Quite possibly one of the number one comments I hear from financial service professionals today is, “I’ve been doing my business for blah-blah years and I find social media doesn’t make any difference.” I nod my head and say, “Keep doing what you’ve been doing then”and go about my business, but we all know what we get when we do that, right? We get what we’ve always gotten…in 2017, probably worse.
Leadership sans social = future irrelevance
Ryan Holmes is the CEO of Hootsuite , a leading social media dashboard application firm, and is someone I madly respect. He recently penned an article on LinkedIn about the depressing statistics on leaders missing social media skillsets. As someone who has built more than a thousand individual profiles for financial service professionals and moderated dozens of panels with experts from LinkedIn, I knew all too well this relevant leadership skill among C-suite professionals was grossly absent in our community of advisors and planners.
This isn’t an age thing either – knock it off.
Jeff Bezos of Amazon is 53 years old.
Bill Gates of Microsoft is 61 years old.
Ivy Bean was just a week shy of her 102nd birthday when she died and was the oldest user of Facebook and Twitter in 2010.
So don’t even go there on age, that’s hooey!
If you’re going to use an excuse, make it about time – not your age or ability to understand technology. I understand the factors of time. It’s a non-renewable resource. So…you better be smart with it! Even time is not a good excuse in 2017 when so many tools exist to help you manage your messaging.
Does it really matter?
The biggest risk in many professionals’ lives today is being irrelevant. I really don’t care if you don’t like Facebook. I really don’t care if you don’t want to see someone’s lunch on Instagram. I also don’t give a crap about a Cardinals/Cubs snarky tweet debate on Twitter (and trust me – that says a lot as I’m a huge Cardinals fan!).
I do care about your voice missing in social media, though. I do care about making sure people understand your special talent and purpose in the financial services community. I do care that people connect your voice, talent, and purpose to how you can help someone achieve a financial milestone in his or her life and business.
How do you do this? In 2017, you need to use social media more.
It has nothing to do with the family quarrel, amazing burgers and brats, and political debates you see on social media. Look past that – – take your voice, talent, and purpose and get it out on social media. Talk to clients online by saying “hi” or just checking in with them. And before you go blaming compliance – hush….. so many of them want you to have access to doing this…compliantly. If they don’t want you using social media then contact me – I will help you navigate those conversations.
Be a person of action – Why risk having your leadership look irrelevant? Get on LinkedIn. Make your profile kick-ass (and if you don’t know how to, contact me, contact anyone, but get it super scrubbed). Find an article to share once in a while. Write something impactful as a post. Say “hi” to one of your followers. Have your voice heard. Share your talent. Talk about your purpose. Be a 2017 leader!