Should Your Financial Planning Practice be on Instagram?

I hate to say this, but any time a client asks me about being on Instagram...there is a moment of dread before I say, "Maybe."

One of the loveliest things about what we provide at Social Seed Marketing is the ability to do a lot of your marketing for you. Yes, we collaborate with you every month on relevant content and we work diligently to create pieces that are in your voice.

The big reason why financial advisors come to us is because they want custom marketing that they don't have to spend a lot of time on. And we love providing that service.

Why Instagram is Different From Other Social Media Platforms

Back in the day, keeping a client active on Instagram was no big deal. Yes, it's always been different from other content-sharing platforms, like Facebook and LinkedIn, but for the most part, we could keep you active on Instagram with awesome graphics that highlight content on your website.

And then reels and stories started happening.

When a client comes to me, excited about participating in Instagram, I hate to be the one to quash their dreams of going viral. But the truth is this:

It takes time to create content for Instagram - and most of it is not something you can outsource.

Yes, you can hire people to help you create the reels and videographers who will put all the fun text in for you. But the thing is that YOU have to do it. You have to be there. This is not something you can say, "Catherine, I want to do this" and I can just take it and run with it. With Instagram, we take more of a supporting role, getting things scheduled. But YOU have to create the content.

Is this possible? Absolutely. You just need to be realistic with yourself about the time commitment. It might not be much but it WILL take time.

It is very easy to get caught up in what some people are doing on Instagram because there are a lot of advisors out there who do this really well. As a marketing professional, I can see some of the graphics they've created probably took hours and I watch as these people post every single day.

I would guess that some of these financial planning "influencers" spend at least 10 hours a week on their Instagram marketing. Even if I told you it was a fraction of that...is that something you want to take on?

Should Your Financial Planning Practice be on Instagram?

• Do I want more business/leads or do I want to be a social media influencer?

• Do I want to spend time on working on my business or do I want to spend time getting an audience on Instagram?

• If I reached 100,000 people tomorrow, would that give me the business results I'm looking for?

  • I'll give you a hint: If you want to add 10 more clients to your practice this year then the answer is NO. If you want to sell a book or a course, then yes you want to reach that many people.)

One more thing

I'm going to end this with a personal story. My background in social media was in the grief space. I built an audience of tens of thousands of people after my husband died by blogging and posting on social media. This resulted in a book deal - which was my goal. I wanted to reach a lot of people.

But this was my JOB. I put myself on a strict blogging schedule. I answered every single comment people made on social media. I posted every single day. This was WORK.

Now, as a business owner, that is not my goal. I post on social media to keep myself relevant, but my focus is on running my business. I don't want thousands of new clients, so it doesn't make sense for me to be as active as I was when I wanted a following. I don't have time to make building an audience my job, so how I create content and post is very different.

Again, ask yourself what your goal is. Don't put yourself in a bind of posting a ton if that's not what will get you there. Don't look at the shiny object of Instagram and think it's for everyone.

Create a marketing plan that works for you, allows you to reach your goals, and stop comparing yourself to everyone else.