A research note published by Advisor Group shows how advisors can get referrals through LinkedIn.
While Facebook and Twitter are very popular for making social connections (especially among young people), LinkedIn is by far the most widely used site for business referral marketing purposes. It’s important for financial advisors to understand that any business-related social media activity is heavily regulated and must follow regulatory guidelines.
Here are a few ideas leading advisors are using to promote social media referrals on LinkedIn.
- Develop a consistent theme or message that your social media activities can reinforce. It should not be overtly commercial or self-serving. For example, one financial advisor emphasizes the need for promoting locally owned businesses. Another has developed messaging to reinforce the benefits of giving time and money to charity. You can tie the same theme or message into your business Website and speaking engagements.
- On LinkedIn, “groups” allow professionals to advance their careers by sharing expertise, experience and knowledge. You may wish to join (or help to form) a local group for inter-disciplinary financial planning practitioners, including attorneys, CPAs, CFPs, etc. You also may wish to search for online versions of organizations in which you are involved offline — such as a LinkedIn Alumni group for your school.
- Work on building your LinkedIn contacts methodically, with emphasis on influential or socially involved people. Once your contact list has grown to several hundred names, send brief compliance-approved articles to the full list and ask for feedback on ideas contacts find interesting. This activity can help to open conversations that will lead to business or referrals.
- Advisors can set up LinkedIn filters that generate alerts whenever contacts’ change their status in designated ways. This can be useful to identify “money-in-motion” opportunities, in which financial advice or service may be needed. For example, one advisor who specializes in the health care market has set up filters to alert him whenever a physician contact adds (or changes) an area of specialization in his/her LinkedIn Profile. An advisor in the retirement market uses a filter to trigger alerts whenever contacts change their status from “working” to “retired.” A tool called a “listening dashboard” helps to monitor filters and changes in status.
- On LinkedIn, a “recommendation” is a comment sent to contacts to recommend a colleague or business partner who provides a professional service. Since you can recommend someone who is not yet a LinkedIn member, this can be a good way to invite people to join LinkedIn and become your contact. It’s a good idea to give business associates a courtesy phone call or e-mail, letting them know you want to recommend them, before sending recommendation over LinkedIn. Don’t overdo recommendations. Be selective and keep them on a professional level.
- In general, use LinkedIn to make contacts, learn about business and personal interests, and trade ideas. Be very selective and careful in using it for direct business solicitations. Maintain the decorum of the social network, and take most of your heavy marketing activities offline, after making the contacts online.
Advisor Group is one of the largest independent broker-dealer networks and a division of AIG Financial Distributors.
Prepared verbatim based on the research note - Referral-Generating Techniques of Top Financial Advisors.
