Before Cary Carbonaro, senior vice president and director of women and wealth at Advisor Capital Management, answered how she best communicates with clients, she asked if any compliance officers were in the audience.
When no hands went up, she said she would meet clients wherever they wanted, whether through direct messages on Instagram, Facebook or other means.
Carbonaro, speaking at WealthStack, part of Wealth Management EDGE at the Diplomat Beach Resort in Hollywood Beach, Fla., discussed the idea of meeting clients where they are with Matt Halloran, co-founder and chief relationship manager of ProudMouth; Domenick D'Andrea, co-founder and financial advisor with Dandarah Wealth Management; and Homer Smith, a private wealth advisor with Convergent Wealth Partners.
Halloran said the idea of ”being unapologetically yourself” was key to connecting with customers during these online interactions.
“Most of what you do is completely commodified,” he said. “They love you.”
To make those relationships work, advisors need to meet clients where they already are.
“Marketing has changed fundamentally,” Halloran said. “You have to communicate in the medium they prefer with your voice.”
D'Andrea, for example, said he was trying to market in virtual reality environments once or twice a month.
Although this type of marketing may require an investment in equipment, Halloran said the payoff would make it worthwhile.
“A lot of you cut it in half on social media,” he said. “You have to fully appreciate it. You can't have poor quality audio or video.”
However, the panel agreed that not every effort would work. Carbonaro said it failed to gain traction on TikTok, YouTube and X (formerly Twitter).
“I've been successful in a hundred different fields, but I can't achieve those three things,” she said.
Making social media work for advisors takes persistence and dedication, D'Andrea said. He blocks his calendar every day from 8 am to 8:30 am for comments and posts on his various social media channels. If you're sporadic in their posts, he explained, no one will think to check them.
“Try doing it twice a week and building on it,” he said. “If you post once a month, you don't exist on social media.”