Social Media Marketing works for other industries better than it does for RIA firms, but it can be useful especially if you are younger and your target client market is younger, too. Typically, most RIA firms have a web site, maybe a blog, a video blog or vlog, a LinkedIn account for your self or firm, perhaps a Twitter account and in some cases Facebook and Instagram. If you are a superstar, then you may even have your own Podcast. However, most feedback that I have received is that Facebook and Instagram are primarily personal sites and are not really accessed by clients looking for a financial adviser, even though Facebook would like you to believe the opposite. Personally, I think Podcasts, especially Video Podcasts are the future, but they take a commitment of money and time. Here again is another one of those business decisions that you will need to make.
As an RIA firm, you have to have a social media marketing policy for you and your employees and document that policy in your Polices and Procedures manual. We recommend a Compliance Review Form for each channel of Social Media Marketing and any added channels that you may add later like a Video Podcast.
You have to be careful as to what you post, because this is essentially advertising and you are subject to advertising rules related to RIA firms. You cannot just go off willy-nilly touting your performance. In fact, unless you have annual GIPS performance reviews, which costs north of $10,000 per year, then I would not promote performance. You live and die by performance anyway and it really doesn't make sense to "advertise" it. However, it is okay to show performance numbers in a Request for Proposal with a new prospect, but you never want to publish performance numbers on Social Media. Never!
Most Social Media Marketing is rarely read unless you are some superstar with a huge following. Most RIA firms can post things on blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn and other sites and get a limited number of people to read their posts. Do not think you will have millions of followers. Most likely, you will have a few hundred at most and those people will likely be too busy to actually read everything. So, you have to factor in your time commitment to Social Media Marketing. How is this going to make you money? How is one post going to do that? It is doubtful. Therefore, you probably do not want to commit a ton of your time to making posts on Social Media, because the payoff is long-term, not immediate. In today's world, you need to have a Social Media Marketing strategy, but do not expect an immediate payoff.
There are programs out there that can schedule your Social Media posts for you. Although, you still have to write them. Zoho One has a lot of programs included in their subscription including Zoho Social. Zoho Social allows you to see all your social media sites in one place and simultaneously post to all of them, plus schedule these posts, too.
Again, I am just a happy Zoho® customer (Zoholics) and I do not receive anything from Zoho® for promoting their Zoho® One services.