And here we go.
There are many benefits to staying top of mind in social media. According to a Putnam Investments study, the number of advisors getting new clients through social media is up sharply to 79%, with the average annual asset gain at $4.6 million.
But for many advisors, their blogs and social media posts go unread. Why? The simple truth is, getting attention online is difficult. What makes it worse is, a lot of advisors are making mistakes so their audience isn’t engaging.
Here are 3 things many FAs are getting wrong:
1.) Headline fail: People don’t click on articles, they click headlines. The problem is, most advisors use bland headlines. Here a few (these are actual examples):
Tax Planning Strategies for Retirement Investments (The topic isn’t bad, it’s just a complicated title, not compelling in the least
How Capital Creates Mobility (I don’t even know what this means)
Plan Perspectives Retirement Insights (No idea)
Goals-Based Wealth Management (Um?)
Capital Creates Fitness That Counts (You lost me at “Capital”)
Conversely, here are 4 high-performing headlines on LinkedIn. They aren’t financial titles, but they’ll give you an idea of what works. (Note the amount of 'likes' these got):
In a Job Interview, This is How to Acknowledge Your Weaknesses (33,000 likes)
If You Want to Be Successful, You Need to Be Relevant (32,000 likes)
Why You Should Have At Least 1 Hour THINKING Time Every Day (16,000 likes)
17 Predictions About The Future Of Big Data Everyone Should Read (11,000 likes)
A Few Things Every Company Can Learn From Silicon Valley (5,700 likes)
2.) Stop posting topics people don’t care about: Face it, not many people want to read about finance. So, you have to make it interesting. Instead of writing an in-depth article about 529 plans, tie the article to something more interesting. For example, “March Madness is here, see how much these final four schools cost.” Then talk about how you’ll need to save with a 529. Or tie your article to the Super Bowl, or holidays like Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, New Year’s Eve, etc.
3.) Don’t speak financialese: Write for humans. Not for financial robots. Don’t use big words like “holistic wealth management” or “Amortizing compounding growth in various market cycles.” Just don't do it. Testing shows that this lessens conversion.
Use smaller words with fewer syllables
Use simple descriptions
Write short sentences
Takeaway: Before you go out there and post more content, be sure you’re doing it right so you actually engage people. It will take a bit to get used to, but once you do - you can grow your followers which will help you stay top of mind.