•Presenter: Amy Smith, Marketing Manager

2013 Emerging Social Media Trends

• Facebook is now the 3rd largest country in the world—tipping the scales at 1 billion strong. (Qualman)

• Social media is now the #1 activity on the web—just think of all the other popular activities that used to reign supreme online. Now, social media is king. (Qualman)

• Generation Y and Z now consider email passé. Their new medium of communication? You guessed it—Twitter and Facebook.  (Qualman)

• Every second, two new members join LinkedIn. (Qualman)

• YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world! Next to Google. (Qualman)

• 90% of consumers trust peer recommendations—and many peers are on social media—only 14% trust advertisements.  (Qualman)

1. Companies will focus on “being remarkable”[Definition: worthy of being or likely to be noticed especially as being uncommon or extraordinary]

•What separates you from other financial advisors?

•What can you offer than no other business and/or person can quite match?

•How do you connect emotionally to your prospects/network?

•What does you/your business value? What is the higher purpose?

Examples of being remarkable

What you need to do?

•Find your voice/branding

•Determine what sets you apart from other financial advisors/firms and convey that through social media.

•Build an emotional connection with your prospects and followers

•Don’t settle for merely having a presence. Differentiate yourself.

2. Brands Will Become Publishers and Good Content Will Be Essential

Brands will start creating 'content' in earnest that will help them ‘get 'found' (via search) and improve credibility.

How-to guides, quick tips and additional product usage ideas — in the form of blog posts, newsletters and text messaging — are starting points for great content. Content also allows brands to start and continue conversations with their target markets — giving them reasons to stay in touch — and opportunities to stay top of mind.

HubSpot

Jeff Rose, CFP

Social Media Examiner

Think of the sites, blogs, forums, etc. online that suck you in so much that you literally have to force yourself to leave…[But then always come back.] Now, that’s good content.

What you need to do?

• Find a need that your target market has and try to fulfill it through your content. Do they lack understanding about a certain financial topic? Are they struggling to save money for their child’s college tuition? Whatever gaps they have, try to fill them with your brilliant expertise.

•Explore new types of content. Blogs and newsletters are obviously the content “go-to’s”, but try to branch out and try new mediums like video, podcasts, downloadable eBooks, webinars, etc.

•Sell the message of your services/products. Why is it so important for people to have retirement and long term care plans? What is the benefit of a fiduciary over a beneficiary?

3. Mobile and Video Consumption will Continue to Explode

• 85.5 Million people using mobile apps

• 81.1 Million people using the mobile web

• 45% of Americans have a SmartPhone (Pew Internet)

• 50% of SmartPhone owners use social networking sites on a daily basis (Pew Internet)

• In 2011, YouTube had more than 1 trillion views or around 140 views for every person on Earth (YouTube)

What you need to do?

• Set up a mobile friendly website

• Register your business on location-based services, like FourSquare

• Build your own app (GENWI, Mippin, MobiCart, ShoutEm)

• Start building a video strategy

• Educate yourself on video and mobile marketing

4. Social Media Needs to Show ROI

Brands will start creating 'content' in earnest that will help them ‘get 'found' (via search) and improve credibility.

How-to guides, quick tips and additional product usage ideas — in the form of blog posts, newsletters and text messaging — are starting points for great content. Content also allows brands to start and continue conversations with their target markets — giving them reasons to stay in touch — and opportunities to stay top of mind.

From a marketing, public relations and social media perspective, I think that KPIs (Key Performance Metrics) are going to be most important in 2013. Everyone wants to know how their campaigns are helping contribute to the company's bottom line. Activity is not enough — it's the business outcomes that count." Sandra Fathi, Affect

Strong KPI’s

•Network volume/# of followers•Website traffic from social media•Blog traffic from social media•Conversions from social media•Applause rate/engagement•Event, workshop, and webinar attendance•Organic Traffic (traffic resulting from search engines)•Customer satisfaction and crisis control

What you need to do?

•Create KPI’s for each network that are conducive to your business goals.

•Delegate social media metrics and ROI to somebody

•Get quality data from social media aggregation tools like HootSuite or Gremln

www.financialsocialmedia.com/resources