Fine-tune your social media strategy

Instead, try to identifying a specific audience you want to reach. By better knowing who you are talking to, you will become more likely to increase engagement with those individuals. And that, Evans says, can have a positive impact to your business.

Evans offers the following three steps to fine-tune your social media strategy:

1. Define your audience
Advisors have a bad habit of not defining their market, Evans says — an omission that translates into the advisors not knowing whom they’re trying to reach. As a result, social media efforts are unfocused and unproductive.

“The problem is you can’t build one page that appeals to everyone,” Evans says. “You really have to decide who you’re trying to appeal to through the content you share.”

Your audience will drive that content. So, if you work with young professionals, you might, for example, focus on sharing blog posts and ideas on saving for a first home. That topic, on the other hand, would be out of place if you were targeting the baby-boomer market.

2. Clarify your goals
Decide what you are trying to accomplish through social media. Which area of your practice needs the most attention? Do you want to focus your efforts on prospecting, networking, or client service?

If, for example, you are looking for new clients, being extremely active on Facebook — where you already know the people you’re connected with — might be redundant. Instead, you might expect better results on LinkedIn, where you can view the profiles of the people known by your connections. You can work to get connected with those individuals.

3. Strive to engage people – not promote products
Your content can’t always revolve around topics that you think will motivate clients to come into your office and do business — such as a new insurance product or a family of investment funds. Even if you refer to those subjects in a fully compliant manner, you are not necessarily connecting with your audience.

Engagement comes from thinking from the perspective of members of your client base, Evans says, and considering what’s important to them.

“Find interesting and relevant things that won’t always lead to business and sales,” Evans says, “but will nurture a relationship so that people value your content.”

For example, your client base of young families might appreciate a link through Twitter or Facebook leading to an article on time management for parents with kids in multiple extracurricular activities. Or your boomer clients might like to read about retirement planning.

This is the first instalment in a two-part series on fine-tuning your social media strategy.

Next: Three common social-media mistakes