Social media – why the Financial Services Industry should embrace it.
Businesses can benefit from building new business through social networking. Social media is growing at a rapid pace and you really can’t afford to ignore it. LinkedIn held a Financial Services Summit in May 2013. It highlighted the fact that many financial services organistations are lagging behind in their social media offerings and that financial advisers are mainly reaching out to prospective clients just through LinkedIn.
There are simple ways for brokers to promote themselves in the digital world. Most of us have a personal online profile these days, so why not have one for your business?
Here are our ten top tips to help you get the best from social media:
- Do some research – find out where your clients ‘socialise’; smart brokers target those networks first.
- Generate new business – if you post information regularly, it can become a primary source of income.
- Change perceptions – about the way you might be perceived by other brokers as well as your clients.
- Promote what you do – launch exclusive insurance deals, spread the word about your latest news and market insights.
- Beware of FCA – don’t fall foul of their regulations, ensure that your social media strategy is clear, fair and not misleading.
- Introduce a sense of personality – twitter can help show a human side behind business which might tip the balance when clients are comparing broker deals.
- Boost your image – there are 2.7 million LinkedIn company pages, maybe it’s time to add your business and services.
- Use different networks – Facebook which can be more light hearted will hit a billion users by Summer 2013.
- Contribute to discussion groups – offer advice, keep up-to-date and add a link that can help drive traffic to your website.
- Timely response – keep on top of responding to client questions, queries and concerns on time.
Social media can’t be considered in isolation from your overall marketing activity. Harness its real benefits to win over your clients. Social media marketing can play a significant role for businesses who want to stay successful. Take clients by surprise and be sociable.
