Nov 10, 2010 0
The Advisor Next Door: How To Use Social Media to Build Your Local Presence
From Sugar Land, Texas to Atlanta, Georgia, financial advisors like Curtis A. Smith and Russ Thornton are finding that attracting new business in cyberspace can be as carefree and neighborly as Facebooking friends about the local sports team.
FAs Are Making a Bigger Splash with Social Media
Advisolocity President and CEO, D. Bruce Johnston interviewed the two professionals recently for a BrightTalk webinar on “Linking Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to Maximize Business Growth.”
The two said they have attracted new business to their firms by successfully building out their local presence with social media over the past two years.
For Curtis, the stated goal in the beginning was to achieve a #1 Google page presence for his products and services in the Sugar Land Texas region. “I found that Facebook friending in my community was very important,” he said. By knowing more about a prospect’s background, interests and hobbies, he has been able to achieve more relationship depth faster, he added.
Russ Thornton said, “Social media helps you better identify the people you should be talking to. It also provides you with more information about them to better prepare for a meeting.”
“However,” he added, “It’s important to remember you can’t just stay online. I believe strongly in getting out in the community and meeting people.”
Making client contacts outside of a community is possible, Russ noted, “as long as your client has some flexibility as to how much of their business can be conducted over the phone and online.”
To Bruce’s question about how important maintaining a structured marketing plan was to their efforts, Curtis said, “I don’t need a big, elaborate marketing plan. Social media levels the playing field and creates your presence just by you using it.”
Russ added, “It’s hard to know where to spend your time and money. Social media is proving to be the low cost dynamic way to put yourself out there and raise your profile.”
What about industry colleagues who are not ready to try social media? “They are making a big mistake,” Curtis said.
