Financial advisors have been using email for many years now as a primary way to communicate with clients and prospects. However, if you’re like most advisors, you haven’t really devised an email marketing strategy designed to cultivate relationships and convert new clients. Most financial advisor email communications consist of canned newsletter content. Why? Because it’s easy, cheap, and turnkey.

If you’re using a canned email newsletter, you may as well save your time and money. Your emails are not being opened or consumed, and most importantly, you may be neglecting the most important business asset you have.

Email presents an opportunity to go deeper with your connections by building trust and loyalty. If you can win a spot in the email inbox, you will have a competitive advantage.

Email is still an incredibly important tool for reaching and influencing your target markets

Our email inboxes serve as one of the only online spaces that we can still keep completely private. Think about who you “let in” to your email inbox these days. As spam email has increased, we’ve become more selective about who we let in and we’re managing our inboxes more effectively.

Getting into the email inboxes of members in your target market is a big opportunity to cultivate relationships and influence decisions.

Not only do people consider reading email a daily priority, they are also increasingly accessing their email accounts through mobile devices!

I am convinced that if you’re not capturing and cultivating a high quality list of loyal followers, you are missing a huge opportunity to build the most important business asset in a wired world…your trusted network. These are the people who are going to eventually become your clients and /or refer you business.

The smart “new media” financial companies, advisors, and wealth managers of today are focusing heavily on building their contact databases to drive business. You need to do the same if you want to remain relevant!

Your Most Valuable Business Asset is Your Contact Database!

Some call it your “list”, and others call it your “database”. I’m going to call it your trusted network, because that’s what it truly is. It is a loyal following of clients, prospects, professional alliances and business advocates that you build (not buy) from scratch by providing relevant insights and information (thought leadership content), and positioning yourself as a trusted resource in social media channels (community).

These individuals have purposefully “opted in” to your contact database, giving you permission to reach them through their email inboxes where you can further cultivate a relationship with them.

Your trusted network of contacts should include current clients, prospects, advocates of your business, professional alliances, and leads that you generate organically from your website or blog.

Build Your Trusted Network Organically

A list is nothing more than a list. If you didn’t go out and build your contact database organically, it’s not going to be a qualified list of contacts that have some kind of personal connection with you. It’s pretty much worthless. People are smart about what they sign-up for these days. If you’re trying to build rapport with a list of strangers who don’t know anything about you or your business and never signed up to hear from you, it won’t work.

If you build your list of contacts by positioning yourself as a thought leader who shares informative, interesting, and relevant content through blogging and social media, you will capture a trusted network that can build equity in your business.

DO NOT EVER opt anyone into your database without their permission. This is an abusive practice and email marketing companies will shut you down for it. I’ve had hundreds of conversations with financial advisors who somehow believe since we’ve visited briefly, that gives them permission to sign me up for their email newsletter!  Don’t do this!

Your Blog or Website as a Database Attraction and Marketing Hub

If you don’t have a powerful blog or website that is integrated tightly with your social media channels, it’s really almost impossible to build a powerful trusted network.

You need to have a well designed online “landing pad” where you can drive connections from social media or online search, and ultimately encourage them to “opt-in” to your exclusive trusted network (your contact database)!

A special offer on a blog or website is critical for building your trusted network. What value can you provide to someone in your target market in exchange for their contact information? If your thought leadership content on your blog is truly inspiring and educational, that may very well be enough to prompt them to subscribe to your updates!

Ebooks or white papers that provide relevant and insightful information to your target markets also serve as powerful lead capture tools for building your contact database, and these can easily be showcased on a website or blog landing pages.

You must build and grow your trusted network organically. Existing clients and prospects should serve as the core foundation of your database, but if you want to grow your business in a wired world, you must continue to build your database with new members!

The Role of CONTENT and COMMUNITY in Building Your Trusted Network

The TWO most critical forces for attracting members into your contact database in a wired world are Content and Community.

#1)Content

Content can come in many forms (written, video, audio, images), but ultimately it’s your UNIQUE thought leadership content that can make you stand out and differentiate yourself in a wired world. Blog technology can facilitate content publishing and social media channels provide outlets for distributing your content and engaging individuals around your thought leadership insights and ideas!

#2)Community

Community refers to the collection of friends, fans, and followers that you can build through social communities and even “offline” in your everyday personal and professional life. Today with sophisticated social networks, we have the ability to organize our communities and remain visible and valuable to our connections.

Remember, however, that the connections that you build through social media engagement and participation aren’t a part of your contact database by default. This is why creating and publishing content through blogging is so important. It gives you the ability to attract your target markets and provide them with an incentive to “opt-in” to your list.

By opting into your list, a contact is giving you permission to further cultivate the relationship with them through their email inbox (and potentially other connection points)

Cherish your Trusted Network and treat your members with respect!

Consumers today have complete control over who they want to tune into. Will you be their financial resource of choice?

Stop sending your precious contacts mundane, canned information in your email newsletters! This is a surefire way to encourage them to unsubscribe from you, and to listen to another advisor who does know how to creatively cultivate relationships through the email inbox.

Instead, go out and find some great content to share with them (including a healthy dose of your own thought leadership content)! Sprinkle in your personality. Make your emails to your database personable, fresh and relevant! Create email campaigns that teach, inspire, and motivate your trusted network to reach out to you for answers and solutions! Give them great information that can help them.

Learn how to improve your email marketing results. The research is out there!

The Power of Database Intelligence Marketing and Selling

Here is where it really begins to get interesting, especially with the help of new database marketing technologies.

Today we have software tools that can provide us with amazing insights and intelligence about what the members of our trusted network are most interested in. We can learn more about who they are and what’s important to them by studying their behaviors when the receive an email from us, or visit our websites and blogs.

Tailoring what you deliver to your trusted network (contact database) using insights and intelligence about what their interests are is very powerful! You don’t have to guess anymore and you can make informed decisions!

(I’ll be sharing more about these software tools that can help you gather intelligence in the future)

Intelligent positioning and selling today is all about the quality of the trusted network you can build through the content you publish, the communities you cultivate in social media channels, and the tailored, targeted emails you can send to your “qualified” list to build deeper relationships with them.

Your most valuable business asset today and in the future is your Trusted Network of contacts. Build it, cultivate it, nurture it, grow it, protect it.

Do you view your contact database as your most important business asset? What are you doing to build equity in that asset?

A few months ago, I gave a presentation to financial advisors about something called a “personal media revolution“.

We’ve entered an era where literally each of us has the ability to become our own powerful and influential media company. This is potentially the biggest shift in power we have ever witnessed since the invention of the printing press.

Creating and publishing your own content is not difficult, but it does take time, energy, creativity, planning, strategy, and research.

Most people are more comfortable with consuming content versus creating content, and most are not disciplined enough to consistently create content on an ongoing basis. Those who do, however, will be the ones who get rewarded.

Content generates visibility and builds influence

The power of the influence will be in the hands of the content creators. These are the people who are taking advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity to create, develop, and advance their personal and professional brands!

Will you claim your space for yourself and your firm in the digital age?

To educate your clients and prospects about today’s financial challenges and opportunities, you need to build a system that makes you (and your thought leadership) accessible, available, and shareable. Market commentaries and stock articles about money and finance just aren’t exciting. They don’t speak to the needs and concerns of anyone.

What questions are your clients asking? What trending topics are interesting, exciting, and perhaps relevant to their lives? How can you coach, support, and guide your clients through the maze of news, information, and garbage out there?

The answer: publish high quality content consistently that speaks to their needs, concerns, life changes, goals, and dreams

You must become a digital publisher if you want to build influence, attract and engage your target audience, and grow your business. If you’re already publishing digitally and it’s not working, either step up your frequency, or more importantly, have someone review and evaluate your content. More than likely, what you’re publishing isn’t interesting and relevant, or perhaps it doesn’t flow very well.

If you don’t create and publish your own thought leadership content in the age of the personal media revolution, you will put your business at serious risk. Your competitors who do invest in content creation have a tremendous opportunity to grab the attention and the loyalty of  YOUR clients.

Ultimately, with all of the noise, YOU need to be the voice that your clients and prospects listen to, and the channel they tune into. Otherwise, they are going to be persuaded to listen to someone else who is speaking to their needs, concerns, goals and challenges. Someone else will guide them, and it could be a direct competitor!

Everyone can be an author now!

Apple recently announced its own iBooks Author program. If you know anything about Apple’s Garageband program for music, it has empowered musicians (and even non-musicians) to easily create, produce, and distribute music for little or no cost! With iBooks, it is going to be amazingly simple now to create, publish, and distribute your own ebooks!

Wow, that’s powerful.

iTunes, in and of itself, is becoming a full blown consumer content library with music, movies, podcasts, and now ebooks being produced and offered by anyone who wants to create this content!

In case you haven’t noticed, ebooks are taking over the world of physical books. Sad, but true. Kindle already has an ebook publishing tool for individuals. Do you realize how much credibility publishing a book, or even an ebook can give you?

There is a unique window of opportunity RIGHT NOW to go out and claim your space in this digital revolution. Who will you lead? How will you differentiate yourself? What unique message do you have to share? How can teach, motivate, and inspire your clients and prospects?

Building influence, by default, breeds business growth. It opens doors to new opportunities, from introductions and referrals to speaking engagements, media exposure, strategic business partnerships, and much more. Think beyond new clients. You can’t even imagine the opportunities that await you.

A Content-Driven Website or Blog is Key.

If you don’t have a tool where you can easily publish and showcase the content that you create, how are you going to manage this process? Brochure-based, static websites won’t work for a couple of reasons. They aren’t built to allow for simple publishing and content distribution. Traditional websites are also a place for business information and client tools for activities such as logging into their accounts!  Most of the financial advisor websites I see are client portals, not tools for developing relationships!

Blogging technology, on the other hand, enables easy publishing for all of your content, supports multiple forms of content, and integrates seamlessly with your social media channels. A professional blog site is a digital asset that can be built around who you are as a person, who you help, and how you help them.

Your primary “new media” web presence should be focused on relationship development.

Content is the engine that drives influence.

Positioning yourself as a thought leader using content that you create such as articles, videos, presentations, audio podcasts, and ebooks or white papers that you publish are all forms of content that can help you build influence within your target markets.

Content is shareable.

Want to get found by your ideal clients and prospects? Create interesting, entertaining, relevant content that speaks to your target markets. Great content gets passed on and shared through email, social networks, and even through print.

Content drives leads.

If you frequently publish great content, you can attract, capture, and cultivate prospects through providing that content. Some of your best content can be kept behind a wall where your site visitors must provide you with their contact information in exchange for a piece of content such as a compelling white paper, ebook, worksheet, or even for the ability to pick your brain and ask a question! You can get creative with your “special offers” and “calls to action”! (and many will be willing to give you their contact information in exchange for something that can truly help them)

People want knowledge. Share you insights, your stories, and your best secrets. As you build loyalty, both clients and potential prospects will sign-up for your newsletters, events, and programs. In addition, if your content is really good they will be motivated to share it with their friends and connections on social networks.

It’s high quality content that allows you to build trust online.

Choose your content medium.

You don’t have to be a good writer to be a publisher. Are you comfortable in front of a video camera? Do you take interesting pictures? Does speaking into a microphone and recording your own podcast sound appealing? What about recorded powerpoint presentations?

Choose one or combine them all.

Practice builds confidence. Don’t be afraid of this. You don’t have to be perfect, especially when you’re just starting out. (trust me on this, I’m a perfectionist). It’s more about having the confidence to put your ideas out there. Once you begin to do that, you will begin to build an audience within your target markets. Eventually, you will become known as a thought leader if you work hard at it and focus your message.

Can you effectively outsource content creation?

You can outsource content creation to a certain extent. Just don’t outsource your voice. Outsource your process and implementation, and use custom tailored solutions versus canned, ghost-written solutions.

Keep in mind that there are some negatives to outsourcing your content:

-It won’t be YOU. Because of this, there is a decline in authenticity. Some will be able to pick up on that, especially as they get to know you personally.

-You won’t be able to do video or audio without your face or your voice, and these are two VERY powerful content mediums that will continue to grow in relevance simply because they create a more authentic connection with people

-Someone could misrepresent you (I’m not talking about intentionally misrepresenting you either. The fact that it’s not you means that it won’t always be exactly what you want to say or how you want to say it)

-Outsourcing can be expensive if you want to do it right, so be prepared to pay

What if you’re firm won’t allow you to create your own content?

This certainly presents more of a challenge, but you can still build thought leadership and “claim your space” by curating content produced by others. You will need to put your own spin on this content as you share it to initiate engagement and connection on social media channels. To do this, however, you need to have a great system for discovering high quality content above and beyond any firm provided materials. Most firms haven’t built content libraries that speak to the needs, concerns, personalities, perceptions, and everyday challenges of the human beings in your target markets. The content is typically general in nature, and more or less covering news, research analysis, market commentaries, etc. It’s difficult to get to the heart of the matter with generalized content.

The bigger issue with not being able to create and publish your own content is that you really need a HUB to drive your connections back to, such as a personalized blog, or blog-driven website where that content exists. It’s this process that allows you to capture and cultivate prospects as well as build loyalty.

However, publishing something is better than publishing nothing at all!

Everyone has something worthy to share that can help others. You have a story and a message. You have a unique value proposition in working with your clients. Who is hearing your message currently? Instead of speaking to one client or prospect at a time, how about speaking to thousands?

Becoming a publisher is a way for you to lead, teach, inspire, and educate your target markets in a public setting in a way that can attract them to you. As people get to know who you are and what you’re about through your public digital publishing efforts, they will get to know, like, and ultimately trust you.

As a digital publisher in the age of social media, you can effectively build influence to grow your business. It works.

What are your thoughts? Please share them in the comments below!

 photo credit: » Zitona «

These days we can get our daily news through a multitude of resources from across the web.  From traditional news sites to blogs and social networks, there is an abundance of information available on every topic.

LinkedIn Today is a newer resource available for the professional community from within LinkedIn that puts your daily news in the context of your professional social network. As LinkedIn describes it, LinkedIn Today allows you to discover what the world’s professionals are reading, sharing AND tweeting. Bottom line, it’s a professional social news source that you can utilize to grow your social influence.

The “sharing” of articles on LinkedIn Today is powered by both LinkedIn and Twitter. (If you haven’t connected your Twitter account to your LinkedIn account yet, we recommend doing so in order to easily expand your reach when you share articles). LinkedIn Today does pull in trending articles that are being shared by members on Twitter.

LinkedIn Today also gives you the option to save articles. Perhaps you want to read through them at a later time and then share? You can easily build a file of relevant articles for your collection.

The Top News From Your Industry Curated by the People 

The power of LinkedIn Today is that the top articles are showcased based on how often they’ve been shared by members on LinkedIn and Twitter. There is no editor. These articles are curated by LinkedIn members, and they are coming from a multitude of high quality sources from across the web. The “sources” list started out small but continues to expand. You may even be able to find some of the blogs that you subscribe to!

With all of the sources available now for customizing your LinkedIn Today dashboard, you can really build a unique and personalized news flow and start positioning yourself as a resource to your LinkedIn and Twitter connections with what you discover and share!

How does LinkedIn determine which articles get visibility on LinkedIn Today?

What makes LinkedIn Today so powerful is that the news articles displayed are those that have been shared, liked, or commented on the most by LinkedIn members. Articles are sorted by industry and news source, based on the industry assigned to profiles of those who have shared them. Most importantly, LinkedIn will give a higher preference to more recent articles if they’re being shared quickly by a broad base of members. 

3 STEPS FOR USING LINKEDIN TODAY TO BUILD INFLUENCE

There are many ways to build social relationships with your LinkedIn connections, and one of the best ways to grow your social influence is to consistently curate and share timely, relevant content with them in order to remain visible and valuable.

Remember, with all of the content now available online, people are overloaded with information but they are thirsting for knowledge.  Position yourself as someone who is “in the know” within the context of your industry to become influential. Get them off of the world wide web by becoming a core resource for your clients, prospects, and connections to follow!

#1)CUSTOMIZE LinkedIn Today by Your Industry, Interests and Sources

The first action to take with LinkedIn Today is to customize and organize your news page to show you the most relevant articles based on your industry, interests and sources.  LinkedIn Today allows you to follow categories of news that you and your connections care about most.

My recommendation is to follow your industry, related industries, and any and all sources that can help you grow your reputation as an influencer.

For example, the industry I specialize in is Financial Services and this is my target market.  However, the content I specialize in is online marketing and social media. Therefore, it makes sense for me to follow industries and sources related to both so that I can provide a blend of relevant content to my audience!

Furthermore, I love a good story from NPR and I also believe that the Harvard Business Review provides some excellent leadership content, so I follow these sources as well and share appropriate content with my network. The point is to mix it up and create a blend of valuable sources that can help you stay visible and valuable in your niche markets.

#2)SCAN Your LinkedIn Today Headlines Daily

I love the fact that LinkedIn provides you with the option to receive daily email updates from LinkedIn Today. Let’s face it, with a weekly news digest you can certainly keep tabs on what has happened in your industry, but that news will get old fast.  If you want to be an influencer, you’ll need to stay on top of what’s trending, and identify the most interesting and relevant news and content to share with your connections in a timely fashion.

Update your email setting to receive daily email updates from LinkedIn Today. When you do this, you should receive a personalized morning email with the “7 Things You Need to Know in the News Today“!

In addition, I would recommend visiting LinkedIn Today a few times daily for news and updates that you may have missed.  It’s really a one-stop shop for news that matters to your professional social network. My goal is to get in there at least a couple of times daily (usually morning and noon time), and share an article or two with my network.

#3)Consistently SHARE AND COMMENT on Relevant Articles from LinkedIn Today

It’s one thing to share a link to content with your social connections, but you must consistently share, comment, and engage with people in order to grow your influence.

Not only will LinkedIn Today show you the top headlines that LinkedIn members are interested in by industry or news source, you can also see what some those members have to say about the articles when they include comments.  (If no comments were included, that area is completely blank)

For each article that appears on LinkedIn Today, you will see a small people icon with a number next to it (see below).  This indicates how many people have shared that particular article on LinkedIn and Twitter. Once you decide to share the article with your connections, you can even filter the most recent shares by company, industry, or location.

Whether an article has been shared by many or few, if it can be valuable and relevant to your network, go ahead and share it and always remember to include your own comments.  Anything that you share can potentially be viewed by anyone on LinkedIn, depending on how many times that item continues to be shared by your connections, their connections, and beyond!

You can also share LinkedIn Today items with LinkedIn Groups that you belong to, and even as a status update for your LinkedIn Company Page if you have one! Sharing high quality content and commentary with your LinkedIn Groups is a great way to start new discussions and add value.

Whatever articles you decide to share, use it as an opportunity to create dialogue and engagement with people.

This icon shows you the number of times the link has been shared on LinkedIn and Twitter

Share the article with your followers; filter the most recent shares

If you are connected to a LinkedIn member who has previously shared an article, you will be able to click through to their profile and reply or comment directly on what they’ve shared (engage!).  You can also view the profiles of people who have recently shared an article in your industry and determine if it might make sense to invite them to connect with you, especially if you have some things in common within your professional profiles.

If you share AND comment on articles from LinkedIn Today with your LinkedIn connections, Groups, and Twitter network, you have a tremendous opportunity to be consistently visible and valuable to your network.  LinkedIn has done a lot of the heavy lifting by curating headlines for you, but you can take this to the next level by curating further for your own network!  Add your layer of professionalism and insight in order to grow your social influence.

Share on the Go

We are busy people, and there is no doubt that having the ability to communicate and get things done on our mobile devices is critical.

If you haven’t downloaded the LinkedIn app for your mobile device, you are missing the ability to engage with your network on the go! LinkedIn Today is a featured part of this application. View trending articles from the app itself and click to share them with your network! It’s that simple. Not only can you easily share and comment on trending news, you can edit your news sources from within the app!

To learn more about the mobile app for your device, CLICK HERE.

LinkedIn Today will continue to expand as more industries are added, and as more professionals begin to utilize the site as a social news resource. It can be a critical tool for building online influence as a professional if you learn how to utilize it.

To learn more about the basics of LinkedIn Today, go through the overview provided by the LinkedIn Today team.

Did you know about LinkedIn Today? Will you consider using it as a tool to grow your professional influence?

By default, building influence in social networks can help you build your business. When you focus on building influence, you create more opportunities for visibility, credibility, and connections. New connections can lead to introductions and referrals. Having a relationship-mindset when participating in social networking is imperative if you want to experience results. You need to learn the art of building social influence.

Too many people are using LinkedIn Groups to market their own businesses outright. Smart marketers understand that this is not how to effectively build influence. Rather, it’s a great way to turn people off.

Follow the 5 steps below to make the most of your LinkedIn Group memberships!

5 Steps to Building Influence in LinkedIn Groups

1)Research and choose a handful of well-managed groups

LinkedIn allows you to join up to 50 groups, but can you possibly be effective and spend enough time to make a difference in 50 groups?  No.

LinkedIn as a robust “Groups” search feature to help you identify and join groups that are most relevant to your business. You can find groups by topic, geographical location, profession, and many additional search parameters. Plug in keywords that accurately represent the kind of group you are looking for.

Group Keywords "Marketing for Financial Advisors"

Evaluate the groups you’ve joined or intend to join and focus on the top 3 to 5  (a manageable number where you can spend more quality time)!  Also consider groups that your peers belong to because it’s a great way to learn from each other. It is not hard to tell if the group is filled with spam and self-promotional links from members. Open groups are especially vulnerable to this. Just make sure the group appears to be well managed.

For example, in the Wired Advisor eMarketing Group for Financial Advisors, we manage very tightly who gets in, and what members post to make sure they stay on topic. We delete any posts that are considered to be blatant marketing of products and services.

Plan to proactively visit each of your top groups 2-3 times a week.  For your top groups, update your LinkedIn settings so that you receive daily or weekly updates fro the group. If it’s a more active group, you might want to opt for daily updates in order to stay current.

Identify your best opportunities and plan to make frequent and consistent appearances!

2)Target popular discussions within the group

The most “popular” discussions within a group generally get the most visibility.  These are the topics where members are most actively engaged and these are the discussions that you will want to “weigh in” on.  The most popular discussions are at the top of the group discussion page, and typically there will be quite a few comments associated with these discussions for you to review and learn from.

As you weigh in on popular discussions, respond to existing comments, provide an insight or opinion, or even ask a thought-provoking question to generate additional comments.  You can also “Like” and “Share” a link to the discussion on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook in order to get some of your connections involved!

If your comments are value-added to the popular discussions, members will begin to recognize you as a thought leader within the group.

Become a top influencer in LinkedIn Groups

3)Start your own discussions by asking good questions!

Starting a group discussions in LinkedIn Groups is a powerful tool for growing your influence and your connections on the network. The best way to start a discussion is by asking a great question of members!

The best success I’ve had in group discussions began with a simple question in a group of 7000+ members who were all a part of my niche market. My question required members to respond by giving their advice or recommendation based on their experience. (Remember, people LOVE to give their advice) There were over 23 comments on this discussion in response to my question and it still sits at the top of the most popular discussions!

You can’t buy that kind of visibility. Not only do many of the group members continue to see my face and my LinkedIn “headline” frequently due to the discussion being popular, but they also may be prompted to visit my profile and learn more about me and my firm.

Additionally, now that members have interacted with my question and given their advice, I can send them an invitation to connect on LinkedIn with a “thank you” for their answer! This enables me to grow my network with connections from my niche market.

Ask good questions to rank in "Popular Discussions"

4)Engage, don’t market

What happens when you consistently post links to your own blog content to groups without investing in engagement is that you will eventually get moved to the “promotional” category, or your posts won’t see the light of day by the moderator. This depends on whether the group is well managed or not, but just be prepared that you won’t really build relationships by posting links to your content all the time. Posting your own content for the sake of posting it won’t trigger engagement.

If you do post an article from your blog to LinkedIn Groups, or post an event you are hosting as group discussion, for example, make sure to edit the wording so that it doesn’t appear like you are just self-promoting. Get members involved and engaged in what you are posting by asking for their insights and opinions!

Engagement means conversation. Strive to have more meaningful dialogue and interact personally with members. Comment on discussions, and even personalize your comments by using the names of members who are also contributing to the discussions!

To build influence, your focus needs to be on other members in the group more so than on your agenda.

Personalize your LinkedIn Group Comments

5)Start your own LinkedIn Group

If you are willing to make the commitment, a great option is to start your own LinkedIn Group in order to effectively build influence in your community or within your niche markets.

If you manage your own group, you have control over many aspects of your group, and to an extent you can control which discussions get more visibility through the “Manager’s Choice” feature.  As the founder of the group, it is actually your job to lead discussions with the group! Additionally, you are allowed to send personalized email messages to all group members once a week.

Ultimately it will be the members who push the most interesting discussions to the top.  Make sure if you do start your own group that you have a well-defined niche or theme, and the time to commit to managing the group.  Otherwise you may not get much traction (or it will fill up with spam). You do have to work hard to grow group membership, it won’t just happen automatically.

When starting your own group, get creative and focus on bringing people together who can benefit from sharing mutual experiences and insights.

Using a personalized, strategic approach for your LinkedIn Group participation strategy can help you build influence with members of your target markets over time. Making a commitment to adding value to a small number of well-managed groups on a consistent basis will help you build influence and new connections.  In addition, you will find that there is little competition in this strategy!

What strategies are you currently using within LinkedIn Groups?  Are you finding relevant groups where you can truly add value?  I would love to hear about your experiences.

Here we are at the end of 2011, and social media for financial advisors has officially become a hot topic. When I first began writing and talking about the subject several years ago, it wasn’t on anyone’s radar. No one was talking about it other than me, and one of my most favorite (and brilliant) colleagues, Zack Miller of The New Rules of Investing.

Back then, I happened to believe that this phenomenon of real-time communication and rich human experiences through online social networks had the power to revolutionize the financial services industry. I remember pitching my crazy business idea of creating a professional blogging and social media marketing training platform for financial advisors to some colleagues and getting laughed out of the room! (of course that didn’t stop me )

The hype and the difference in opinions

There is a lot of hype today around social media for what it truly is and what it isn’t, and it’s not surprising now that there are a slew of self-proclaimed social media experts that have entered the scene in financial services. They’ve come from everywhere…inside and outside of the industry. I think some of them have a good handle on what it takes to get results, but others who really haven’t been in the trenches long enough testing, studying, and experiencing social networking in depth.

Just as financial advisors have different opinions on investment strategy, there will be plenty of opinions on social media strategy. For example, I have advisors ask me “can I be successful with social media if I’m not publishing content to a blog”? My answer to that is, I don’t know. I’ve not experienced social media in any way other than creating and incorporating my own unique thought leadership content into the mix.

I believe that without my blog serving as that central “social media” hub, I’ve just got a bunch of social media spokes out there that aren’t connected to anything of value. The blog provides me with a social media landing page for my business. My blog is not meant to be a sales tool (and neither should yours), but I do view it as a form of educational marketing for the 21st Century. It gives me a platform to teach what I know, answer the questions of my target audience, share lessons and experiences, and ultimately build trust. My blog is the critical piece of my social media marketing portfolio. It allows me to narrow my marketing funnel and steer my social media connections into a well-defined relationship cultivation process.

Find what works for you

The point is, I really believe you have to find what works for YOU in social media. If you can’t blog or don’t want to blog, you shouldn’t. It would be a bigger mistake to start something and not follow through with it.

There is no single magic formula for success in social media. What are you uniquely qualified to talk about and how can you help others? What mediums are you comfortable with (writing, audio, video)? Do you enjoy teaching and coaching others? Who are you trying to reach? Have you defined your target niche markets? How much time do you want to commit to marketing your practice? What is landing one significant new client worth to you? What about retaining existing clients and reaching their kids?

Put a plan together, spend some time educating yourself, and start slow.

Ultimately, what you decide to put into social media is what you’re going to get out of it. Take the iPhone and iPad. Once you learn how to use these tools and what purpose they can serve for you, you can become more productive and efficient by using them. It’s the same with social tools. You need to learn how to use and leverage the tools before you can understand the value they can add to your life and your business.

Social media is effective, but it’s not quick or simple

The depth and breadth of these social networks are astounding. There are social rules in these networks. If you show up at a business gathering in shorts and a T-shirt, you’re not going to make a good impression. If you’re consistently sharing without anyone to listen, you can easily become a legend in your own mind.

I would recommend viewing each network (Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn) similarly to the way you view various investment styles or managers such as growth, value, small cap, international, etc. Each social network has its own purpose, population, and process.

There are also networking effects within each of these networks. If this, then what? What happens when I do this or that? Who sees it? Who has the potential to see it? What is a waste of time, and what is considered to be a high impact social media activity? By the way, these things evolve over time.

Being strategic about what you share, how you share it, and when you share it can go a long way in social networking.

Is investing in social media worth it?

I remember asking myself similar questions as a financial advisor for 15 years. Will seminars work? Will cold calling work? Will targeted direct mail work? Will client events work? The answer is, they all worked as long as you executed well. Making a commitment to these marketing techniques and implementing consistently did yield results.

Today, those methods are not so effective because they’ve been used and abused. Now, your best opportunity for expanding your business is online. This is where people are. You need to think about how to best meet their experiences and expectations in a wired world. How can you use social tools to stay in front of your top clients and prospects consistently? If you don’t, others will (and they already are).

From a competitive perspective alone, investing in your social reputation is worth it. If you’re not found in these places, you’re not going to have any credibility. A simple, static website won’t be enough to attract and engage your target audience. You need to bring your online presence to life, and you can do that through social media.

Additionally, you have access to people intelligence that you’ve never ever had before through social networks. In many circumstances, there are little to no contact barriers. For example, did you know that you can conduct advanced searches of the 135 Million members on LinkedIn in order to build your own prospect pipeline? Surely you can find 100 professionals out of 135 Million on LinkedIn who would be valuable to connect with!

Think about this; if you can now essentially replicate your existing offline network of clients and prospects ONLINE, you have the potential to be visible and valuable with their friends, family, colleagues, and connections! If referrals are your number one source of business, why wouldn’t you do this????

What I do know is that today, social media tools, technologies, and networks offer you an amazing opportunity to build and strengthen relationships, and expand your influence like never before.

If you establish yourself as a thought leader and claim your niche now, you will grow your business in ways you’ve never imagined.

If you sit on the sidelines, you are going to put your practice in jeopardy. There is no doubt in my mind. Those financial advisors who are getting out there early and establishing themselves now as thought leaders are building equity that will pay ongoing dividends. They LOVE the fact that most of you are dismissing social media as a passing fad when in reality, it’s the greatest business opportunity of your lifetime.

The ROI of financial advisor social media participation

I hear many advisors complain that there is no way to effectively measure the ROI of social media.

What is the ROI of your iPhone or your email account?

Think about social media in terms of ROR…RETURN ON RELATIONSHIPS. If relationships are vital to your practice (which they are), you must seriously think, plan, and build a strategy for getting involved in social networking.

What does ROR look like?  Think beyond gaining new clients. Think introductions, referrals, visibility, exposure, speaking opportunities, support, guidance, and even a conversation with a smart person who can expand your thinking! I’ve made so many valuable connections through social media and many of them in one way or another have contributed to my personal and professional growth.

If you don’t make the investment in social media and commit to the process, there will be no ROI or ROR.

Put your best foot forward

If you’re going to do social media, do it right. Dress for success. Look professional. Educate yourself, study best practices, and get help.

Listen to and observe those who have gone before you. What are they doing to be consistently visible and valuable on social networks? Who of your existing colleagues, clients, prospects and community connections are showing up in these places? What can you learn from them?

I don’t know about you, but the way I’ve learned to become a better golfer, snowboarder, and musician is by watching and learning from others who are successful!

The truth about social media for financial advisors

I’d like to leave you with a few valuable tips to think about as you get started in social media.

Understand that social media networks and tools do not exist for you to post your marketing collateral. Please don’t go down this road. You will ruin your opportunity for building social capital.

Understand that “social media” is the wide end of the marketing funnel. It’s a sea of people. Go out and find the people that you would like to know, and help them achieve their goals. Attract them into your funnel and earn their trust by being consistently visible and valuable to them.

Input equals output. If you don’t put in the time to connect, engage, experiment, or publish content, you won’t build and strengthen relationships. It’s just that simple. Consistent, authentic, and high quality input will give you results over time. YOU need to be the one in the trenches engaging, posting, and connecting. It’s certainly fine to hire help for support and coaching, but outsourcing your social media activities will only lead to trouble. I can promise you that! It’s just not worth the risk.

It’s going to be difficult and expensive to catch up. Once social media goes mainstream in financial services and you’re not there, you are going to leave your business vulnerable. Sitting on the sidelines will be costly.

Teach your clients where to find you and how to connect with you on these networks. Seed your foundation with that existing network you already have. Not only will you gain access to new introductions, you will strengthen existing client relationships.

Be patient. Don’t expect results until you are comfortable and consistent with your efforts for a good 6 months.

Find the forward-thinkers in your local community and get accepted into those social media circles. Partners can help each other grow rapidly!

Do believe that social media can propel your practice, and will become a vital part of your world whether you want it to or not. You can embrace it, or you can resist it. The choice is yours!