U.S. financial advisor Vincent Esposito teamed up with social networking site linkedFA.com to host an inaugural advisor “tweetup” on Friday, where advisors and experts shared ideas on leveraging social media to grow their businesses.
Esposito, founder of New Haven, Connecticut-based Esposito Financial, LLC, and linkedFA, a Miami-based social media site for advisors, plan to hold similar tweetups every Friday at 10:00 ET from now on.
“I’ve always been really interested in how advisors can use social media to deepen their client relationships and grow their practice. It just seems like we’re getting to that point where it’s almost too big to ignore,” Esposito said.
“I hope it turns into a forum where advisors feel they can get on every Friday and really collaborate with other top advisors to find out what’s working and what’s not working.”
Participants in Friday’s tweetup showed widespread interest in the possibilities associated with social media.
Beverly Macy, CEO of social media consulting firm Gravity Summit, Inc. and author of the book The Power of Real-Time Social Media Marketing, said advisors shouldn’t be looking to social media as a channel for “inking deals” or providing advice, but as a marketing tool.
“Use [social media] for live interactions with clients and prospects — things [you] might talk about in a seminar about retirement income,” she suggested.
Social media strategist Brian Geyser offered similar advice: “[Social media] should augment your existing marketing efforts,” he said. “There’s a [social media] application to almost everything you do.”
For example, he suggested having a blog on your website, as a valuable tool that can help you communicate with clients and build credibility.
Participants in the tweetup speculated that videos would become increasingly popular among advisors as a tool to communicate with clients and prospects.
“Videos are proven to engage better than static content,” a linkedFA advisory panel member said.
Some advisors said they’ve already had success securing new clients through social networking.
“We got business from a client’s relative that had become a fan of our [Facebook] page,” one advisor said.
But some advisors participating in the tweetup said they continue to face hurdles to social media. Some said compliance continues to be problematic, as many firms haven’t yet clarified their rules surrounding acceptable social media practice.
Another hurdle is time restraints. The experts admitted that when running a busy practice, it can be challenging to find the time to develop a comprehensive social media presence.
But Macy said advisors can choose to spend as much or little time as they like on social media. It “should not be a burden, but a [business] growth tool,” she said.
Future tweetups will focus on social media, as well as broader practice management and marketing topics relevant to advisors.
IE