First, let’s take a look at WHY as a financial advisor you should be on a social media platform like Facebook.
68% of Americans use Facebook. The number of American Facebook users aged 65+ has doubled to 41% In 2012, only 20 percent of Americans in that age bracket used Facebook. so, if boomers are your target market this is a social platform you HAVE to be on.Now that you know why you need to be on Facebook, check out these handy tips on HOW to write strong facebook posts!
6 Steps to Writing Good Facebook Posts for Your Advisor Business
It’s pertinent that you aren’t just pumping out content, but rather you are pumping out strong content that will drive more traffic. The six steps below should help get you started with that!
Step #1: Establish Your Brand
Before you can even start posting great content on
Facebook the first step you need to take is to obviously set up a business page and begin to brand your business on the platform. Good things take time, and this is the perfect example of that.This is such an important part, as branding is one of the most important ways to identify your business. It is how your customers recognize and experience your business. A strong brand is truly reflected in
everything from your customer service, your logo, the strength of your business relationships, the work that you do and many other aspects.
Your brand should reflect your business and show how you are different from your competitors. Additionally, it should be considered in the early stages of starting a business, and this includes when setting up your social media pages. Here are some questions to ask to help you get started!
What Is my unique value proposition? What is my biggest strength?: Why do I do what I do? What Types Of Clients Do I Serve Best? Step #2: Commit to a Cadence
How much is too much? Or how much is not enough? Facebook recommends businesses should be posting at least 1 – 2 times a week while other experts say posting 1 – 2 times a day is ideal. You’re busy, we get it, so we would recommend posting a couple of times a week.
Based on research from CoSchedule, they found that the best time to post on Facebook is between 1-4PM EST late into the week and on the weekends. To increase shares and clickthrough rates they recommend posting at the following:
Saturday and Sunday from 12-1 P.M. EST Thursday and Friday from 1-4 P.M. EST Wednesday at 3 P.M. ESTIf you want to make it even simpler, then you can use scheduling software tools, such as
CoSchedule,
Hootsuite and
Hubspot. These tools can not only help you to take away the stress of posting, however, it can also provide you with statistics and other ways to measure your firm.
In the above image, an editorial calendar is a great way to keep track of when you should be posting on Facebook!
Step #3: Follow the 60/40 Rule
When it comes to social media content we segment it into two categories: curated and created. Curated content is content gathered from trusted sources relevant to the industry.For example, sources from places like The Wall Street Journal or another reliable news source is an example of curated content. Created is content produced within your business. the ideal ratio of curated vs. created content will vary from business to business but a good rule of thumb is to share
40% created and
60% curated content.
Curated Content
When you are sharing content, be sure that you are sharing reliable sources! This is so important because you want to be seen as a reputable source so that others will think of your business as an industry leader. Also, once you have chosen sources to share, then they will be able to see that you have posted their content, and in turn, will be more likely to share content that your business has created!
In the above image,
Sara Grillo provided Twenty Over Ten with useful content about the importance of
YouTube, which they were then able to promote across multiple channels.
Created Content
You know how important it is to create killer content as it’s such a huge part of your firm’s inbound marketing strategy! Without great content, what will draw in visitors? Once you have created work, you can share it on your Facebook page, and why wouldn’t you want to do this, especially since it has over
2 billion active users, so as a financial advisor why wouldn’t you want to promote your work on this platform?!
Twenty Over Ten created a blog post with tips and techniques for
financial advisors to start personalizing their emails and then shared it on their Facebook page. It’s great to offer advice that will make others view you as a trusted resource and a page where they can go to find out information in the future.When posting to Facebook remember that up to 10,000 characters can be used, but only the first 480 are visible on your fans timelines, so be sure to include the most important information up top. However, stats have shown that short and sweet is often the way to go! Posts with fewer than 50 characters in the description have proved to be more engaging than long drawn out posts.
Step #4: Be Conversational
Keep in mind that when people use
Facebook, they expect to find socially engaging content, conversations, and topics they can relate to, so this is something to keep in mind when creating your posts!Engage with your followers, as this humanizes you and prospects can tell that there is an actual person behind these posts, making it easier to connect.It’s a great platform for connecting you to your prospects and clients and ultimately show the users that you are relatable and will engage and interact accordingly. Don’t be afraid to have some fun with your posts, as well. Another way to get people to interact is to use questions in your posts and encourage people to answer them, which helps you to interact with your audience!
Step #5: Listen to your Audience
Listening to your audience is so important because it helps for your firm’s content and posts to become stronger, by simply seeing what works based on your followers. Pay attention to the results of what you are posting. If your posts aren’t receiving many views, then try posting at different times or days. If your posts are not getting a lot of likes or comments, then try sharing different content.Like anything, practice makes perfect, and it’s a game of trial and error! Find out what works best for your business based on analytics and just reading your page, and it will definitely pay off in the end when your engagement starts to soar.
Step #6: Know your Content Style
This can be difficult at the start, because many times, the “voice” or tone that your firm uses when creating Facebook posts or for other social media platforms, is different than your actual website.
Content style is very important when you’re learning how to write good Facebook posts.When creating posts, try to think of ways that you can teach something, while also showing a lighter side or a way that your business is getting involved with the community. Examples of this include:
Events in the area Photos of events that employees from your firm attended Posts about events that you hosted Blog posts from third-party sources Blog posts of content that you have createdAll of these topics help you solidify you as a well-rounded professional and support why you should be looked to as a trusted source.
Conclusion:
Writing strong Facebook posts is definitely something that gets better with time. The more that you see how visitors interact with you on this platform, the better that you will get at “reading” them and see what gets the most engagement and interaction.Related:
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