Social media marketing can be an extremely effective digital marketing strategy for financial advisors who want to get more clients.

After helping hundreds of financial advisors, financial planners, wealth managers, and other financial professionals generate leads and clients through social media, I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t.

In this article, I’ll share my top social media marketing tips for financial advisors looking to grow their firm.

The right vs wrong way

If you’re short on time, here’s a quick summary of the right and wrong way to use social media as a financial advisor.

The right way

  • Focuses on getting results (more leads, appointments and clients)

The wrong way

Want to learn more about the right way to use social media?

Click here to watch my free Masterclass training which explains how advisors can use social media to get 10, 15, 30 or more high-quality appointments each month with your ideal clients by focusing on RESULTS (not vanity metrics).

In the rest of the article, let’s dive into these strategies in more detail.

The best social media marketing strategies for financial advisors

Here are my top tips for using social media effectively as an advisor:

1. Ignore the social media ‘busywork’

Ignore social media busywork

If you want to be successful on social media, you need to focus on what gets results. Most financial advisors today are busy posting every day on social media and focusing on metrics such as getting more:

  • Likes
  • Comments
  • Shares
  • Engagement

But how much of that activity actually contributes to leads, appointments or clients? In my experience, it’s very little (if anything at all).

I have clients who (before working with me) posted daily on social media for years and didn’t even get one single lead from it!

But after they stopped focusing on vanity social media metrics and started focusing on lead generation, they got much better results (almost overnight!).

The lesson?

Focus on the social media activities that get RESULTS (leads, appointments and clients) and ignore everything else.

If you’re wondering what strategy we use with financial advisors to get results, then watch this free training, which explains how the strategy we use works in more detail.

2. Use the right social media platforms

Social Media Channels

Financial advisors need to use the right social media platforms, not every platform, to be successful with social media marketing.

So what social media networks are best for advisors?

I would recommend focusing on the social media platforms you’re potential clients are most likely to be on.

In my experience, the best social media marketing platforms for financial advisors are (in order of best to worst):

  • YouTube (The best for free leads)
  • Facebook & Instagram (The best for paid leads)
  • TikTok (great for organic and paid social media reach)
  • LinkedIn (only good for some niches)

What about the other social channels?

In my experience, the results from other social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter), Pinterest, Snapchat and Pinterest are not great for advisors looking to get more leads and clients.

So I would focus on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok and LinkedIn, which is where your target audience is most likely to be found.

3. Create YouTube videos

Webcam screen recording

YouTube is the biggest and most powerful video-based social media platform for advisors. By creating YouTube videos for your firm, you can appear at the top of Google search, YouTube search and the YouTube homepage.

When people click on your YouTube videos, they can learn more about you and how you help them, and (most importantly) these viewers will convert into leads, appointments, and clients.

Here’s the best way to use YouTube as an advisor:

  • Create helpful and informative videos that potential clients will find useful
  • Videos around 5-10 minutes typically work best for advisors
  • When people watch your video, be sure to have a call to action (CTA) that goes to your appointment funnel

If your video is good and gets a high engagement and click-through rate (CTR), then YouTube will automatically push it out to more people in your target audience (for free)

The more views your views get, the more leads and clients you’ll generate from this social media strategy

Want to learn more about using YouTube to get leads as an advisor?

Watch ‘Step 4’ of this video to see how our advisor clients do this.

4. Run Facebook & Instagram ads

Facebook Ads

Want to get high-net-worth leads with prospective clients on social media? Running ads on Facebook and Instagram (Meta) is a great way to do this.

Facebook is one of the largest social media platforms in the world, with over 2.9 billion active users. It is the social media channel with the largest demographic of older people on it too (making it perfect for advisors).

However, it’s not a good idea to schedule social media posts on your Facebook or Instagram page. If you do this, you’ll likely already know that you don’t get any leads from this activity.

This is because Organic reach on Facebook is almost non-existent. Instagram is a little bit better, but for the amount of time and effort you’d need to put into it to see any results, you’ll get a much better return on investment (ROI) by creating YouTube videos instead.

So, the best way to get results with this social media platform is to run ads.

Here are some tips to get the best results from doing this:

However, as powerful as Facebook ads can be, it’s still not the best social media channel for advisors. The best (believe it or not) would be TikTok ads (see below).

5. TikTok Advertising

TikTok Ads

Running ads on TikTok is one of the best social media strategies for financial advisors. It allows you to target high-net-worth individuals seeking a financial advisor.

You might be surprised to learn that TikTok has over 9 million active users over the age of 55+ in the USA alone. What does this mean for you?

TikTok can be a great way to advertise your financial services through ads or organic posts.

For the quickest results, I recommend just using TikTok ads.

The advantage of using TikTok ads when advertising financial services is that you can specifically target an audience based on age, income and different interests (for example, people interested in annuities, Universal Indexed Life Insurance, wealth management and more).

Here’s a screenshot of one of our financial advisor clients getting leads from TikTok ads (the campaign was launched just a few days ago as I’m writing this article):

TikTok Ads Financial advisor results

As you can see, this advisor has spent less than $200 and already has 29 leads with a cost per lead of less than $8!

You can see more client results using TikTok here.

If you need help with running financial advisor TikTok ads, you can learn more about working with us by watching this video.

6. LinkedIn

LinkedIn

Want to get low cost leads with social media? LinkedIn is a great social media channel for financial advisors looking to target certain types of niches.

Here are a few financial advisor niches LinkedIn works well for:

People changing jobs (401K rollover leads)

Targeting certain types of job titles

Executives

Business owners

Targeting employees of Fortune500 companies

The main downside with LinkedIn, though, is that you can’t target people by age.

Even so, LinkedIn lead generation is a financial advisor prospecting strategy that often works much better than sending cold emails using cold email software or cold calling leads.

7. Optimize social media profiles

Financial advisor using laptop

In today’s social media-driven world, it’s more important than ever for financial advisors to have an optimized social media presence.

Why?

Social media provides a powerful platform for building relationships with potential clients, and any retirement leads you get will most likely check you out on social media.

By carefully crafting your social media profiles, you can ensure that the people you target will see the value in working with you.

What are some things you can do to optimize your social media profiles?

  • As a minimum, sign up to LinkedIn as that’s where most people go to learn about you
  • Make sure that your profile photos look professional. (Seriously, I know one financial advisor who had an unprofessional picture, and it was affecting his conversion rates. He changed the picture, and conversion rates instantly increased.)
  • Take the time to fill out your bio completely, and be sure to include keywords that relate to your niche so you can be found on search engines.

By following these simple tips, you can ensure that your social media presence looks good to anyone who follows you on social media. The same principles can also apply to your financial advisor website.

8. Be consistent

Being consistent in social media marketing is crucial because it helps establish your brand’s presence and keeps your audience engaged. Consistency in your posting schedule, content quality, and brand voice help build trust with your followers.

Moreover, consistent activity improves visibility through the social media algorithms that favor regular posting, helping your content reach a wider audience.

For example, I noticed that when I stopped posting on YouTube for almost a year, my views went down. After I posted weekly, my views consistently increased each month.

Here are some tips on how to be consistent with your social media marketing:

  • Establish a Content Calendar: Schedule your social media posts ahead of time to ensure a steady flow of content. This also helps maintain a good mix of content types (videos, articles, infographics) and themes.
  • Use Scheduling Tools: Tools like Buffer, Hootsuite, or Later can help automate the posting process. Buffer is my favorite tool because it’s the easiest one to use.
  • Monitor Performance: Regularly check your analytics to understand what works and adjust your strategy accordingly. Consistency also means being adaptive and refining your approach based on audience engagement.
  • Engage Regularly: Consistency isn’t just about posting. It’s also about consistently engaging with your audience. Respond to comments, participate in conversations, and create interactive content. This is especially helpful when building a community on YouTube or other community platforms.
  • Educate Your Team: If you hire a social media management agency to post on your behalf, ensure they understand the importance of consistency and are aligned with your brand guidelines.

9. Be human

At its core, social media is about people interacting with each other. When a business shows its human side, it becomes more relatable and trustworthy to its audience. This approach can foster a stronger, more meaningful connection between your brand and your followers.

Here are some tips on how to “be human” in your social media marketing:

  • Show Behind-the-Scenes: Share glimpses of your team, workspace, or the making of your products. This transparency builds trust and adds a layer of relatability.
  • Tell Real Stories: Share customer testimonials, employee highlights, or your own business journey. Real stories resonate more than generic sales pitches.
  • Use a Conversational Tone: Ditch the corporate speak. Write posts and responses as if you’re conversing with a friend. This makes your brand more approachable.
  • Admit Mistakes: If something goes wrong, admit it publicly and explain how you’ll fix it. Honesty is refreshing and can strengthen trust in your brand.
  • Engage Genuinely: Don’t use automation for everything. Take the time to craft personal responses to comments and messages.
  • Be Responsive: Make an effort to reply quickly to inquiries and feedback. Prompt responses show that you value your audience’s time and input.

Injecting humanity into your social media presence can lead to deeper client relationships and, ultimately, a more successful advisory firm.

10. Build a strong brand

Building a brand for your advisory firm on social media isn’t just about logos or catchy slogans; it’s about crafting a unique identity that resonates with your audience and distinguishes you from competitors.

A strong brand conveys your business’s personality, values, and promise you make to your clients.

So, as you grow your social media followers, be sure that every post they see contributes to a larger narrative about who you are and what you stand for.

Here’s how to effectively build your brand on social media:

  • Define your brand identity: Clearly articulate your brand’s mission, values, and personality. Know what sets you apart and how you want to be perceived by your audience. In other words, why should people work with your financial advisor firm instead of others?
  • Maintain visual consistency: Use a consistent color scheme, logo, and font style across all your social media profiles. This visual consistency helps reinforce brand recognition. This is especially helpful when running financial advisor ads.
  • Develop a content strategy: Schedule valuable content that reflects your brand identity and speaks to your target audience. Mix educational, inspirational, and promotional content to engage users in various ways.
  • Showcase your expertise: Share your knowledge and insights related to your industry. This will position your brand as an authority among your audience, who are seeking financial advice.
  • Tell stories: Use storytelling to connect emotionally. Share the success stories of clients you’ve been able to help plan for retirement so that other prospective clients can relate.

A strong social media brand can differentiate you from competitors and create a loyal community of clients who advocate for your business.

11. Stay compliant on social media

When using social media as an advisor, it’s important to stay compliant and follow the rules from Finra, the SEC and the policies of the firm you work with.

In my experience, some financial advisor firms are much stricter than others regarding their social media policies. For example, some advisors can’t use Facebook and others can.

So, before using any social media platforms, you’ll need to double-check the policies for using social media in your firm so that your social media efforts don’t go to waste.

In many cases, you can use social media without issues as long as you get anything you post approved by compliance first. Recording your social media posts for archiving purposes is also a good idea.

Next steps?

Advisors can take advantage of social media in many good and bad ways to grow their business.

The key is to start by understanding your ideal client and then craft a social media strategy to generate leads, appointments and clients (not likes, followers and engagement).

To learn the best strategy to do this, watch this free training here.

FAQs