Years ago I was invited to a dinner party hosted by some family friends. Although I did not know many of the dinner guests, our hostess Eliana was extremely engaging and knew enough about each guest to spark the conversation and engage everyone at the table. She was graceful in the calculated way she would ask questions, prompt responses and bring out the opinions of her guests. I remember feeling involved and relaxed as the table of strangers quickly became a table of friends. In the hours that past, from the appetizer to the entrees and into desert, I observed Eliana and was amazed at her talent for managing the art of conversation.
Financial Advisors are know for having the gift of gab and often our biggest problem is remembering that we have two ears and one mouth. Lost in our own thoughts on the market and in some cases showing off what we may know, it’s easy to forget that a conversation requires two parties and that the goal is an exchange of ideas. In social media, it may often appear that the conversation is one sided, however the goal is to engage and prompt the opportunity for conversations and feedback. In the case of Facebook this can be accomplished by a simple “like” or comment on the update, link, video or photo posted. Twitter provides users the opportunity to reply and continue the conversation thread in an open forum that allows others to chime in as well.
The key to a great conversation is providing great content that is timely, relevant and will add value. The content can be something you create or share from a third party website link, photo or video. One best practice is to share the content with an open ended question to prompt conversation. For example: “Here’s an interesting article provided by Financial Magazine, what are your thoughts?”
You can also use the title of the article to help you with the question. For example: Check out “5 Ways To Increase Customer Interaction.” What other techniques do you use?
Asking questions is an initation to a conversation, and I encourage you to be prepared to engage once the responses come in. At that point you become the moderator and it’s not uncommon to ask a follow up, especially if the conversation is diving into other areas. One of the best places to participate in this exchange of ideas is in LinkedIn Group pages where discussions can begin based on questions asked by moderators or group members. Financial professionals are invited to visit and participate in the
Wired Advisor group page that has a community of over 2000 members.
Providing good content and asking questions for increase dialogue and engagement helps build a community around a particular industry, product or service. This process is faciliatated by social media tools that display and amplify your unique thought leadership. If you consistently add value to your audience you are likely to find a community that will not only embrace your contributions, but expect and appreciate them.
Listen to blogs