To be or not to be on social media: That isn't the question. Today, it's a must forfinancial advisors to have a digital presence, and that doesn'tmean just putting up a website and hoping prospects will findit.

Reaping results

There's a strategy for using LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook toreap marketing results, as Lisa Turley, senior vicepresident-advisor marketing at Raymond James (RJ), a leader insocial media for advisors, tells PC360, in an interview.

Turley shares top dos and don'ts for putting those threeplatforms to work to attract prospects and network with businesspartners and potential advocates.

While a website is the heart of the advisor's digital brand, themost productive way to direct traffic to it is via socialmedia.

Raymond James introduced social media for its financial advisorsback in 2011. Now a big 80% of the firm's 6,600-plus U.S.-basedadvisors are using it for digital brand-building.

Part of advisor's marketing plan

Turley, who educates RJ's financial advisors on how to usesocial media effectively, sees that effort as part of an advisor'smarketing plan, as well as an excellent way to increase the numberof touches to current clients.

PC360 recently spoke by phone with Turley, who joined RaymondJames nearly 23 years ago and is a member of the SecuritiesIndustry and Financial Markets Association's Social MediaRoundtable. She says that RJ is now inspiring advisors to take aneven deeper dive into social media marketing. Here are highlightsof our interview:

PC360: What's Raymond James' newest plan for financialadvisors to connect with clients and prospects on socialmedia?

LISA TURLEY: Our goal is to continue toencourage them to become more and more active, moving from thecomfort level of posting prewritten content to posting allcustom-created — personalized — content. That's where wesee the real value. Many firms discourage or prohibit that. But wefeel it's important for advisors to personalize content to theaudience they're trying to reach.

How much has Raymond James invested in putting itsadvisors on social media?

We've made a commitment to it, and there's an expense associatedwith that, which we feel is well worth it. [But] we don't disclosethe scope or size of our vendor relationships because it'sproprietary information.

What's your relationship with technology vendor Hearsay Systems? The firm's Hearsay Socialhelps financial services firms compliantly engage on LinkedIn,Twitter and Facebook.

We've worked with them exclusively for advisor social mediasupport since 2013.

Do you require all financial advisors to be on socialmedia?

Absolutely not. [But] we highly encourage them to establish abasic presence — to have their LinkedIn profile complete andprofessional — and to use social media to post content, bothcurated and custom-created.

What if an advisor says, “I have a very robust business,so I don't need to participate in social media”?

We hear that, and often from people who have very successfulpractices. We ask them how they typically grow their businesses.Most often it's through referrals. Today, one of the early stagesof client engagement is to Google the advisor's name to learn alittle about them and see their credentials, team and valueproposition. So, having a media presence and a digital brand allowsadvisors to represent that brand to prospective clients.

What's another good reason to be on social?

It's a way to establish thought leadership, particularly if theadvisor has an area of expertise or certain client niche or servicethat they offer.

What choices do you give financial advisors when itcomes to the content they can use?

There are three options. One is a preapproved library. [But]increasingly, as advisors become more [social media] savvy, they'rewriting custom posts to deliver that content; for example, a linkto an article or infographic. They're personalizing the library ofcontent so that it resonates more with their clients andconnections.

What's the third option?

They can write their own content — custom posts fromscratch, whether it's thought leadership in an area they haveexpertise or sharing something that personalizes their practice,like community involvement or other lifestyle topics.

What restrictions are there in what financial advisorsare permitted to say?

They're the same as with [traditional] marketing orcommunication channels: certain language and certain guidance. Wedon't think social media is the right spot for them to provideinvestment guidance or product solutions. Rather, we look at thisas an opportunity to share thought leadership or to distinguishthemselves with their expertise — but not in a technicalway.

What about political opinions?

We recommend staying away from controversial topics.Conversations that might be inflammatory in person or could causedivision with the client aren't appropriate on social media, so [werecommend that financial advisors] stay away from those. There areexceptions, however; for example, where a big part of an advisor'spersonality and client conversations are around topics such astheir political leanings.

Related: How to establish your professional brand and make a lasting firstimpression

Do financial advisors have to clear everything they wantto post?

Yes. For Raymond James & Associates and Raymond JamesFinancial Services advisors, the posts pass through Hearsay'ssocial media tool for compliance approval before they're published.But independent RIAs associated with Raymond James manage their owncompliance review process.

Please discuss do's and don'ts for advisors on LinkedIn,Twitter and Facebook. Twitter, for instance, is a forthright way topromote oneself, such as: “I'm on the way to give a speech aboutso-and-so at such-and-such convention.” Do you recommendthat?

Yes, it can be appropriate. Invite your clients and colleaguesto follow you. If you're publishing a lot of thought leadership onTwitter, you may share that information and say, “I'm going to bepublishing content on “X” topic; please follow me if you'reinterested in learning more.”

What else is Twitter good for?

It's a great way to highlight something that's on the advisor'swebsite. That's one of the key perspectives about the effective useof social media: trying to direct traffic back to the website,which is the real hub of the advisor's digital brand.

Related: Twitter for insurance agents: 5 quick tips

Who are the types of tweeters that financial advisorsshould follow?

Influencers and news sources. Retweeting their content is agreat way to leverage or curate content. Follow someone that youwant to follow you.

Should advisors follow a large number of people andcompanies?

Certainly finding the right thought leaders and news sources tofollow is important. But having a high volume of followers is notnecessarily key to reaching the right people.

What else do you recommend when it comes to the tweetsthemselves?

They should reflect current events or something in the future,less emphasis on the past because of the currency of thatplatform.

How often should advisors tweet?

We encourage posting frequently with a goal of one item a day atminimum. It's OK to republish a tweet. You can republish it acouple of times periodically to avoid its being lost in the Twitterfeeds because of the speed at which they travel.

What are some don'ts for using Twitter?

Unless you're able to regularly share content on thoughtleadership, for example, it's probably not the right platform to beon — again, because you'll be lost.

What's a sufficient amount of followers tohave?

I think you need a reasonable number in order to spend time andenergy posting content. There's an opportunity to gain momentum andgrow the number of connections exponentially.

Any other don'ts?

Don't ask for retweets of your tweets. People retweet thingsthey think will resonate with their audience. Retweeting, or otherkinds of planned sharing, [signify] a [fairly] high level ofendorsement.

So asking for retweets isn't appropriate.

Now, on to the do's for LinkedIn. What aresome?

That's typically the social media platform most advisors beginwith and the one they're most comfortable with. Definitely spendtime building out a professional profile. LinkedIn is one of themost highly ranked social media platforms that surface [in searchlistings] when someone Googles your name. It's an important placeto post business-oriented content. We recommend posting three tofive times a week.

Related: LinkedInblog basics for reaching clients and prospects

If an advisor sees what seems like a good prospect onLinkedIn, should they try to get in touch?

LinkedIn is one of the best tools for gaining insights intoprospective clients, whether the advisors reach out to someonedirect through the site or use it as a research tool and then makecontact in a more personal way. We often see the most successfuladvisors doing that, perhaps through a connection that canintroduce them or by sending a personalized communication to theprospect.

There are various levels of LinkedIn accounts, some thathave a cost attached. Do you encourage advisors to step up or stickwith the basic one?

More advisors are choosing to sign up for a premium account ifthey really want to have a depth of information-gathering. We don'toffer premium accounts through the corporation, [but] I think thereare at least several hundred advisors [at RJ] that are using sometype of premium LinkedIn account for prospecting orinsight-gathering at their own expense.

Any advice on the type of headshot — facial expressionand attire — that financial advisors should post onLinkedIn?

Often they use a professional photo. Personalizing it so thatyour brand is consistent across the entire digital [landscape] isimportant. If you're presenting yourself on your website in arelaxed way, it's appropriate to have your LinkedIn photo beconsistent with that. But I wouldn't go too casual on LinkedInbecause it's a business platform. If advisors have a unique brandthey've created at Raymond James, we'll help them carry over arelated logo or image to social media.

Any other LinkedIn don'ts?

Don't republish content there because LinkedIn tends to keepcontent that's been published, so it [will be] duplicated.

Related: How to build a LinkedIn profile that sells

Moving on to Facebook. What are some do's?Invite clients to “Like” your page. It's a nice way to connect withthem. Many times clients aren't aware that an advisor has abusiness Facebook page. So [telling them] that you have one meansyou can talk to them about how you're sharing content or, forexample, invitations to your events or special activities.

Related: How Facebook Live can make you better at insurancesales

What's another do for Facebook?

We encourage advisors to use Facebook to personalize theirpractice. There are some exceptions to that, such as advisors whohave institutional clients or, in some cases, when there areprivacy concerns with ultra-high net worth clients.

What sort of content do you suggest forFacebook?

Highlighting events and community involvement are examples. Werecommend that advisors include lifestyle content — and definitelyphotos. We encourage them to post content five times a week but nomore than once a day.

Any Facebook don'ts?

Technical commentary isn't the right thing to publish there, andwe don't typically recommend that they republish content onFacebook.

What are the Five Stages of Client Engagement via socialmedia?

Scrolling is the first. That's where prospectsare skimming past posts, perhaps not reading them, but they'll beaware of your brand and business.

Stage 2 is where they stop to read those posts,and their perception of your brand is heightened.

Stage 3: They're now more directly interactingwith your brand, clicking through the posts and maybe viewing morein-depth content.

Stage 4: They're beginning to endorse you, in away, by “Liking” content that you've published and acknowledgingthey've found it valuable.

Stage 5, the highest form of endorsement orinteraction, is when they feel the content is valuable enough toshare on their own page to their network of connections. So they'rereally becoming advocates for your brand and the content you'resharing.

What happens after Stage 5? What's the advisor's nextstep?

If people are sharing content and “Liking” it, the hope is thatthey've already viewed your website. We're encouraging advisors toshare information posted to their websites often. So reaching outfor a more formal introduction now would certainly beappropriate.

Do your financial advisors assign a staff member to takecare of posts and manage social media for them, or do they handleit themselves?

Some use social media very independently: They write their owncontent, post it and make their own connections. Others that [head]a team, particularly a large team, select a member that appears tohave a little more interest in social media and is more savvy aboutit, and delegate some aspect of using it to them.

Raymond James obviously thinks that social media isimportant for advisors and that it's far from being anuisance.

It's [always] beneficial to reach clients or potential clientswhere they are, so our advisors are learning to use this newchannel. More and more clients are in the generation that has grownup using social media. So if you're not on it, you'll miss theopportunity to communicate with a lot of people.

Related: 3 reasons you should never ask for referrals onLinkedIn

Jane Wollman Rusoff is a New York-basedfreelance writer and was a contributing editor of Researchmagazine. She is the founder of Family Star Productions. Emailher at [email protected]. Twitter:@jrusoff2.