While social media is a timely topic, and one advisors should definitely have on their radar, the rhetoric has grown feverish, amplified by countless "experts" in the industry all beating the same drum. But good advisors shouldn't be motivated to begin using social media out of fear.

Every firm, from the two-person RIA shop to the largest national brokerage, can afford to take a measured, deliberate approach to social media. Those who decide not to dive into the deep end of the social media pool may, believe it or not, wake up tomorrow and find that their business has not dried up, clients still talk to them like trusted advisors, and they are still finding new prospects. In other words, technology changes rapidly, but personal behavior changes more slowly.

As you think about taking a more measured approach, what question should you ask yourself? How can any medium, including social, be exploited to meet my business objectives?

Ultimately, if you come to the conclusion that investing a considerable amount of time in social media will not help you meet your business objectives, then why bother? Of course, as a marketer I'd bet that if you did your homework and looked at the facts, you'd find compelling reasons to invest time in social media as one way to help grow your practice. A recent report by Social Media Examiner found it was small businesses that benefited most from using social media. This makes sense. Small businesses like wealth management practices or even advisory teams within larger firms are more able than large, anonymous corporations to engage in the two-way dialogue this medium requires.

The difference we see between those firms that see results and those that don't stems from an investment in the necessary long-term operational and cultural changes that effective social media adoption requires. And make no mistake: Effective use requires a significant commitment of time. The Social Media Examiner's study demonstrates that those who commit at least six hours a week see significant returns.

It's not difficult to be "out there" and visible. Setting up a Twitter account, a Facebook page or a personal blog takes minutes. But unless your content has distinction and relevance, you're just adding to the noise.

This is what advisors should fear in the social media world: irrelevance.

A Unique Challenge For Advisors

Investors and the industry have wisely evolved from a transactional sales-and commission-driven business to one that values deep relationships, planning and advice. Whether you're a broker-dealer, an RIA or both, you have an obligation to your clients that your advice to them be suitable to their situation.

This is what makes effective adoption of social media particularly tricky for advisors. Your business is financial advice. Your marketable differentiator is your expertise in this domain. So how do you market this through social networks, which are not a one-to-one communication channel? This question is crucial for every firm to figure out before diving in.

Finra Guidance

I've come full circle on my views of the guidance Finra has provided. When I originally read Notice10-06, I felt that Finra had shackled broker-dealers from effectively exploiting a powerful communication channel. I've come to recognize, though, that 10-06 is beneficial to the industry because it seeks to ensure that the advice model stays pure, which is to say, one-to-one.

Admittedly, their guidance needs some fine-tuning, but it is sound policy to steer clear of providing any specific recommendations through this channel, since it is impossible to ensure any level of suitability for an audience that is essentially wide open.

It's not easy to thread the needle of not providing specific recommendations while still providing relevant, insightful information that has value.

So, What's an Advisor to Do?

The main measure of the effectiveness of social media use is the quality of connections you make through the channels. Your primary means of making and keeping quality connections will be insightful, relevant content that echoes your firm's expertise, values and point of view.

A mistake many advisors have made is to pick up the social media bullhorn and begin spewing irrelevant information. One advisor we followed (note the past tense) took to using Twitter to broadcast two or three motivational quotes a day. Enough said.

Keeping Your Audience Tuned In

There are a variety of tactics for cultivating an ongoing social media presence. The steps outlined below are just a subset of a broader strategy. These are the steps that can be among the most challenging, but also the most crucial.

One reason marketers are so enthusiastic about social media is that it's free and open. Because of this, more advisors from firms small and large will start using it every day. Breaking through the clutter and keeping your audience tuned in will become increasingly challenging but crucial.

1. Examine the line between insight and recommendation-stay on the insight side and recognize that insight is extraordinarily valuable and perfectly legitimate as far as Finra is concerned.

2. Define an editorial strategy that articulates the subject matter, themes and tone that complement your firm's expertise and POV. This will mean different things to different types of firms. For example, the larger national brokerage firms abound in proprietary thought leadership, but these firms need to differentiate the types of content they want to let loose into the wild from what they want to offer only to clients. They'll need to determine how to synthesize their content into bite-sized morsels transmittable through social media and available to be passed along by their advisors in the field.

3. Think of your best clients when you are publishing. Are they likely to feel that reading your commentary is a good use of their time? Be hard on yourself and your colleagues who are publishing. If what you are publishing lacks "ownable" insight, then don't bother.

4. Understand the nuances of the different channels and what may make your content valuable and sharable. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and others have different inherent strengths. Some are more appropriate for acquisition, some for retention.

Quoting an astute post on the social site Quora: "What makes something emotionally relevant is a bit nebulous, and is affected by many factors, such as a person's mood, the device or site through which they discovered your content, their physical location, etc., but the key here is emotion. It's content that makes you feel something you'd like to share."

Remember when e-mail was still fresh and novel? People would share everything - jokes, riddles, chain letters. Not so much anymore.

We're already beginning to see that same filtering process happen within social networks simply because people have no time for irrelevance. Remember: The main capital you have for making connections is relevant, insightful content. And you only have one chance to make a first impression.

Kevin Darlington is a senior vice president of HNW Inc., an integrated marketing services firm that serves financial services institutions seeking to acquire, retain and grow their share of affluent clients.