RIAs recount how they reap new clients using LinkedIn and Twitter, stealing a march on shackled wirehouse advisors

Brooke sent a few tweets this week? Finally, the tipping point!

Advisors have been right over the last few years to be skeptical about how social media (infamous for its ability to drain hours and days out of work lives) could contribute to their businesses. Credit Cathy Curtis and other early adopters for experimenting and then being open about what they’ve learned.

There is a model that can be followed. It requires commitment, consistency and a lot of thought but it’s good to see results being reported across the board. All has not been figured out. Practice and sharing evolving best practices is the only way to get close to perfect (itself a shifting target).

Props to you too, Brooke, for keeping at it with the coverage. You are no pushover and that’s how it should be. (No snickering, I promise.)

Lisa (and Brooke) — What a great case study to my earlier piece and Brooke’s follow up regarding social media and advisors. Many continue to treat social media marketing like the peas and carrots on their plate they don’t want to eat. More examples like these will start the “herd mentality” that exists in this space and it won’t be a big secret much longer. What these advisors are also doing at the same time (besides great interaction w/ clients/prospects) is further building their brands and creating a transparent public image that makes them approachable. And for the advisors who don’t like social media marketing? Find someone that does and can run things for you — LinkedIn just turned 10 years old, these platforms are not going away and can save you time and money in the future.

To Mr. Kahler’s claim, if he is promoting his blog, web site, etc. via his Twitter profile it is very much a lead generator for his firm. It’s one of the better distribution platforms out there for content. Take a more holistic look at your analytics and your Twitter profile’s SEO ranking to know the opportunity costs of not being active on social media as well.

Kevin and Pat,

I have a question. Are there proven ways to get the right people to follow you on Twitter? I recall starting out and hating the idea of tweeting to oblivion.

thanks,

Brooke

@Brooke, the starter would be to follow key people and the engage them in conversation/ask them good questions. Re-tweeting their posts will help as well. Likely the best way you can start is create a custom profile, with your picture and an interesting bio. Search relevant keywords in your field and follow those people’s pages you know will be a fit. That’s a good starting point.

Makes sense. I wish somebody would also write about how to write a Twitter profile. Often you almost can’t tell who the heck the person is or they have some syrup about making people’s lives better or finding all things interesting related xyz. A turnoff. A fumble at the one yard line.

Your piece on content would be a good start.

Brooke

It would be useful, for all professionals, to have independent stats on ROI for any social media. Anecdotal evidence, stories/“case studies” is not enough for professionals to dedicate limited resources – mainly time.

Always better to make decision on data rather than stories. Of course, the stories shared are always positive. Research actually suggest “worst practices” studies are productive.

Trial and error with anything online can be very expensive and risky for a reputation. Also, remember it is “social” media not “sales” or “personal” media. Reputation management is a growing service area – for us.

Elmer,

Good points. My counter to you is that there is enough data here for RIA heuristics and extrapolation to take place while we await Gartner’s “data.”

One point that hit home with me in this article was that some people really have fun with social media. And if you have fun with something then it may not be subtracted from work time and the joy will be contagious and will lead to success.

Also, with data, I can’t help but to think of the maxim: Figures don’t lie but liars do figure.

Brooke

There is also, BTW, research on optimizing followership on social media. We have never seen any for B2B, professional, predominantly male or older adult users, however. Most social media users are young women.

There is good research that Twitter users are not representative of the general population thus Twitter users poorly predict B2C things like movie success, political results, etc.

There is far less research on whether somed is productive. The few studies we have seen,show it is not for very basic B2C tasks like selling more things to women gift buyers during the holidays (A Nielsen study), etc. These facts and data are conspicuously ignored by marketers, of course.

OK, well let’s take the medical profession, or engineering and other critical professions.
Is fun/joy a business or professional basis for allocation of resources? Would we prefer medical care, or bridge building, based on “figures” or anecdotal stories?

Of course, the majority of people do go with professional and medical services based on stories and avoidance of facts and research, e.g., holistic medicine, etc.. But we don’t build bridges like that anymore.

Most professions are based on helping clients take actions that don’t just feel good and are hard to do, uncomfortable and are based on hard to understand facts.

If social media is cheap and easy to do, understand and use – what is the likely value?

I always think the best way to start with Twitter is to just read others – follow a bunch of people and then get in some conversations – essentially what Pat and Kevin have said. Watching a news story unfold on Twitter is so fascinating. But the problem I always have, and I’ve mentioned it to just about everyone – is the consistency issue. I’ll be Tweeting and interacting for a few good weeks and then things get crazy and I’m not as consistent. Ultimately, just like getting called into the principal’s office an advisor or source will “call me out” and say something like “Why isn’t Lisa Shidler tweeting or responding to Tweet messages.” Unfortunately, the public scrutiny is quite helpful get jumps me back into the Twitter game. When I have time, I really do enjoy Twitter too!

Elmer,

I have two confessions to make, one professional, one medical.

I have fun doing RIABiz.

When I catch a cold (as I just did), I take chicken soup advice as seriously as what doctors say.

Brooke

Define productive Elmer? developing new relationships with prospects? deepening existing relationships with current clients (e.g. making them better referral sources), building your brand in a local/regional market, using these sites to effectively distribute company news/events/milestones?

You ask for data, you got it. Don’t add misinformation on social media users be just “young women”. Wow, so we’re ruling out women now and only targeting older men? Women don’t count in investment decisions? Yikes. How about 200 million users and financial services is the 2nd most utilized vertical on LinkedIn.

This from a 30 second Google search:

http://pewinternet.org/Commentary/2012/March/Pew-Internet-Social-Networking-full-detail.aspx

http://www.fticonsulting.com/global2/media/collateral/united-states/financial-advisors-use-of-social-media-moves-from-early-adoption-to-mainstream.pdf

Well, let’s unpack this. Let’s define productive simply as a return of income that is greater than the cost of doing the social media, time cost as well. Let’s also say over a six month period.

The abstract concepts like “building the brand” are fine if they translate into qualified prospects. Right?

Well, if there is independent data proving the B2B, let along financial advisor, income producing productivity of any social media tool in 30 secs — there would be no debate! But there is not. I would suggest a 30 day search of research would turn up any more, or less, evidence.

Some of the largest B2C marketers in the world are still trying to prove ANY social media produces sales. B2B applications are way behind those efforts and financial services like banks even further back and advisory work even further behind.

Do we have any sort of fact base for even discussing this? In some professionally planned nd executed cases we see reputation boosting – but we do this for a living.

How can an advisor be effective with ad hoc or inconsistent attempts? If advisors should do their own social media marketing, should they also create their own software and accounting practices? Be their own attorneys?

If this is a legitimate professional tool – why wouldn’t it demand professional skills, and experience. Why would it be DIY? An advisor’s public and online reputation is one of the more tangible business equity assets why engage in it like a hobby?

If the intellectual capital, solutions, POV’s processes and skills of a firms and it’s professionals isn’t digitized today – effectively — no one will ever know about it or be able to search and find it electronically. Should digitizing the intellectual capital of a firm be done for “fun?”

These are straightforward balance sheet and income statement business questions.

Brooke,

You might enjoy my blog post about “Getting Started on Twitter”...
http://blog.aaronklein.com/post/46329431505/how-to-get-started-on-twitter

I wrote it after a few friends asked for my advice on the subject. :)

Aaron

I like it, Aaron.

Would you be willing to have it posted here, with a few of your points explained in greater detail? Sort of a tweeting guide for non-canaries.

Are there really people who tweet 50 times a day!

Brooke

Of course! Go for it.

And yes…you clearly don’t follow our advisory board member @ReformedBroker. I think he probably hits 100 on a typical day. ;)

I’m curious as to how other CFPs are using Facebook to market…

For now, I’ll tweet or re-tweet. I’m blogging and posting to LinkedIn. But, for me, Facebook is an enigma wrapped in a mystery… Is it me or is it just a bunch of people with too much time on their hands posting about their daily meals or travels and kids? How am I supposed to join the conversation (authentically) or start a conversation when no one seems to be doing “business” there.

Is anyone using FB for business purposes?
S