Social selling is a relatively new concept which simply refers to using social media (for wealth managers, primarily LinkedIn and Twitter) to establish and develop relationships with prospects, clients and other useful business contacts. The polar opposites of social selling are the more traditional marketing methods of mailshots, cold calling and a ‘scatter gun’ approach. By creating an employee advocacy program via social media, wealth managers can see several tangible benefits:
- Lead generation – LinkedIn in particular is a very efficient way for relationship managers to seek introductions to their ideal prospects via their existing network of clients or contacts. LinkedIn allows RM’s to research their 2nd line connections to find specific, named individuals they would like to be introduced to
- Amplify your brand – by having your employees act as advocates of your brand via social media (for example by ‘liking’ your firm’s content), firms can extend their reach to a much wider audience (a UK client of mine recently harnessed a reach of over 300,000 via a single tweet)
- Drive traffic to your website – by posting content onto social media, wealth managers have a simple and cost-effective way to drive traffic to specific web pages, for example e-mail sign-up or news pages
- Raise awareness of your products/services – although social media shouldn’t be used for ‘product pushing’, with a little creative thought it can be great way to promote your latest products and services. Video is a great way to sell the benefits of a product to a wide audience
- Inform and educate your clients, prospects and business contacts – by posting informative, non-sales related content on social media, individuals can position themselves as experts and leaders in their field, whilst at the same time informing and educating their online networks
- Deepen client relationships – I highly recommend that RM’s connect with their clients on LinkedIn. Without social media, your client interactions used to be limited to the occasional meeting or phone call. Social media allows you to have on ongoing dialogue with your clients.
- Individual reputation management – from both a consistent branding perspective and in relation to an individual employee’s personal brand, LinkedIn in particular allows firms and individuals to control and enhance their online brand. Individuals can create a professional LinkedIn profile that showcases both their own and the firms expertise
- Monitor the competition – a firm should follow all of its competitors on social media to keep up-to-date with market developments and new products and services
- Improve client communications – traditional client communications were usually limited to a quarterly valuation and market review. Social media allows you to keep clients up-to-date in real-time with market developments
All of this is of course subject to your local regulatory requirements and internal policies on the use of social media, but with a focused and controlled strategy, there are clearly significant benefits to a firm-wide employee advocacy program via social media.
