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If you are not using LinkedIn actively, you are missing a prime opportunity to grow your business. Although the social media platform has been around since 2002, it has gained renewed respect in recent years as more professionals are recognizing its value.
Seize the opportunity to leverage LinkedIn to grow your network, raise your visibility, and generate high-quality leads. I have created a series, A Financial Advisor’s Guide to Creating Your LinkedIn Profile and Making the Most of It.
In this series, I will answer questions such as:
- What is LinkedIn?
- Why is LinkedIn important for financial advisors?
- How should financial advisors optimize their LinkedIn profile?
- How can financial advisors fully utilize LinkedIn for marketing?
- What can financial advisors do to get the most out of LinkedIn?
Over the next few weeks, you will find the answers to those questions and more to help you use LinkedIn to connect with prospects, gain more clients, and grow your business.
What is LinkedIn?
Unlike Facebook, Instagram and other popular platforms that are more for personal use and entertainment-focused, LinkedIn is geared specifically toward business professionals. When people are on LinkedIn, they aren’t there to look at cat videos. They are there to focus on business, their career and professional development. This makes LinkedIn the ideal platform to grow your network and share your expertise.
LinkedIn is a professional networking platform that enables you to easily connect with people you know and would like to know. It’s like attending a virtual business mixer with more than 630 million attendees and everyone is wearing a nametag with their title and company in clear view.
Why LinkedIn is important for advisors
Many financial advisors underestimate the importance of LinkedIn, perhaps thinking it is just a platform for job seekers. On the contrary, LinkedIn is far more than a digital resume; it provides a wealth of opportunities at your fingertips, and your participation on the network can open doors that you didn’t even know existed.
LinkedIn keeps you connected with existing colleagues and associates and provides instant access to new potential collaborators, prospects, and referral partners.
Most importantly, your ideal clients are likely already on LinkedIn. Over half of all Americans with a college degree use the platform and 45% of LinkedIn users are in upper-management roles. Of all the social networks, LinkedIn’s users are comprised of the most affluent demographics, with approximately 40 million users fitting the mass affluent category, with an annual household income of over $75,000, and an estimated $100,000 to $1,000,000, in liquid financial assets.
Getting started on LinkedIn
With a well-crafted LinkedIn profile, you can illustrate your expertise, highlight your achievements, and demonstrate your credibility as a well-informed, skilled, and trustworthy financial professional.
Include a friendly professional profile photo. Customize your headline, using industry-specific keywords that will make it easy for people to find you and know what you do at a glance as soon as they see your profile. Avoid using a generic title and make your headline stand out by including what you specialize in and who you serve.
The summary section is one of the first places a potential connection will look. A well-written summary will address who you are, who you help, and how you help them. You’ll also want to add some personality to the summary section by letting readers know what drives you, why you’re passionate about providing financial advisory services, and anything else that sets you apart from the competition.
Next, fill out your work experience and education sections. Include accomplishments, quantified results you’ve achieved, awards, and recognition. You will also want to take the time to fill in your volunteer experience, skills, and relevant media.
The more complete your LinkedIn profile, the better. You can highlight the best of your background and showcase different possible commonalities with connections as you use LinkedIn to build relationships.
Finally, by regularly sharing original and curated content related to personal finances, financial planning, and wealth management, you can use LinkedIn to position yourself as an expert and build your authority in the marketplace.
Having a strong, professional, active LinkedIn presence will help you grow your network, as more active profiles gain greater visibility and people will be more open to connecting with you when you reach out to them.
Conclusion
To use social media to grow your business as a financial advisor, LinkedIn is the place to spend your time and concentrate your efforts.
In an upcoming article, I will cover everything you need to know about optimizing your LinkedIn profile as a financial advisor so you can get the most out of your LinkedIn marketing efforts.
Download a free copy of A Financial Advisor’s Guide to Creating Your LinkedIn Profile and Making the Most of It here.
Crystal Lee Butler, MBA is a creative marketer and results-oriented business consultant with over a decade of experience collaborating with independent advisors. At Crystal Marketing Solutions, she delivers exceptional insights for financial professionals enabling them to create a consistent marketing presence so they can focus on the things that matter most to them.
Read more articles by Crystal Lee Butler
Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.
