‘Delivering value’ the key to a successful social media strategy

“As long as what you're posting as content, and what you're advertising is framed around the basis of how it will benefit your customer, [social media] is something that's going to help you build your relationship [with clients].”

She told The Adviser that brokers should be posting on Facebook between one and five times a week to build consistency, warning that an empty or inactive social media account can damage credibility, appear unprofessional or suggest to potential clients that the business is too busy to take them on.

However, it essentially comes down to quality over quantity and targeted messaging, she noted.

Find your audience and target your messaging

Brokers should identify the goals of their social media strategy, whether it is to generate leads or brand awareness and from there highlight the key demographics to target.

“We're still recommending Facebook for most businesses and the reason for that is that there are so many people on Facebook… and you're able to be extremely targeted with who you reach, so you can make sure that the community that you're building and the people that you're reaching are only comprised of your exact demographic.”

From there, brokers need to develop “content pillars”. Ms Lednyak suggests three to five areas of content to focus on, adding that tracking the success of content is critical. Identifying the number of people reached daily and monthly and the demographics of those people is “key” in ensuring the messaging is hitting home.

“Try not to get caught up in the number of fans you have too much, because a lot of companies might have a large amount of fans but those people might not actually be relevant.”

Things to avoid

Successfully engaging with target audiences means using the correct tone of voice, Ms Lednyak says, but jumping between different tones can be jarring.

“If you’re a broker and your brand is a little more fun and a little bit more silly, then you could work that into your tone of voice, or if you’re someone who’s really professional and you work closely with corporate clients you might want to position yourself as being more professional.”

“The only time people will get turned off is if you’re really serious in one post and then really silly in another because then you don’t actually seem like a real authentic person.”

She also recommended brokers avoid posting material that their audience will not find interesting – regardless of how interesting it is to the broker, and highlights blurry or unprofessional images as a “big no-no.”

The important thing, however, is just to start building a strategy, she emphasised.

“Sometimes people feel like, ‘Oh my god, the ship has sailed,’ and they get really stressed that they haven’t started yet. So I think the biggest thing is that even if you’re not doing anything on social media now, it’s the best time to start.”

Gina Lednyak will be speaking at The Adviser Bootcamp Digital Marketing on 22, 24 and 29 August, together with digital marketing and SEO experts, on how brokers can construct a social media strategy to help build their brokerage.

The Adviser Bootcamp Digital Marketing 2017 will provide brokers with all the tips and tricks they need to know to develop a plan that can help grow sales and boost their brand.

Coming to Brisbane (22 August at Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre), Sydney (24 August at Doltone House, Jones Bay Wharf) and Melbourne (29 August at Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre), the high-impact, one-day event will teach brokers how to: implement quick and effective low-cost strategies to attract more business, master the basics of SEO, discover what success in digital marketing looks like and discover partners that can help grow digital marketing strategies efficiently.

The full agenda for this one-day event is available from The Adviser Bootcamp Digital Marketing 2017 website.