10 Tips for Mastering LinkedIn

Not only is LinkedIn the #2 way the affluent research Financial Advisors (after Google), it is the #1 social media platform for Advisors.[1] LinkedIn now has more than 775 million users in 200+ countries around the world, making it a powerful way to grow your advisory business via sourcing prospective clients and leveraging introductions from your connections. With all this in mind, here are 10 tips that will help you make the most of LinkedIn:

1. Connect Widely – Just 338 LinkedIn connections can link you to 5,942,811+ people. So be sure to connect to all your clients, their COIs, your friends, acquaintances, and relevant groups. Read through their profiles and note their organizations, shared connections, hobbies, interests, groups, etc. And put this info in your CRM.
2. Ask for Introductions – Understand who your connections know and create ”introduction” lists to potential prospects and COIs. While only 15% of financial professionals have asked a LinkedIn contact to make an introduction, 47% of the affluent say they would be happy to facilitate an introduction.[2] And messaging prospects (especially when warmed up by an intro) can be an effective tactic. 92% of Advisors using messaging on LinkedIn gained assets last year.[3]
3. Get your profile right – Weak summaries can hamper the effectiveness of your LinkedIn profile. Be sure to put that you are a financial advisor (or wealth manager) in your title, so people can search for you more easily. Add any specialties or niche focus to your title as well. For example: Financial advisor focused on pre-retirees and business owners. It is particularly important to have a compelling “About” section. It should be written in the first person and reflect your value proposition and expertise and experience.
4. Make it easy to contact you – In your “Contact Inf,” include your phone, email, physical address, and website address. Heck, throw in your birthday as well. This gives prospective clients more ways to get in touch.
5. Post engaging content – Relatable, educational content helps you connect with prospects and positions you as an expert. It also is particularly effective on LinkedIn. In a study of 5,000 businesses, LinkedIn generated the highest visitor-to-lead conversion rate at 2.74%, almost 3 times higher (277%) than both Twitter (.69%) and Facebook (.77%).[4]
6. COPE (Create Once, Publish Everywhere) – Don’t limit great content (such as whitepapers, events, videos, etc.) just to LinkedIn. Publish your content as widely as possible across your digital ecosystem.
7. Make sure you have a page for your business – This is almost as important as having a personal LinkedIn page. It helps people find you more easily and showcases your firm and your team. Also, this is an excellent place to post any job openings you may have. Your company page should have the same look and messaging as your website and other social media pages.
8. Expand niche focus – Look through LinkedIn for companies or sectors where your connections are clustered. This can help you identify or expand a particular niche. For example, I worked with an Advisor in Seattle who wanted to expand beyond the 16 clients he had at Boeing. Through a quick search it turns out that these 16 clients are connected to almost 3500 other Boeing employees. The Advisor then developed a guide to Boeing’s retirement benefits, which could be shared through the 16 with all their Boeing connections.
9. Identify gatekeepers –If you work with small and mid-size businesses, finding the right gatekeeper is key. If you offer retirement plans, connections to companies’ HR team could be useful. Again, leverage who you know to source potential introductions. I did a search of my LinkedIn contacts for anyone in HR. Turns out I am connected to 16 HR professionals nationwide. But I know 5491 HR professionals at a second level. In other words, my direct connections could potentially provide me with a warm intro to 5491 HR professionals around the country.
10. Do a daily LinkedIn drill – Spend ten minutes every day looking at the following items:
    • News Feed - Scan for posts by connections and influencers and follow up as needed.
    • My Network - Accept (or ignore) requests to connect. Use “People You May Know” feature to add new contacts.
    • Notifications - Monitor job changes (rollover opportunity), birthdays, and other life events and follow up as needed, including commenting on LinkedIn.
    • Meeting Preparation – If you have upcoming meetings with clients and prospects, look at their profiles. Note any changes. Make sure you have key info in your CRM.

For more information on LinkedIn, watch a 30-minute live webinar on Tuesday August 24 at 12 pm ET/9 am PT. Click here to register for the webinar.

[1] Advisor Value Propositions: How Advisors Showcase Their Value to Investors—and What Investors Secretly Think, BNY Mellon Pershing, 2018; Putnam Social Advisor Survey, 2020

[2] Oechsli, 2019

[3] Putnam Social Advisor Survey, 2020

[4] https://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/30030/linkedin-277-more-effective-for-lead-generation-than-facebook-twitter-new-data.aspx

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