Unless you've been trapped on a remote island in the Pacific battling evil black smoke, you've probably heard the phrase "social media" bandied about recently. It seems that every marketing consultant, Internet guru and business pundit is talking about it. Indeed, if you view the timeline of the term "social media" on Google, the use of that phrase has grown exponentially over the past five years.
Technophiles think social media is the online version of the Second Coming, while skeptics view it as another technological flash in the pan. So, which is it? As with all things new and big, the answer lies somewhere in the middle.
Should you care about social media? Absolutely, without question. Here are some stats from ChiefMarketer.com:
o 35% of all adults online have social media profiles
o 83% of all adults aged 30-49 use the Internet; 77% ages 50-64
o The median age of Facebook users is 33, up from 26 in 2008
Further, Twitter recently claimed that there are nearly 50 million tweets per day (that comes to about 600 tweets per second!). And, according to iStrategyLabs, the fastest growing demographic on Facebook is the 55 and over crowd -- 2009 growth was 922%! Clearly, this is not your granddaughter's marketing tool.
These are certainly impressive figures. But does this mean social media is an online revolution? Not really. It's more like an evolutionary step within the broader Internet revolution that continues to shape society. Social media is simply the catchall phrase to describe the increasingly interactive nature of the Web today.
From a marketing perspective, the biggest thing about it is that it means marketing is no longer simply a message push. Marketing is now a push-pull, bi-directional process and if you're not using the new tools available to you in your practice, then you are missing out -- and playing catch-up will be harder. In a few years, it's very likely that we'll hear less about "social media," but not because the fad has died. Rather, social media will be baked into the cake and will simply become the way we all use the Internet. To quote the Borg, "Resistance is futile."
Many people believe that Facebook, Twitter, blogs and other social media tools are the domain of the young, who tend to have significantly less assets than the boomers. The social media age gap is rapidly disappearing, but regardless, 20- and 30-somethings will be your clients and prospects one day. They will expect you to communicate with them via the social channels they prefer. This is reason enough to explore the potential of these tools.
Professional networking site LinkedIn has experienced explosive growth among professionals because it enables connections and helps people maintain relationships; 75% of its users are 35 or older. A major part of an advisor's business is relationship building and maintenance. Social media is another tool in your relationship-building arsenal -- just like the telephone, the in-person meeting, e-mail and written correspondence. You wouldn't abandon any of those tools, so you shouldn't turn your back on social media either.
Hopefully, I've made the case for why you should be adopting social media tools now. One of the biggest stumbling blocks to people who want to move ahead with social media is how to go about it.
Here are some tips to get started:
Get compliance blessing first. One thing that is often missing from the broader social media discussion is that financial services is different from other industries. Amazon does not have regulators looking over their marketing strategies and are thus able to use social media to its fullest extent. Obviously, that is not the case for financial marketers. Happily, regulators have woken up to the fact that social media is here to stay and have started issuing guidelines around the issue. Unfortunately, it's often not a black-or-white issue and compliance officers differ in how they interpret the guidelines. So, before you do anything, check with your compliance department to see what they will allow.
Register for LinkedIn and Facebook and add your clients to your network. Most people post a lot of information about themselves on these networks. This information can be used to keep up with developments in your clients' lives (such as birthdays, career changes, the birth of new children, etc.) and to learn more about a prospect before a meeting. (Another tip: Allow the online tools to notify you of things, but ACT offline! For example, if Facebook says one of your clients is having a birthday, don't simply post "happy birthday" to their wall or send an e-mail. Pick up the phone and call or send them an actual card via snail mail.)
Set up a Facebook page for your practice. If you run your own practice, consider setting up a Facebook page for it. This is different from your personal Facebook profile -- think of it as a profile for a business. It allows people to become a "fan" of the business profile and lets you post updates, including links to articles or other content that might interest your "fans."
Register for Twitter and encourage your clients to follow you. How can you use Twitter? One simple way is to link to news articles that your clients and prospects might find interesting. You can also use Twitter to follow your favorite media outlets, most of which are now using this Web site to connect to readers.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, social media is not the Field of Dreams -- just because you build it, doesn't mean people will come. While you can be more passive with a LinkedIn account once you have your initial network established, reaping the full benefits of the other tools requires time. You might consider allotting 30 minutes a day to update various profiles, find news articles relevant to your clients, building the various networks, and -- most importantly -- managing the relationships within these networks.
Social media is not something to fear. If you remember that it's simply a set of tools that allow you to build and maintain relationships -- and it should be used in partnership with your current relationship maintenance methods -- then you are well on your way to social media security.
Michael Ellison is founder and executive vice president of Corporate Insight, a leading consultant delivering competitive intelligence and non-biased comprehensive analyses of the financial services space. He moderated a panel on "Why Our Industry Should Care About Social Media" at the recent Insured Retirement Institute Conference in New York.
