Not long ago, a survey by Broadridge Financial Solutions, a fintech provider headquartered in Lake Success, N.Y., found that a majority of investors want more social media interactions with their financial representatives. Not just more frequent contact but more useful content.

The study, released in mid-April 2019, highlighted the growing role of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other platforms in all aspects of American life. Yet within the financial community, reaction to this news is mixed.

Reluctance

“It really depends,” says Andrew Murdoch, president of Somerset Wealth Strategies in Portland, Ore. “I have clients on social media, but I don’t comment or post much. I mostly use it to kill time.”

In part, Murdoch is mindful of the potential risks of oversharing online. “My sense of humor is not for the masses,” he explains, adding, “If you have bad judgment, it could be very bad for you.”

Nevertheless, he acknowledges that a “well-manicured account” can be a good way to strengthen client relationships. But what exactly defines a well-manicured account? What is appropriate for a professional’s social media persona?

How To Be Part Of The Conversation

Winnie Sun, co-founder and managing director of Sun Group Wealth Partners in Irvine, Calif., is a longtime social media user. (She proudly claims to have more than 300,000 Twitter followers.) “You need a social media communication strategy,” she contends. “If I don’t share [online], I can’t grow for my employees, for my company and, most importantly, for our clients. After all, if we’re out of business, we can’t serve anyone.”

She suggests that advisors who are new to social media “would benefit from working with a social media expert initially.”

Still, she concedes that her online activity did cost her a client once. The client was concerned that this activity was taking away from more important business. But in the end Sun decided that her tweets and other posts did more good than harm. “I lost her as a client, but have gained multiple more from our social media engagement,” she says.

Online Vs. In-Person

To be sure, many other advisors prefer more old-style interaction. “The thinking has traditionally been that when it comes to the personal nature of financial planning or wealth management, clients prefer in-person meetings and more traditional forms of communication,” says Amy Gordona, vice president and head of marketing at Kestra Financial, an independent advisor platform based in Austin, Texas. Consequently, she says, the financial industry overall may be losing out on an inexpensive and ultimately worthwhile venue. “If you are not meeting and engaging with your clients where they already are, and where they want to be met, then you are missing out,” she says.

The upside of this situation is that, even now, advisors who get on board the cyber bandwagon can still enjoy the advantage of being early adopters. By getting active in social media, she says, there’s still “an opportunity for financial advisors to stand out among the competition.”

To do that, Gordona recommends employing a particular slant or style. “Financial advisors have to find ways to add value to their clients’ overall well-being and their financial wellness as a whole, and that is more than ‘What investment should I buy?’” she says.

Google Ranking

The advantages can be many and varied. Perhaps the most immediate impact of social media is that it can bring eyes and ears to your firm’s website. “There are many intangible benefits,” says Casey Robinson, managing director of Waldron Private Wealth in Bridgeville, Pa. “One of the primary benefits is driving traffic to your website. The more traffic your website gets, the higher it’s listed on search results. So your social media campaign may end up being the reason why when someone Googles ‘financial advisor’ or ‘wealth management,’ your website is at the top of the list.”

It’s also a good way to market material published elsewhere. “I’ve gotten a few e-mails and calls from potential prospects that have read articles I’ve written and promoted via social media,” says Robinson. “It’s rare that they found the article at the website source. They usually find it via a targeted social media post.”

Using Facebook

For many, Facebook is a popular choice. One estimate says it has more than 2 billion active users worldwide per month. Moreover, not all posts have to be shared broadly or indiscriminately. “Facebook is valuable due to the ability to target a specific demographic,” says Robinson, adding that it can be “very detailed in the criteria” for who can see your content—especially if it’s paid content.

But posts shouldn’t feel like advertising, lest they be dismissed as spam. “To the extent social media is beneficial to building a relationship with clients, it needs to feel ‘real,’” notes Charles Lewis Sizemore, a portfolio manager for Interactive Advisors and principal of Sizemore Capital Management in Dallas.

Individual Posting

To that end, he prefers postings that come from an individual advisor, as opposed to a corporate entity. “Would-be clients want to feel they have a relationship with a real, living and breathing human being,” he says.

Sizemore warns that information from “broker-dealer reps [that’s] been sanitized by compliance” won’t win many clicks. On the other hand, even though RIAs are “freer to express opinions than a B-D rep,” he says, they still need to be careful. “It’s OK to express opinions, and that’s what people want, but you don’t want to talk [about] your book [of business] to the point that you could be accused of market manipulation,” he cautions.

Still others hold that a semi-folksy approach can lend a certain charm. That could mean using “a few family photos [mixed with] actionable tips and reminders … and the pithy political insight or joke from time to time,” suggests Aaron Klein, CEO of Riskalyze, a financial data provider in Auburn, Calif., and Atlanta. “Authenticity is the name of the game.”

He says it’s important that advisors “be human and relatable,” but if an advisor is uncomfortable with social media, he or she should find other ways to communicate. “A stale and frigid Twitter account is worse than not having one at all,” says Klein.

And if you’re not comfortable with text, consider video. Jud Mackrill, chief marketing officer at the Carson Group in Omaha, Neb., favors clips shared on YouTube. Calling it “the second most powerful search engine out there”—after Google—he says that YouTube is also a good social media platform “for advisors to be educating and sharing information. … This is really where we see people gaining attention, building their own brand and engaging with people.”

Practice-Wide Branding

It’s not just individuals who should establish a presence online; an entire firm should also have its own cyber presence.

There are many ways of organizing a firm’s social media brand. Some practices discuss a topical message to highlight each week. “At our weekly team meetings, we establish that week’s social media content and what platforms we will be posting them to,” says Nina O’Neal, a partner at Archer Investment Management in Raleigh, N.C. “Advisors have their own social media posts but also share the company posts to boost outreach.”

To be sure, individual social media accounts should complement a firm’s, and vice versa. “A firm needs to fly in formation,” says Mark Snyder, president of Mark J. Snyder Financial Services in Medford, N.Y. “Each member must have the same look, feel and message.”

Snyder’s firm uses a freelance copywriter with financial services experience. Larger firms, he suggests, “may want to appoint a social media czar to be sure everyone stays within compliance guidelines.”

Targeted Ads

Firms of all sizes may want to consider targeted online advertising. Justin Barish, vice president for digital marketing at Dynasty Financial Partners in New York City, is responsible for the social media presence of some 50 RIAs. He tells of one member firm’s digital ad campaign that cost just $7,000. Using a combination of marketing databases and web-traffic algorithms, the company strategically placed online ads that were aimed exclusively at those who were most likely to be receptive. The net result: 10 new clients with an aggregate value of $100 million in assets.

“Social media is arguably the most scalable and efficient way for advisors and advisory firms to create meaningful touch points with clients [and] prospects,” says Barish.

To ensure consistency while allowing for a degree of individual creativity, it’s best to “funnel most content through the corporate brand page and then have the individual advisors share the post to their personal social media sites,” he says. Social media, he insists, is the “perfect place to give clients proof that the advisor is working for them through pictures of meetings, team-building exercises, etc.”

Other Benefits

No matter what the content is, it’s clear that social media can save time and effort. “Calling 100-plus clients in one evening could prove difficult, but creating a social post paired with a market letter or e-mail distributed to clients allows the advisor to reach a large population quickly,” observes Lisa Turley, Raymond James’s St. Petersburg, Fla.-based senior vice president of advisor marketing.

Another advantage is the electronic feedback. It’s easy to find out which posts generate the most interest. “Social media analytics can provide insights on the topics an advisor’s client base or even specific clients are engaging with, which enables the advisor to better serve his/her clients,” says Turley.

At the very least, think of the next generation. “It’s where advisors’ future client pool spends their time,” says Mike Lover, vice president of strategic business development at E*TRADE Advisor Services in Centennial, Colo., “and in today’s media environment, you must go to where they are.”