By being one of the most popular social media platforms on the market today, Instagram has proven itself to be a worthwhile digital marketing and advertising tool for all sorts of companies, regardless of size, and in a wide range of industries.
This especially rings true for financial advisors looking to increase their audience, engage with existing clients, and build loyalty and trust.
Jackson Wood of Freedom Day Solutions joined me to share how he has successfully used Instagram to build his practice, nurture client relationships, and grow his online community to close to 125K followers.
Here are a few advanced tips for financial firms using Instagram and want to take their strategy to the next level.
1. Share more than “work” content
While scheduling posts and having planned content is an important part of your social media strategy, being genuine online is the most crucial factor. By showing your human side, your followers understand who you are and what your firm represents. This can be portrayed through behind-the-scenes visuals of your office or after-hours lifestyle.
For example, Jackson shares moments spent coaching his son’s soccer team, and this part of his life is commonly brought up when he sees his clients and prospects that follow him online in real life. By opening up and sharing about his personal life, clients are also more likely to do the same.
2. Post consistently
You likely hear this one a lot, but that’s because it’s true. People won’t follow accounts (or see them in the first place) if your firm doesn’t post regularly. Whether that means posting daily or a couple of times a week, set your own cadence that you’ll be able to maintain and create a schedule so that you’re interacting and posting regularly.
Stories are also a great tool for sharing consistent and engaging content. Stories appear at the top of followers’ feeds, which makes them stand out—and they’re a lot more dynamic than regular feed posts, with tons of cool features. You can post multiple Stories a day without cluttering up your followers’ feeds and use features like polls, questions, and quizzes to level up your interaction with your followers.
3. Show AND tell
The caption of your post is where you can give a voice to that visual content. Compelling captions play a big role in increasing engagement. Use captions to explain what the photo is about, tell your followers how to take action, or support video content that might be viewed with no audio. Using words to support your visual content can make your storytelling more powerful and shareable.
Jackson used a recent trip to the grocery store as the topic of a short video to explain how owning shares of where you shop could be a good move for your portfolio. He used his own experience to share this concept with his followers in an unobtrusive way through storytelling.
“Be authentic, be yourself, tell the story. If you let your clients and prospects have a little glimpse into what your life is like, they can trust you.”
Just like any other marketing strategy, Instagram needs consistency to flourish. It’s not a set-it-and-forget-it strategy—once you establish your presence online, you have to keep up with the platform. If you’re constantly engaging, posting, and genuinely interacting with your followers, you’ll start to see your online community grow.
