LinkedIn is providing more news to its 120+ million users, and that's driving significant traffic to other Web sites, said Grazel. LinkedIn not only reaches out to users with profile updates and discussions, but its LinkedIn Today aggregates news by displaying what is most shared by its users, who can also choose to receive news on certain industries. "Forbes and The Wall Street Journal have seen unprecedented site traffic from crowd sourced news [from LinkedIn]," Grazel said.
Even if an advisor is not a focus of the news, this information sharing continues to keep individuals coming to LinkedIn, which allows for more opportunities for a brand to be discovered. Plus, if advisors can be part of the information that is shared, it is almost like a recommendation when it is forwarded.
4. Marketing Is Changing
Christie Campbell, director of marketing at Socialware, provided a quick historical view of marketing, in which brand management was traditionally a centralized function by a marketing team. Through those individuals the controlled messages went out to the marketplace. She added, "Now there is different exposure." That is because in today's environment, marketing messages are sent out by more people and the messages do not always go direct to the target market; they often they pinball from connection to connection.
Nate Isaacson, manager, digital marketing, The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, said, "The train has left the station. It is not about you. It is about your customers, as your customers are going to be your brand. They are the ones that are going to be talking about you." For this reason, he later added, "Social media can improve client retention." He told the audience, "Sit back, listen and learn."
5. A New Media Landscape
Paul Gillin, an author, columnist and social media marketing strategist, noted the average age of those who read daily newspapers and watch the evening news is now in the high 50s to low 60s range. The reason? Younger folks are online. Gillin shared a lot of statistics, including the biggest one: Facebook will reach 800 million users this year.
Gillin also talked about the power of search engines, saying they are powerful tool to help people learn. Google bases its ranking results on value delivered, so even an individual can beat The New York Times, coming up higher in the rankings.
According to Gillen, social media is about creating one-on-one relationships. "It is not about broadcasts, it is about narrowcasts," he said, adding later, "If you're not helping, they're not listening. Stop thinking 'how can I sell?' Think 'how can I help?' Nobody has to listen to you anymore."
None of the conference attendees raised their hands when Gillin asked if they do ROI analysis on their social media efforts. Gillin explained the importance of this and shared a simple formula that uses the lifetime value of a customer, the monthly visitors and the conversion rates. He explained how a firm like Disney Resorts knows that their customers provide $62,000 in revenue over their lifetime. The formula to figure out your own client statistics, is "lifetime value of a customer = (longevity * revenue) * margin."
Gillin ended talking about the nature of media, saying, "It will crystallize and then break apart." He continued to say, "Barrier of entries have collapsed," citing The Huffington Post as an example of a new news outlet that has disrupted a 300-year-old media market. On the other hand, Gillin believes, "Influence will continue to concentrate."
Mike Byrnes founded Byrnes Consulting to provide consulting services to help advisors become even more successful. His expertise is in business planning, marketing strategy, business development, client service and management effectiveness, along with several other areas. Read more at www.byrnesconsulting.com or by typing in his last name in the search field on fa-mag.com.