by Tony Vidler.
Free marketing always appeals, and it is often said that "any publicity is good publicity"? That's an exaggeration of course as not all publicity is actually good - some can cripple a business or brand. However, any publicity (or marketing) that is free AND where you can control the content has to be good.
Talking with advisers about the topic inevitably leads to the question:
"which social media platforms should I use?".
The answer (as it often is), is "it depends". In order to work out the right answer you need to understand the evolving trends, the broad differences between the most popular platforms, and then match that with your own skillset and target market.
Social media has progressed well beyond just being a convenient way of seeing the latest photo's of your overseas relatives, and the explosive growth of business and end-consumer users is phenomenal. Twitter grew from 6,000,000 to over 250,000,000 in just 3 years. Facebook has over 800,000,000 users now. Little old Trademe in New Zealand has over 700,000 posts per month on its message boards.
That's a lot of traffic and users engaging in the social media world. It's where you are most likely to find, and engage, likely future prospects for your business in a non-threatening and collaborative way.
The greatest benefit though for the business owner is the ability to grow your personal and professional network and reputation - which is valuable over the medium to long term. The connections you make, and the conversations you have with them, will provide good marketing opportunities. You will have an opportunity to engage with, and get to be known and trusted by, people you would not otherwise come into contact with.
Social media as a method of marketing is not totally free of cost of course - though it doesn't cost hard cash generally. It does however take some time and commitment from you. There are an array of really useful platforms and tools to help you manage multiple social media marketing efforts fairly rapidly and efficiently however - and many of them even have good free versions (e.g. Hootsuite), meaning you can manage the time commitments pretty well on a day to day basis.
For New Zealand businesses the 5 social media channels well worth considering are:
1. LinkedIn. For business to business connectivity this platform is without peer. If you want to be talking to business owners or executives/management then you need to be here. It is professional in its approach, there are interest groups for any market niche it seems, and there is a wealth of intelligence to gather. Linkedin appears to have the highest success rate of the social media platforms for generating new business.
2. Facebook. More than 2,000,000 users in NZ alone, it is without doubt the largest and best known social media channel. Particularly useful for engaging with consumers (as opposed to other businesses), and with an ability to provide quite a variety of content (images, links, video's, blog's). There is an abundance of evidence that consumers who engage with your business (or "like" you) on Facebook are far more likely to purchase from you.
3. Twitter. Still a little "wild west" in social media terms, as there is very little content control, and everything is short and sharp. It is essentially the internet in 140 characters or less...that is, there is an abundance of useful and interesting content on virtually any topic you can think of. It is extremely useful as a resource - communications, content sourcing, becoming a thought leader - or following thought leaders. An often under-estimated element is that it is often humorous and a little light-hearted, which is in itself excellent for a social channel.
4. TradeMe. Often under-estimated by NZ businesses as a marketing platform, beyond the obvious use as a place to sell the old office furniture. It truly is the social channel that Kiwi's flock to, and apart from the core auction-focus, there are advertisements, message/bulletin boards & market intelligence in abundance. Distinctly useful for any business aiming at retail consumers - they are here in their thousands by the minute.
5. You Tube. This ones surprises business owners when you talk about it, but it is the second most popular search engine in the world (after Google). This is a place where consumers go looking for things, so if you are looking for consumers.....here they are. Interestingly there is strong evidence indicating that businesses that use video in their marketing (via website, YouTube, etc) have far greater consumer engagement and dramatically increase the chances of obtaining new business. Most consumers seem to prefer watching a video rather than reading a detailed article.
Whatever social media platform appeals to you in your marketing, it is important to look at it as an element of the overall marketing strategy for your business. The more marketing tactics that are interwoven, the more effective the overall marketing strategy will be. It is smart business to create content for your own website, and then share it via social media channels (plural!) and extend the reach of your message. The social media platforms can extend the reach and knowledge of your brand beyond the passive "billboard" that many business websites are.
So; 2 big tips for being effective in your use of social media:
* Be Relevant. It is social - so remember to engage with people, communicate, inject fresh ideas into the mix, and above all - be interesting.
* Don't blatantly (and boringly) self-promote. Nobody wants to be bombarded with advertising, and people will switch off to your brand entirely if their only experience is being directly marketed to constantly. By all means let people know what you do - but no more than a third of the time in your communications. Make the rest interesting, engaging, entertaining, informative and so on. It has to be worth their while to continue following you.
Final thought: don't expect overnight dividends. It may take many months of actively engaging with the market before you have established the credibility and authority for your target market to decide you are worth hiring. But hang in there, with relevant and useful content being delivered to your target market via multiple mediums, you will become a trusted expert, and logical person to turn to for their business needs.
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by Tony Vidler.
For quite a while I have been talking to financial advisers about how the marketing world has changed in recent years - and how their own marketing methods have not (generally speaking).
In short, I have been beating the drum for the advisers to consider social media and digital marketing platforms as a core part of their communications with consumers and customers alike.
Driving this belief that advisers are missing the most fantastic and low-cost marketing strategy available today is the fundamental concept of "that is where the customers are".
Basically it makes good sense to use the platforms and methods of engagement that the consumers themselves use. It's not rocket science is it? Go where the customers are if you want to find more customers.
Recently I saw a wonderful article from Strategi - "Social Media - an advisers double-edged sword". It was fabulous, and just what the doctor ordered. You see, I have been "missing in action" for a few weeks, distracted by & dealing with some family illnesses and the like. Not a pleasant time for anyone concerned, and what I really needed was a jolly good laugh....and I got it courtesy of this excellently idiotic article.
The essence of the joke was the (I presume) serious suggestion that financial advisers can benefit most from using social media as a listening outpost only. They are urged not to comment or participate, but merely tag along as a listener to what everyone else is doing - particularly their competitors (other advisers). The advice therefore was listen, but don't talk. That is clearly advice from someone who doesn't understand a thing about social networking.
The 2 primary purposes of social networking are:
1. be social
2. network
Forgive me for stating the bleeding obvious, but it obviously wasn't bleeding obvious to everyone commenting on the subject.
How does one be social (in any sense) by not conversing or engaging with others? You'd be the total life and soul of the party and dozens of folk would want to invite you into their lives if you spent your entire time eavesdropping on conversations and not contributing anything. That's just the sort of person I'd like to do business with. Yeah, right.
How do you network, or engage with other people for mutual benefit, if you are intending that it be a one way street? That is someone to trust with your wallet isn't it?
It was the most ludicrous piece of marketing advice I have seen for some time - and there have been some seriously bad contenders. This was a doozy though.
The point has been fairly made for some time in a number of jurisdictions that there is risk for any business when using social media as part of their marketing - and perhaps moreso for financial advisers. Clearly there are compliance issues that every adviser must be mindful of - with ANY of their marketing. There are standards expected of an adviser to be truthful and honest in ANY of their advertising. Should an adviser provide personalised advice to any consumer with a megaphone in a public place, they are a goose (at the very least). Advisers are smart enough to know that by the way, and probably don't need to be told that any further.
The rules that apply to advisers in terms of their duty of care to clients, or restrictions upon providing personalised advice without engaging in the appropriate process, or respecting privacy issues apply to anything they do. Naturally that includes social media activity.
One of the (slightly) amusing things about this particular concern of the moment is that the doom & gloom brigade are suggesting there is an issue with advisers use of social media. It is "alarming" no less according to Strategi - who by the way are able to provide an audit and compliance sign-off for any alarmed advisers and then provide guidance on how to go about getting it right. (Free plug for Strategi there!).
I'm no expert on these things, but I am an active user of social media myself. Not necessarily a fantastic user, but with over 900 LinkedIn connections, 800 Twitter followers and about 1200 regular e-zine readers - pretty much all financial services (or associated) folk - I do tend to see enough of what people are using social media for to have an idea about whether there is an alarming problem or not in this industry.
There isn't. It's a load of cobblers (as far as NZ is concerned anyway).
I cannot recall a single example on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or in email newsletters where advisers are being misleading, deceptive or providing personalised advice to consumers. I do not see too many blogs, so perhaps there IS an alarming problem there. However the few blogs I do read present no issues that I can see, so I am willing to wager that there is not a blogging problem of epic proportions either.
As far as I can tell, the few advisers who do use social media actively are quite mindful of their role and use the networks as a means of providing useful content and interesting information of a general nature. That is excellent content marketing, and they are to be congratulated.
One of the most critical things that advisers need to do is engage with consumers, and be a reliable source of excellent and useful content.
A relatively recent study revealed that only 19% of New Zealanders' cite the financial adviser as their primary source of financial information. We have a long way to go - and providing quality content is the key - before we are even close to being seen as a credible information source to the majority of the market. Content marketing via social media is in my view one of the areas where the financial advisory community can easily and affordably add to the financial literacy of the nation - which is an excellent outcome.
For any advisers considering using social media as part of their marketing strategy, here are simple rules (and they are provided free!):
1. Be honest - as you would be in any other marketing
2. Be mindful of privacy issues - as you would be in any other marketing
3. Personal advice should be given to people personally, not broadcast via satellite. But you knew that.
4. Engage with people. Social networking is about being social, and conversing - that's a two-way thing. But you knew that.
5. Don't be a social media peeping tom. It's despicable and nobody likes them. But you knew that too.
And one final rule for business in general:
Don't listen to self-interested and inane advice. Your clients won't, and nor should you.
Like this? Then share it with others...or visit www.strictlybiz.co.nz for loads more useful and interesting information.
