As mentioned on my first post, I joined Twitter to follow article of interest relating to the financial industry. I came across this article on my Twitter feed and find it useful for anyone in SALES and looking to connect on a more personal level with their clients and prospects.
The More Friends the Better
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903461304576524363546220074.html
For anyone in business and most importantly sales, we tend to forgot the core of what makes people buy what we are selling. At times it has nothing to do with the product or service, nothing to do with how great we are at selling, and nothing to do with pricing. People buy from people they like. That's very broad, but to like someone you have to feel that person either shares in the same beliefs you do, have a similar background as you, or feel you have their best interest above any other. Using social media, such as Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin, allows advisers and salespeople to develop a relationship with their clients therefore ensuring that they remain clients.
As with any scenario, there exists pros and cons to using social media as a financial professional. As the article mentions, regulatory supervision is just one, and in my opinion least important, cons associated with social media. Your words, friends, pictures, and just about anything you post will be available and scrutinized by clients and prospectus. This leaves the salesperson extremely exposed to second guessing and may even propose the clients to sever their relationships. As I mentioned previously, people like to do business with people they like and can relate to. How much in common do you have your clients if you have Facebook pictures enjoying summers in the Hamptons, FourSquaring that you are going to dinner at Jean Georges and Twetting how great your new Maseratti is. Unless your target clients enjoy those things too, this would be negative for the relationship.
In my opinion, Social Media is a great tool to market your skills, products and services but you need to keep in mind that what you allow others to see and read about you will result in others passing judgement. As a financial advisor, I believe the best use of social media is to gather information not distribute it. By following your clients and prospects online, you can uncover what time of person they are and use it to relate better to them. There is an abundance of information about others online and you can gather it to connect with your clients and align your interest with theirs. By using social media to gather information about your clients and prospects, your relationships with them will get stronger and will be difficult to separate regardless of what product or service you are selling.
Miguel Gonzalez
EMBA 2012
VP - Investments
JP Morgan Chase
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