How My Clients Are Doubling Their Social Engagement

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It’s clear; social media is one of the most effective ways for advisors to grow their client list.

But, like other marketing methods, every platform is different. The content that performs well on your blog will not necessarily perform well on social.

People use social media to escape from the day to day and relax and to make personal connections.

With that user intent in mind, you can develop a social media marketing strategy that increases engagement and attracts clients.

After working with hundreds of financial professionals to improve their digital presence, I’ve noticed some trends in what is and isn’t working to garner more engagement. Here are the seven most effective tactics I am seeing advisors leverage to double their social media engagement rates.

1. Share a personal story

Storytelling is one of the most effective ways to entertain users. Stories make the learning process personal by providing a glimpse into the poster’s life.

The type of story you tell is up to you, from personal experiences to changes in perspective and realizations.

The key is to connect your story back to the subject of your post. Readers can then learn from your information while understanding how it affects their day-to-day.

Include a picture or video with your story to make it more relatable.

This post on Twitter from Chad Chubb CFP®, CSLP® is an excellent example of how to tastefully share a personal story that elicits a response.

2. Comment on current events

Current events include news stories and industry trends but avoid politics. The goal is to get ahead of recent information, but not without context.

Whenever you share a current event, make sure to comment on the information you’re providing. This not only places you as a knowledgeable and reliable source but leverages your knowledge and perspective to make a stance on something.

Positioning yourself in this way may push some leads away. But it will also create greater interest in leads who agree with you. Social media already has plenty of content for people to scroll through, so content that resonates with your audience members is always the most powerful.

3. Create short-form video content

Video is a popular format, and two-minute videos are excellent for social media. Shorter formats reduce video bounce rates, which is how quickly a viewer clicks away from the video.

Creating short-form videos also requires you, the creator, to be more precise, which helps to create more specific material and also saves you time in the long-run.

Whenever you create a short-form video, upload it natively to the platform. In other words, if you are posting to Twitter, upload the raw MP4 file. Don’t upload to YouTube then link from Twitter. Social media platforms will reward users who upload videos this way because it keeps users on their platform.

4. Promote a value-offer

Interesting data, case studies and information should not be just posted to social media. Yes, you want to share them because they are helpful and catch the attention of leads and clients, but you want to do it in a way that is best for your social platform of choice.

Do this by creating a post that discusses your value-offer and promotes some of your findings. Then, instead of linking to the content, tell users to comment on your post with a simple phrase.

This achieves two goals: It shows who finds your content interesting and it promotes your post, as social platforms reward posts with more comments.

5. Create thought-provoking scenarios

Design a post that teaches something or provides a new perspective. Then, form this post as a question and reveal the results through an engaging image or infographic.

The idea is to surprise and educate, which creates conversation. By adding an image or infographic, you increase the length of your message.

When messages are longer, they often create a “show more” button, which, when clicked, will signal to the social platform that users found a post interesting enough to read further, promoting your post in turn.

6. Use appropriate spacing in your posts

As above, including enough information to generate the “show more” button increases engagement.

You can do this by spacing out your writing, extending the overall length of your post.

This not only allows the “show more” button to appear but improves the readability of your post by making it more skim-able, as most users prefer to avoid walls of text.

7. Post a helpful infographic

Infographics are a great way to visualize data. The learning curve becomes more enjoyable when data is visualized.

By sharing an infographic, you simplify a difficult process. But you don’t need to create your own. Similar to sharing a current event, you can also share any helpful infographics you come across. Always credit your source.

If you’re feeling adventurous and want to take a stab at creating your own infographics there are plenty of free tools to help you create beautiful designs, no matter your skills. Our newest tool, Lead Pilot, offers users a robust library of pre-made infographics and other interactive content that you can deploy on your social media channels, emails, blog, newsletters – virtually anywhere!

Struggling With What Content to Share on Social Media or via Email?

We are offering access to our content for advisors to use via Lead Pilot for 7-days completely free (even on our month to month plans).

Visit leadpilot.io

Improving your engagement online is the number one way to increase your lead generation on social media. By following these seven tips and strategies you will grow your client roster and your firm.

Samantha Russell is the chief marketing and business development officer at Twenty Over Ten (a digital marketing and website development company for financial advisors). Samantha helps financial advisors create digital marketing strategies that produce explosive growth through website development, content marketing, SEO, social media and video.

Read more articles by Samantha Russell