Social media is evolving at a rapid pace. With constant social network changes, Twitter maintains its simplicity. It is still a place to exchange short 140-character messages in real time.
So if it is so easy, why haven't more advisors adopted the social media tool into their marketing plan? The problem is that some folks cannot see past its simplicity to understand its value.
Here are three main reasons every advisor should be using Twitter:
1. Learning
Even if you do not push out messages on Twitter, one can listen and learn. With every news source on Twitter promoting their information, it is easy to stay up to date, just by logging into your account for a couple minutes.
Twitter is essentially a service that allows you to subscribe to the people and organizations you want to hear from, all for free. [If you create an account, I guarantee you will learn something.] Plus, with the simple integration with handheld devices (ie. smart phones and tablets), Twitter can provide news and entertainment anywhere one can get a mobile signal.
A tip for advisors: The tweets the come up on one's 'Home' page, often lead to opportunities to build a dialog, either through traditional methods (email, phone calls, direct mail, etc.), through Twitter direct messages (if both entities follow each other) or through public tweeting that mentions the other entity. [For example, if you write, "@byrnesconsultin great article!" in the 'What's happening?' update section, I will see it in my 'mentions' tab.]
When following journalists, there are often times to learn about potential stories and/or build relationships that can lead to future press coverage and publicity.
2. Branding
If one chooses to share information, the best part is that there is an amazing amount of free content ready to be forwarded to the world that can help reinforce and shape your brand. Pretty much every large publisher, blogger, etc. now have sharing buttons which allow the website page to be forwarded, so you do not even have to be on Twitter to pass along worthwhile information. [Try clicking the "share this" feature provided by FA-Mag.com to get an idea of how easy it is].
A tip for advisors: When forwarding information out through a work-related account, be sure it fits in your business' brand. Every firm should have a social media policy that provides guidelines of what makes sense to send out and what does not from both a compliance and marketing standpoint.
3. Reaching
Twitter fits in an integrated marketing plan perfectly, because it can give existing material more exposure. Every marketer wants website traffic and this social network can really deliver new visitors and eventually repeat visitors.
Just like with any social network, marketing communications have the chance to go viral, which can be a great thing. Sharing of messages, known as retweeting, allows a message to go beyond the eyes of one's own followers, reaching other networks of individuals and organizations that might not have been reachable before one started using Twitter.