In the first part of our post, we discussed the need for other forms of networking besides social media. We'll now turn to five tips for finding time to start social media marketing
Given that social media does take at least some time—and most financial advisors don't exactly have a lot of spare time on their hands—how does one find the time to get started?
The key is to recognize that since social media marketing is ultimately just like other networking and relationship marketing efforts, just more efficient and scalable in the long run. So the easiest way to identify other, less efficient marketing activities you're already engaged in, and carve out some of that unproductive time into a potentially far more productive direction. In other words, don't look at social media marketing as something you have to find time for, on top of everything else you do. View it as something you allocate time towards instead of some marketing effort you're already doing that's less successful, effective, or efficient.
So once you've carved out a little bit of time, what should you do next?
Tip 1: Start Simple
Don't look at social media as something you have to do with a giant splash all at once. It is something you can tiptoe into over time. As a starting point, I'd suggest created a LinkedIn profile (if you haven't already), and focusing on filling it out entirely (as your first presence on a social networking site, especially one so focused on business professionals, you don't want to look like you're half-a**ing it).
For a good "LinkedIn 101 Guide" for financial advisors, check out this article for ideas about what to include in your profile and what to share on LinkedIn.
Tip 2: Listen Before You Leap
If you want some perspective on what social media is all about, and what works, start by just showing up (virtually) and listening in on the conversation. Twitter is a platform that's particularly conducive to just listening; you don't have to tweet or say anything to get value from it. As an added benefit, if you communicate nothing and participate anonymously, you don't have to worry about any of the compliance hassles. See some guidance on easy ways to get started on Twitter as a financial advisor.
Tip 3: Share What You Already Read
Success in social media, as with almost any networking and relationship-building effort, is to be seen as a trusted and credible source for information and solutions. Hopefully, you already make an effort to read and keep yourself up to date on the latest news and information that's important to, and regarding, your target clientele. So the next step of social media is to simply share what you already read. With the online tools available today (see here for a list of what I use for social media activity), you can make your initial social media efforts little more than tapping a quick button on your screen after you finish reading what you were reading anyway, making the marginal effort to share content all of about two seconds.
