A recent report by McKinsey, ‘Digital India: Technology to transform a connected nation’, noted that Indians spend 17 hours per week on social media, highest in the world. With over 294 million users on social media platforms, there is a huge opportunity to connect with prospects, engage with clients and grow your business.
Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, the three main social media platforms require slightly different approaches. Before you develop a strategy for each of these platforms, you first need to create a profile. As you will be using these sites primarily for business, upload your professional photograph. Alternatively, you can also upload your firm’s logo and create a page for your firm.
Facebook and LinkedIn allow you to post your detailed profile. Include your professional qualifications, educational background, achievements, interests and hobbies. In case of Twitter, you can add a small bio to describe your USP and services.
Here is a quick guide on how to use the various platforms effectively.
Facebook is an informal social networking platform. You can use Facebook to primarily connect with your clients and prospects and highlight your expertise.
Facebooks activities to grow your business:
Share interesting content:
Share links of your blogs, personal finance news and finance quotes on your page. Experts believe that sharing articles on social media helps increase engagement. You can share articles on how to retire early, how to plan for a foreign vacation – in short, publish topics that are interesting for your target audience.
You can also run opinion polls and quizzes on your Facebook page to increase engagement with your audience.
As an advisor, you have the advantage of knowing client concerns and issues faced by them while investing. You can also address these through a small write-up.
Use chat option to communicate:
Emails can be spammed but conversation in chat reaches its destination.
You can also share interesting news, articles and education videos through message option. In addition, you can answer simple client queries through the chat option to increase engagement.
Publish client testimonials:
Positive client testimonials can help you build credibility and demonstrate your expertise. Share testimonials of your ideal client profile to attract similar clients.
Respond to comments:
Received an encouraging comment from a reader? Do not let it sit idle. Thank the person. If the person has commented in the last few minutes, you can also initiate a small conversation with him/her. Regular interaction creates better recall.
Wish clients on birthdays and anniversaries:
You can send an e-card or warm wishes to your clients or prospects on their birthdays and anniversaries. This makes the client feel that you care for them.
LinkedIn is a professional platform. More suited for B2B businesses, you can also use LinkedIn to identify prospects and connect with industry thought leaders to build your brand.
Recommendation (giving and getting):
A recommendation is an endorsement in the form of comment visible on your LinkedIn profile page. You can ask fellow IFAs, industry experts to give recommendations to establish your expertise. You can also ask your clients to share testimonials on your LinkedIn page.
Go premium:
LinkedIn offers plans to help business owners nurture their business and grow sales. These options allow you to view profiles of people not in your network, get information on who viewed your profile and how they arrived at your page, offer insights on effectiveness of your marketing strategy and so on. The plan costs Rs.1,900 per month or Rs.3,900 per month depending on the option you choose.
Join a group:
LinkedIn has many professional groups. You can either join a group or create a group. It will allow you to interact with other finance professionals to enhance your knowledge.
Publish content
Similar to Facebook, you can share insightful articles on LinkedIn to create awareness about your brand.
Advisors can use Twitter to share brief commentary on current events. While Twitter allows users to use 280 characters when it comes to tweeting, the shorter the better.
Post great content:
If you can share sharp observations on current events, it is more likely to become a point of discussion or get retweeted. Use hashtags as part of every tweet so that others can search your content based on the hashtag.
Follow thought leaders:
Follow top advisors and AMC officials, tweet and retweet their relevant tweets to build a relation. People are more likely to follow you if they see you being active on the platform. In addition, you could reach to a wider audience if they choose to retweet your tweets.
Schedule your tweets:
Analyze when your tweets get maximum response and schedule tweets accordingly.
Join relevant discussions:
Twitter is quite famous for trolls. Stay away from unnecessary discussions and focus on relevant topics.
Note: This article was first published in Tata Mutual Fund's monthly newsletter.