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A recent Wall Street Journal article, “Twitter Doesn’t Yet Measure Up For Advisers,” said that Twitter isn’t delivering the clients the advisors had hoped to acquire from the micro-blogging site. Yet two of the advisors the article quotes, Cathy Curtis (@curtisfinancial) and Richard Krasney (@PhilanthropyCFP) are both fans of Twitter.
This led me to ask, “What are the expectations of advisors on Twitter?”
Other Articles by Kristen Luke
Convert Prospects to Clients through Drip Marketing
Five Ways to Cultivate Professional Referral Relationships
How to Setup a Facebook Business Page
Make the Most of your Networking after the Event
Social Media Marketing for the Everyday Advisor
The $3,000 Marketing Plan
Three Ways to Market Your Business Using Facebook
Touch Your Clients 24 Times a Year without Breaking a Sweat
Twitter Your Way to New Clients, Part One
Twitter Your Way to New Clients, Part Two
Which Social Media Tool is Right for You?
Social networking is still networking. If you think about the advisors who have solid traditional networking strategies, how long does it take them to turn someone they meet at a networking event into a client?
I’m guessing it is months if not years. Of course, there are the networking groups like BNI that are referral-oriented, but I’m talking about more traditional networking avenues. An advisor once told me about his process for developing referral relationships with CPAs. He had developed a two-year plan for nurturing relationships with CPAs before he expects to see a referral. From my other advisor experiences, this seems to be the norm.
So why do we expect that social networking should produce results in a matter of a couple of months? It is still networking and should be handled in the same manner. Merely advertising your business may work if you are a restaurant or hotel, but it doesn’t work in a relationship-oriented business like financial advising.
So how do you make social networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter work for you? The answer is to treat them like you would any other networking opportunity. Here are some tips for networking in the word of social media:
