Social media engagement is a way to measure likes, comments, and shares on your posts. It’s important because it creates a stronger relationship between you and your customers. It also increases your visibility, since social media platforms favor businesses with more engagement. Both of these factors can lead to additional sales through upselling, repeat business, referrals, and new customers.
Knowing what to post to increase engagement can be a challenge for any business. As a financial advisor, this can pose an even greater challenge since you’re in a business that covers a topic that can be complex for the average person. You are also selling something intangible, which can be hard to represent visually.
Fortunately, there are ways to demonstrate the value of your services, make you and your business more relatable, and ultimately grow your audience. Below, we provide fifteen ideas you can use to increase engagement on social media.
1. Ask a question
Asking a question invites people to be engaged by providing an answer. Open-ended questions that call for a short one- or two-word response are best. You can also create polls and provide answers for followers to choose from.
You can make your questions relevant to your services, such as asking them about the best investments they ever made, or get more personal. Asking questions like which name you should choose for your new dog allows others to get to know you better without being too casual or unprofessional.
2. Ask for help
This option is posing a question but has it tied directly to a business decision. This can be easier for product-based businesses—which can ask for opinions on product variations—but service-based businesses like wealth management have to be more creative. Some ideas are to ask your followers to help you choose which picture to hang on the wall in your office, which paint color for your walls, or which design for a logo, website, or newsletter.
Asking followers for help makes them feel included and valued. As with any question you post, you want to keep it simple. Offering two to four possibilities with accompanying photos of each works best.
3. Share your successes
No one likes a perpetual braggart, even on social media. People do, however, like celebrating others’ successes and accomplishments. Did you recently receive an award or finish a certification? Share it! Posting your triumphs helps accomplish two things: First, it demonstrates your knowledge and expertise in your chosen field. Second, it’s a positive statement that serves as inspiration for others.
4. Add humor
Funny posts are extremely popular on social media. As a financial advisor, there may not seem to be room for humor in your posts, but if financial companies like Geico and Liberty Mutual can do it, so can you. The key is to keep it tasteful and sporadic. If you’re always trying to be funny, no one will take you seriously, but a little unexpected humor now and then can spark engagement.
Humorous posts don’t have to be over the top. Showing something “cute” can be funny, too. Geico did this with a Facebook post showing pets in costumes for what they call “GEICOween.”
5. Show yourself at work
Sharing photos of yourself at work helps your followers get to know you, which is a foundation of trust. You can share pictures of you organizing your office, meeting with your team, networking with other business owners, and more.
6. Share a tip
This one is particularly great for advisors. People love tips, especially when it comes to their finances. What general money tips can you share with your audience? While you will have to keep compliance in mind for every post, there are plenty of fact-based tips you can share that could be of interest to your followers.
7. Create a challenge
People like to cheer others on when they face an obstacle, even if it’s voluntary. Your challenge can be linked to a cause, like the ice bucket challenge for ALS that went viral or take on a more light-hearted approach, such as “no spend days” or brown-bagging your lunch for a month.
You can create a challenge for yourself and post your progress along the way, or invite others to join the challenge with you.
8. Show your history
Where was your business one, five, or ten years ago? If your business didn’t exist then, what were you doing instead? Followers love to see the journey of a particular brand or person. If your business has changed a lot over the years, or you had a completely different career, fans can find this even more intriguing.
9. Share testimonials and reviews
Consider using testimonials and positive reviews give you added credibility. Take a screenshot of high ratings on sites like Google or Yelp and share it. You can also ask clients for a testimonial and share those. Adding a photo of the person providing the testimonial provides further credibility.
Note: The use of testimonials and endorsements may still be prohibited depending on various regulatory factors. Please discuss with your compliance team before using on your social channels.
10. Create a Diagram or Infographic
This is another great one for advisors. Diagrams and infographics can help explain complex topics like compound interest or various investment strategies. You can also break down a process, such as the steps involved in working with an advisor. Just be sure to keep the visuals and explanations short, like this one posted by Stripe on Twitter. Too many can clutter the visuals and confuse the viewer.
11. Share a fun fact
Like humor, people love fun facts. This type of content even has its own hashtags, such as #funfact and #funfactfriday. As an advisor, you have the opportunity to create fun facts about finance and investing. For example, your audience might find it interesting to know how much money someone would have today if they had invested $1,000 in a particular stock in a certain year, such as Amazon in 1998.
12. Share other content
Does your firm publish blog posts or a newsletter? If so, you can announce these to your followers. A short snippet about what the article or newsletter covers, along with the appropriate links to your website, are great ways to drive traffic and increase your subscriber rates. Fidelity and other large companies have realized this and share links to their articles on their social media feeds.
You can also share links to third-party articles that you find interesting or that could prove helpful to others, such as insightful or shocking investment stats or news.
13. Share your generosity
People love to see businesses helping others. Sharing acts of generosity helps both humanize your business and cultivate a positive image. If you volunteer, raise money, or help your local community in some way, be sure to share it. Some posts to share are photos of you donating items, meeting members of a certain charity, or a graphic showing the total amount you raised for an organization.
14. Acknowledge holidays and celebrations
Celebrate holidays with your online network by posting text and images acknowledging a special day. It can be as simple as posting “Happy New Year” or you can delve into what a particular holiday means to you or the community at large, such as spotlighting members of the military on Veterans Day.
You can also post about lesser-known events. Sites like nationaltoday.com provide calendars of special interest and world holidays, like World Savings Day. In addition, you can share more personal events, such as your anniversary or birthday.
15. Share something heartwarming
Another way to bring positive vibes to your brand is to share heartwarming stories, such as a dog being rescued. If your business supports a particular cause or charity, you can share stories related to that topic.
If you’re looking to share posts related to finance, try sharing stories of success, such as someone going from broke to securing their financial future. (It’s even better if you helped them get there.
Now that you have some ideas, you will need to create and share posts regularly, as well as monitor your efforts. This can be a challenge if you’re an individual or part of a smaller team with limited resources.
If you face this dilemma, TIFIN Content can help. Our platform was created to assist financial advisors to expand their marketing reach. We offer customized content, consistent publishing, and ongoing analysis for as little as $13 a day.
Contact us today to schedule a demo.
Important Reminder: If you are a regulated advisor, it is your firm’s responsibility to ensure all material is reviewed and given final approval by your internal compliance/legal department prior to publication.
