Last week a number of large financial service firms, along with Hearsay Social, LinkedIn and Twitter, shared insights around online marketing at the SIFMA social media seminar in San Francisco. Though a number of themes emerged from the conference, a major one was that social media could be an instrument for advisors to create their own identities in an increasingly cluttered and commoditized world.

Here are eight themes touched upon by panelists:

Avoid Becoming A Commodity
“The confluence of technological developments, such as roboadvice and regulatory changes from Department of Labor's proposed fiduciary rule are transforming the wealth management industry. Human advisors face unprecedented commoditization pressure. Only those advisors who can both one, utilize technology to free their time to focus on the 'human' aspects of financial advice, and two, engage on all the social, mobile, and digital channels preferred by their clients will survive and thrive in this new age,” said Clara Shih, CEO and founder of Hearsay Social.

John G. Taft, CEO of RBC Wealth Management—U.S., added, “Technology is both the disruption driving commoditization of advice and a value add for advisors. Advisors have to run ahead of the commoditization.”

Educate Leaders And Create Ambassadors
Sunayna Tuteja, director of social media and online communities at TD Ameritrade, Inc., has a proactive approach to social media that is content rich. She said, “Get the content out to the right audience at the right time, using the right medium.”

TD Ameritrade is experimenting with Periscope. “The capability was shovel ready. We deployed our key market strategist,” said Tuteja. Using a large Twitter audience, the strategy was to get organic engagement.  “It was delightful to see the engagement.  People don’t want the sanitized version,” she added.

There is a social media response team at TD Ameritrade to hear what is being said. “We empower them to be the voice of TD Ameritrade,” said Tuteja.  “Social is the new 800 number.” 

One thing they are working to do is arm ambassadors within the organization with the content to share. If the associates share the content, she said, “Now it is a person.”

She advised finding the real thought leaders that can take content that might not be fun and sexy, but they can make it more engaging. She encourages those associates at TD Ameritrade to tell the story in their own voice.

She noted that even Tim Hockey, president at TD Ameritrade, likes taking selfies with other people. She then explained those are actually “Bunchies,” which are selfies with a bunch of people.

She admitted her team has the mandate of proving social media’s worth, but she admits it is still at its infancy.  She joked, “Someday some sassy Gen Z-er will probably be on a panel saying we created a perfect attribution model.” However, they are not there yet.

A simple step she did take was to put up big plasma screens in the office. Her technology team created a social stream that showcases what is being said in real time and it is uncensored. Because of this, executives do not have to use social networks to see what is being said. Now every time someone walks by the screen it forces them to stay in touch with the good and bad. “It can be educational,” she said.

Saturday Is The Best Day To Earn Awareness
Eric Anderson, head of advisor social media for the financial advisor services division at The Vanguard Group, said knowing your audience and knowing when to engage is critical.

“Advisors are picking up content on mobile. They are picking it up Saturday and Sunday. Saturday is the biggest day. We added social then to get more people interacting with our content. Those days are popular throughout.  In the week, it is early in the morning and in the evening. That is based on click throughs – clicking through our tweets to our bigger research pieces. We reached advisors when they’re receptive,” said Anderson.

“What is nice about social media is that people opt into it. If you can create content that resonates with your audience, from that point it is earned awareness. You are earning their mind share.  We would rather dedicate resources to creating great content than advertising. That’s how you can organically grow your network,” added Anderson.

“Social has allowed us to get beyond the white paper,” said Anderson. He is working to open the eyes of his internal contacts that there is a better way. To change some of the thinking, he taps into how long it takes to get a whitepaper published.  A tweet or video can be much easier and quicker to produce.

“Social keeps the cadence going. A lot of clients like these new digital touch points,” he said. By staying top of mind, when someone is ready to pick up the phone, you are then in the decision set.

Create Metrics To Improve Content
Sean Kellenberger, vice president of interactive marketing at Ameriprise Financial, Inc. advised that an organization needs a strong content strategy. Evergreen content is critical.  Timely content is important too, and so is thegeopolitical category.  Moreover, advisors need to be able to track the effectiveness of content.  An organization should put in place key performance indicators (KPIs).  For example, he suggested creating a scoring system like giving a point for a like, two points for a comment and three points for a share.

He also believes metrics can improve content.  For example his content experts wanted to have a seven-minute video, but he knew that was too long.  The video got a ton of views, but most people dropped off in the first minute.  Now he can go back armed with analysis to the content experts to improve the next video.

Focus On Engagement
Jeff Leonard, senior vice president of digital marketing and social media at Wells Fargo, said that in their playbook they are trying to be both efficient and relevant.  To do that, they are also very metrics-oriented, which allows them to know that volatility content was off the charts. “Engagement is the metric we track very closely,” he said.

“Advisors are posting things that their clients don’t want to see," Leonard noted. "They don’t want to be bludgeoned with economic data. They want the top ten golf courses.”

Of those using social networks, there is a huge separation in their peer group.  By tracking ROI, the giant bank is now trying to figure out if the effective use of social media is causal or correlative. “Ten percent of our advisors are covering ninety percent of our activity,” said Leonard.

One thing Wells Fargo is trying to do is focus on local listening.  How can they connect a prospective client to a local advisor?

Use Influencers To Expand Reach
Lindsay Tiles. managing director of corporate public relations at Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. talked about planned spontaneity. Her team prepares for the likelihood of certain topics so the content is ready to share in a timely manner.  For this reason, they put out commentaries very quickly.

Also, she recommends the content be social friendly. That means using videos in a more interactive way.

One struggle is getting the associates to be active on social media. “Even when we tell people what they can do, they don’t as they don’t want to make a mistake,” she admitted.

To reach a larger audience, Schwab’s strategy is to go after an influential group of media and bloggers. “Those people amplify our content. We go after a smaller group to go after a larger group,” she said.

Be In The Moment
Dan Greenberg, senior account executive of financial services at Twitter Inc., showed that mobile has doubled the time we spend online (highlighting and old chart from comScore from 2010 to 2013) without decreasing the time we spend on desktops. “Everything we think about has to be mobile first,” he said.

“We are not that far off from the tipping point when the wealth transfers to Gen X and Gen Y,” said Greenberg.

Twitter offers the ability to see what people are talking about in real time, he noted. Corporate entities have the ability to know what Twitter users are talking about when they are talking about it. This allows organizations to be able to personalize a brand and communicate when there is the most interest.

Greenberg said, “We would never recommend an advisor just talk about the industry.” The same holds true for sharing content on Twitter.  Unlike with TV, where content gets screened and then pushed out through the major networks, the best content rises to the top with Twitter. It is getting there in a different way.

Looking at the future, he recommended using video content that is put in an easily digestible format. Explaining video popularity, he stopped short of saying that millennials do not want to read (which brought some laughs.)

Build NextGen Relationships With Content
Menaka Thillaiampalam, head of North America financial services marketing at LinkedIn, said that 67 percent of "high-growth advisors say they added a new client directly as a result of social media.” She also mentioned that 71 percent of millennials would rather go to the dentist than listen to what their banks are saying.

She suggested using LinkedIn to provide personalized content. “Millennials are looking for content that builds trust but empowers them to make their own decisions. Build loyalty early on by providing them content,” she said.

Mike Byrnes is a national speaker and owner of Byrnes Consulting, LLC. His firm provides consulting services to help advisors become even more successful. Need help with business planning, marketing strategy, business development, client service and management effectiveness? Read more at ByrnesConsulting.com and follow @ByrnesConsultin.