Back in January I attended a conference here in London that went pretty far in breaking the mould of a traditional gathering of IFAs. The conference was held by IFA Life, which is a social networking site for IFAs. There were industry experts there to speak but the topic of conversation did not center on product providers, investing trends or the overall ill health of the economy. Instead, as the title of the conference stated, we were there to hear about “Social Media in Financial Services” – a topic that is near and dear to very few IFAs. So why the great turnout? I braved the snow and ice because I want to make this blog as informative and valuable as possible and I thought it would be a good opportunity to hear what others are doing and test out some of my ideas with advisers. But why did so many advisers turn up in spite of a snowstorm the morning of the first day? Why were they saying afterwards, “this is the best conference I have ever attended”?
It turns out that social media and the internet present an enormous opportunity for financial advisers to reach out to potential clients and improve the service they already provide. Now there is a little sarcasm in that statement – of course the internet can help an adviser reach out to clients. Many advice firms have websites of varying complexity and have found them to be much like a phone number was 25 years ago; something that is essential for doing business. However, social media – things like Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Ecademy and even Youtube – can actually be utilized to effectively communicate with clients and prospects while building a name for oneself in the online community. I’m sure most IFAs will read this and think, “Facebook is for kids,” or “What’s a Twitter?” I would have put myself in that category before this conference and I’ve used Facebook for about a year so I wouldn’t say I’m uninformed. What I realized at the conference though, and I know I wasn’t alone, was that internet usage across every age group in the UK is increasing. As it increases, the percentage of people using social networking sites is growing even faster, and that includes people over the age of 55. I realized that although things like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube are seen as novelties by many, they are very close to becoming mainstream. And once they are mainstream, if you are not already familiar with their uses and how to leverage these things, you have to play catch-up.
Most IFAs do not have a marketing plan. This was another somewhat surprising statement uttered at this conference. Do you have a marketing plan? Other than referrals, how else does your client base grow? Is your current business plan ready to take advantage of the shrinking number of IFAs and the inevitable consolidation that will take place? Facebook or Twitter are certainly not perfect solutions, but the ability to understand who uses these types of social networking sites and why they use them can place an adviser in a very good position as things evolve in the coming 3 years. These are merely my observations and by no means an attempt to lecture so please add your own comments or feedback, whether you agree or disagree.