Social media tools are not just for the experts. According to Crystal Washington, a social media strategist and the CEO of CWM Enterprises who spoke at Raymond James’ 24th annual Women’s Symposium, there are tools the average Joes of social networking can use to spruce up their posts.
The number of financial advisors adapting their marketing tactics to include social media continues to grow each year. A Putnam Investments social advisory study in 2017 found that 86 percent of advisors said social media helped them gain new clients. That was up from 80 percent the prior year.
And in a survey of institutional investors by management consulting firm Greenwich Associates, 30 percent of respondents said social media directly influenced their investment decisions. The survey also found that 34 percent of respondents said social media influenced their assessment of a potential client or company
Washington recommends the following services to advisors to help them create content: Animoto, Giphy, PicMonkey and Canva.
Animoto.com lets advisors upload their photos and videos to its cloud-based video-making platform and create their own slideshows or marketing videos. The videos or slideshows are usually no more than 40 seconds and can be downloaded onto a drive or uploaded from Animoto to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Instagram.
Giphy’s name plays off its function to help individuals create their own GIFs. A GIF is a short, silent video that plays on a loop. They’re ubiquitous because the most popular social media platforms offer them under the name GIF or sticker. Giphy can be used to make your videos shorter and more shareable on Twitter, Facebook and other platforms that support GIFs.
PicMonkey and Canva are online photo editing tools with web browser and mobile app capabilities. The sites are fairly easy to use with their drag-and-drop features, not only for uploading photos but also for transforming images into adverts, creative notes or announcements.
Washington suggested the following best practices for producing your own social media content: decide how much of yourself you want to share; develop a brand voice; post content that is aligned with your clients’ interests; be consistent; be nice to your compliance department (if you have one) and choose one or two social networks to market your business on.
“Build your book of business where you can,” said Washington.
While working on producing content, also integrate curated content. Since some brokers and RIAs have access to curated content on personal or institutional finance from their employer, they can add that to their social media content, as well. However, Washington says to link the content to your business website or webpage instead of your employer’s in order to to direct clients and prospects to your services.