It was a great honour to walk away the winner of the Scholarship award at the Financial Standard’s SMILEYS last week! I flew up to Sydney for the round table discussions with 12 very talented individuals in the industry – The Digital Dozen.
It’s the second year of the awards, which are designed to promote and support financial advisers who use social media. I was selected as one of the ‘digital dozen’ as we were named, because of my consistent media strategy and engagement across key platforms. The 12 of us were the top scorers based on a 100-point selection criteria which looked at our social media presence, quality of connection, level of amplification of our social media message, creativity in execution and vision. It was a wonderful thrill to win indeed – especially judged by some of the top industry professionals!
What I wanted to convey was the way my team uses social media, that is to focus on having fun. Good social media is all about thinking outside the square. We can share, engage, start conversations and importantly, have a bit of fun, with a wider audience than we could reach through traditional forms of marketing.
In doing so, it allows our audience to actually SEE what we do and WHAT we stand for. All of our staff are now used to being filmed, and we jump on every opportunity to broadcast what we think might offer some laughs. For example, my office was filled with balloons to celebrate my birthday recently and the images were replayed on Facebook and Twitter, as well as filmed on YouTube. It was a great way to display how we like to have fun at the office.
On a more serious note, social media is a valuable platform to voice our concerns about under insurance and other important issues affecting everyday Australians. The more vocal we can be as an industry, the more the public will understand real issues that are affecting our future. This can only lead to stronger awareness, greater reasons for change and potential industry reform.
While I really love social media, the stats show that this is not a phenomenon that’s going away any time soon. According to the 2013 Yellow Social Media Report, 65 per cent of Australian internet users use social media, and half of them log on daily. For financial advisers to attract business in the Gen X and Y demographic, our target market, it’s vital we jump onboard and get clicking with a smile.
As part of the SMILEYS process, I also created a short video that you can also have a look at, where I share a little more about why I use social media for my business.
We love social media – Connect with me!
