the Internet to find their advisers. He believes that most still find their advisers the old-fashioned way: by asking friends or relatives for a referral”.

This may still be true, but as Kenneth Hittel noted in the “comments section” of the article “People still find their advisers the old-fashioned way: by asking friends or relatives for a referral." True enough, but you’re missing the obvious fact that it's precisely in Social (Media) that people are asking friends or relatives for a referral."

Additionally, some financial services companies count a 20 minute video on social marketing as “training”. If a firm is series about internet marketing and social media for networking and lead generation, they should provide their employees with “serious” training. Setting up an account and talking about compliance issues is not enough - even for those that are used to using social media platforms for personal communication.

There are many examples advisors and small businesses successfully using social media as a component of an overall online marketing campaign, however, there are also a lot of businesses that are not using social media effectively yet. If you are not satisfied with the results of your social media marketing we may be able to help.

If you’d like to set up a free 30 minute consultation, a professional inbound marketing consultant will evaluate your website and marketing efforts and offer suggestions for improvement moving forward.

Thanks for visiting and reading our blog. As always comments and questions are welcomed and appreciated.