Social Media: Don’t Just Be There, Be Remarkable

Mobile web use and video use will continue to explode in 2013, Smith said, adding that more than 85 million people use mobile apps and 81 million use mobile Web. According to Pew Research Center, 45% of people have smartphones and of those, 50% use social networking at least once per day. That means advisors need to have a mobile version of their website. They may also consider registering their business on location-based websites like Foursquare. Building an app and developing a strategy for using video in marketing are also valuable, Smith said.

Finally, and most importantly, social media has to have a measurable ROI. "We all vaguely understand that social media has business value, but there are gaps," Smith said. She listed some key performance indicators that advisors can measure to get an idea of how well their social media strategy is working for them: network volume (the number of followers), traffic to the website that comes from social media, event or webinar attendance, search engine traffic and customer satisfaction. Smith added that advisors should develop their own performance indicators that are conducive to their business goals. They can also use social media aggregators like HootSuite or Gremln to track social media metrics.

Smith acknowledged that advisors with a large base of older clients may not engage much with them through social media, but added that the 55-65-year-old age group is one of the fasted growing segments to adopt social media. "Some people just won't use it," she said. It's not about convincing them to use social media, but being there when they do, she concluded.