Throughout the recent FPA Business Solutions conference there were hundreds of topics for advisors to make positive changes to improve their businesses. One point made in many of the sessions was the opportunity to take advantage of social media to be more successful.
Here are four themes shared on the topic of social media:
1. See the trends.
Advisors at the conference were regularly reminded that Facebook is the number one site in the United States. What might be more interesting is how the future of the industry will be shaped by social media.
Michael O'Keefe, managing director at Cisco, shared some thought-provoking statistics on why the communication landscape is quickly changing:
Advisors looking to sell their businesses will have more value if they have younger clients (as the buyer can potentially keep them longer.)
By 2020, Gen Y will represent 37% of all consumers vs. 29% for the baby boomers.
The Gen Y will be the best researchers in our history. That is because kids these days go on the Internet to search things starting at the 7 or 8 years old.
A new user joins LinkedIn every second-340,000 new users a day.
There are companies looking at allowing a piece of paper to have a connection to the Internet.
22% of phones are smart phones and tablets. This will jump in the next "turn" to almost 50%. (A turn is the cycle when providers allow their customers to get new phones.)
25% of clients were dissatisfied with the lack of contact from advisors.
By 2014, 90% of Internet traffic will be video.
HD video conferencing will increase by 180 times in the next 3 years.
"Cisco is betting the farm on this. There will be a need to have ultra-fast routing and graphics processing," he said
O'Keefe believes that the "cloud changes everything." He gave a very simple explanation of what the term means: It is like the Internet with more stuff in it. First we went on the computer into the Internet to get information. Now the cloud allows us to do two more things, processing and storage, so those things do not have to be on your computer.
"The game is changing," O'Keefe said. "How do you build trust?" and recommended, "Get in front of clients more." He went on to show how big banks will be working to get in the advisor space using client portals and video conferencing to provide service to clients.
2. Use videos.
Along with video conferencing, O'Keefe said sharing videos is another good way to service your clients. Just imagine one conversation that needs to happen 50 or 100 times. If a video can easily be produced and distributed, it can save advisors a lot of time in getting their message to clients.
Videos also help with prospecting. Andy Gluck, CEO of Advisor Products Inc., said "YouTube is really a great resource for advisors." He noted that it has become one of the biggest search engines on the Internet. YouTube, along with other video sharing sites, are going to help advisors be found.
"The simple truth is that many of you are not writers," Gluck said. "Get a video cam for a hundred bucks. You might need $500 for the lighting. You can then start your videos. The camera doesn't lie." He mentioned that he has seen advisors successfully speak about their practices, as it is easy to hear their sincerity when they talk about being a financial advisor."
Marie Swift, president and CEO of Impact Communications, agreed by saying, "Have multimedia information on your Web site. Videos allow people to get know you before talking to you." She went on to advise, "Talk in the client center voice."
3. Share information.
Gerd Leonhard, media futurist and CEO at The Futures Agency, pointed out that it will be the advisors role to save their clients from information overload and filter the best information to them. [Read the article "Advisor And Publisher" to learn more about what he said.]
This filtering is not limited to just happening with clients. By forwarding information online, advisors can increase their credibility as an industry expert, even if they aren't the ones creating the material. Sharing information online will also help advisors be recognized.
Gluck said, "Two weeks ago Google changed their logarithms, factoring in who your friends are and what you are tweeting about. Even if you didn't write it, it will help you with searches." He explained that if everything you share is on a certain topic, the technology will recognize that it is your area of expertise. Then when people search on that topic, the individual can more easily be found.
One advisor shared a success story with the crowd. His niche is private business owners and he follows relevant topics on Web sites like inc.com, fastcompany.com and wsj.com. He recently made a comment on a nytimes.com blog article that resulted in 1,800 hits on his Web site and he now has three proposals for new business, all because he took the time to share his opinion online.
4. Leverage content.
Social media allows advisors to have their information seen by more people. By using social networks to get more eyes on your material, Swift said, "You show your industry leadership." She noted it also helps increase your exposure with traditional media.
Swift showed a slide how "spider marketing" creates cross links to create more ways for your information to be found, using LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Ning and SlideShare. She said, "Google is cataloging social media even higher than it had before."
She explained, "Write it once, but use it many times. Change it to have a casual feel for a blog, and tweet about it in a different way."
Her example supported Leonhard's point, "The more things you have out there, the more chance you can be relevant."
Time To Get Onboard
Advisors need to be quicker about adopting social media, conference presenters said. "Real-time Internet is a part of everyone's life," O'Keefe said, and if advisors want to be successful in the future, they need to come to this realization sooner than later.
Other article about this conference include Advisor And Publisher, Social Media Compliance Is A Gray Area and Six Technology Tips From The FPA Conference.
Note: If you want to follow what was said about the conference on Twitter, check out hashtag #BizSol11.
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.