This is the fourth page of an eight-part guide. 

Know your identity. This means, among other things, how your social media accounts are branded and what voice they utilize. Make sure your photos, logos, color scheme, tone of the writing and any other details that define the way others see you have been thoughtfully considered and executed across all platforms, so clients see you as a professional resource no matter where they find you. Knowing your identity also means understanding why you are doing this in the first place. Are you trying to generate leads? Build brand awareness? Drive traffic to your website? Advisors know how important it is to know their why, and that applies to social media too. 

Embrace personalization. Posts about your team, or individuals on it, may get more engagement than business-related information. Recognize that people want to know about other people, so posts that highlight personalities through information, imagery or otherwise can go a long way in driving engagement and relationships. If interested, you can even have someone take photos and/or videos of your staff working, bringing your audience into the experience of time in the practice. 

Emphasize emotion. Just as real-life stories help communicate concepts to your clients, these stories and the related emotion can be effective through social media as well. Rather than posting about products or trying to sell, give value and post about stories that demonstrate the impact of the product. People will remember the feelings involved in the story and then get a better sense of the impact of, say, financial planning or other ways you can help them. 

Develop a process. Advisors don’t have to be told the benefit of planning. For social media, creating a weekly plan to identify the topics covered and content provided will establish consistency for you and reliability for your audience. Scheduling posts can also create an effective process for delivering this material and match your ideal frequency to your chosen platforms, which likely will range from one to five posts per week per platform. 

Go to page 2: Why advisors should care about social media
Go to page 3: Some basics to know before getting started
Go to page 5: What not to do