You can’t:

• Cold call strangers and 'pitch' them your services like a traditional salesperson.
• Blast ads promising outcomes you can’t guarantee.
• Incentivise referrals with cash or gifts.

You’re working in a high stakes, highly regulated industry where the decision to work with you isn’t made in the moment – it’s made over months, even years. People need to believe you understand their world, not just your product.

That’s why the old school 'hunt and close' mentality falls flat here. In finance, your marketing needs to do three things better than anything else:

1. Educate – Show you know the terrain (and the traps) better than anyone.
2. Build familiarity – So when a money moment arrives, they already know and like you.
3. Earn trust at scale – Because your best client tomorrow probably isn’t ready to commit today.

And here’s the kicker: You can’t fake this with a couple of social posts or a random newsletter. You need a system that builds trust 365 days a year – without you chained to your laptop.

That’s where most brokers and advisers either:

• Burn out trying to do it all manually, or
• Post random 'rate updates' and wonder why the phone's not ringing.

The solution?
Stop thinking like a hunter. Start thinking like a farmer.
Plant seeds of trust. Nurture your audience. Keep showing up with valuable insights. And automate as much of that as possible so it runs while you’re doing actual client work.

Because in this industry, it’s not about the next transaction.
It’s about being the person someone thinks of when their financial moment arrives.

It'll take about 2 minutes to set up, see:)

Ok, now that you've got your LinkedIn company page, you'll need some followers. This article outlines the most effective methods for attracting people to your company page.

And just in case you weren't convinced as to why it's worth bothering, consider:

• Your company page follower count is public. The more popular you look, the more popular you'll be.
• Your followers are more likely to see the content you publish. The more you're seen, the more you'll sell.

Before we get to the most effective ways of building your following on LinkedIn – having built audiences of thousands for our businesses and for our clients – let's look at a couple of hygiene factors your need to sort out first:

• Optimise your profile. This means making sure all your contact details are up to date, you've got a compelling tagline, a meaningful About section and a good looking banner image.
• Regularly publish content. This is about giving your prospective followers a 'WIIFM'. No one wants to follow a dormant company page that offers no value.
• Make sure your team have listed your company as their workplace. This'll allow anyone who checks out your company page to easily find out more about the team that will be serving them.
• Engage with other people's content. You've probably heard this a million times before, but it's called social media for a reason – interact, contribute, support and generally show up and have a good time:)

Like most things on social media, the principles are dead simple and quite intuitive, but they do require consistency, a whole heap of grunt work and a bit of creativity – we can help, otherwise you may be able to delegate these tasks to someone in your team. If you do, make sure you clearly define what needs to be done, how often, and for how long. Otherwise, you may find your people getting lost down the rabbit hole.

Invite your connections to follow your page

1. Go to your company page admin screen
2. Select 'Invite connections' from right hand side (see below)
3. Invite all non-competitive connections to follow your page

LinkedIn will either give you 100 or 250 credits each month. On the 1st of each month these credits reset, so you'll get a fresh 100 or 250 invitations to send out. Don't be shy hitting 'invite' as the credits don't roll over into the next month, so once they're gone, they're gone!

If you find that people aren't accepting the invite to follow your company page then consider whether you're inviting the right people.

We find that for a lot of brokers, advisers and accountants, their personal networks are heavily saturated with industry associates. These aren't the people you need to have following your company page. Instead, focus on referral partners, existing clients and ideal future clients.

Add a link to your company page to your email signature

This one's pretty self explanatory. Just underneath the usual social profile icons on your email signature, you can add a text link that says 'Follow us on LinkedIn'. This method doesn't have the highest strike rate, but you may attract some of your loyal clients to your company page.

Send any questions about the ins and outs of building an audience for your LinkedIn company page to hello[at]socialbroker.com.au

(Or we can do it for you)

Why bother with Instagram?

Instagram is still the fastest growing mainstream social media platform, with the number of monthly users in Australia increasing by 1.3 million in the last 12-months alone!

It's also the best place to build a local, targeted audience. This means when you post content and engage with accounts on Instagram, you'll be able to get noticed by the right people - referral partners and clients alike. At the very least it lets you be seen by your current client base several times a month (in an unobtrusive way), at best: it lets you widen your reach to connect with your prospects.

Before you start building your audience

Make sure your Instagram feed looks the part. You want to give people a valid reason for following your account, so they need to see relevant, good-looking content when they click on your profile.

This is a service we provide a growing number of finance and legal professionals, however it's only part of the puzzle. The old adage of 'if you build it, they will come' doesn't apply to social media as much as 'if you want something, go out and get it.'

The reciprocal follow

To build an engaged community of current and future clients and referral partners, you need to mimic how you'd act in real life. This means no bots, no sneaky tricks, no shortcuts. The most effective way to build a targeted audience on Instagram is to engage with other accounts, and give them the opportunity to engage back.

Provided you’ve got the right kind of content on your profile (professional, relevant, value adding), you’ll have about a 1 in 3 chance of the people you follow, following you back (note: this can take a few weeks). To find the people you want as followers, we suggest looking at who's engaging with these types of accounts:

• Local businesses
  • Cafes
  • Gyms
  • Car dealerships
  • Garden centres
  • Florists
  • Homewares stores
• Current and prospective referral partners
  • Accountants
  • Lawyers
  • Conveyancers
  • Finance brokers
  • Buyer's advocates
  • Real estate agents
  • Financial advisers
• Community groups
  • Parent's groups
  • Football teams
  • Social bowls clubs
  • Local NFPs

Don't forget about hashtags

While hashtags aren't quite as powerful as they were a few years ago - in terms of helping you expand your reach - they can be a great way to find followers in the areas your service. When people add hashtags to their posts it's because they want to be found - this means they're are ready to mingle with accounts just like yours! If you live in Perth, for instance, start with #perthisok #perthlife #perthstagram #perthlifestyle

What NOT to do

Don't follow private accounts

Don’t bother following accounts that are set to private. You’ll know they’re private if you follow them and it says ‘waiting for approval’. Simply select ‘unfollow’. These people are less likely to engage with a business, and may find the attention intrusive.

Don't do the old follow/unfollow trick

A lot of Instagram gurus will tell you to unfollow the accounts you're following to create a 'better' Followers:Following ratio. We think this is a bit petty and childish, really. You only want to be following relevant accounts anyway, so there's no harm in following more people than are following you. Although, best not to go higher than 4:1 ratio - not just for vanity's sake but as a measure of whether you're following relevant accounts.

Don't buy followers

Trust us, people can tell when a small business has purchased dodgy followers, and it doesn't reflect well. It also messes with your audience insights, and means your content has little chance of being seen by the right people. You know, people who'll pick up the phone to enquire about your services.

It doesn't stop there!

Bring the social to social media

Make sure you’re engaging with their content (liking and commenting). Besides being a nice nod to the business in question, it improves your visibility on the platform and keeps the Instagram algorithm happy.

And the big question...

How much time will this all take?

Time is money, and every task has an opportunity cost - so we've all got to prioritise high pay-off activities, and outsource the ones that are too time-consuming. We recommend 30 mins every day to spend growing your audience on Instagram - this doesn't include content ideation, creation and publishing. Perhaps this is a job you can pass on to your admin team? Otherwise, check out our industry-leading content subscriptions, or get in touch to find out more.

Here are 15 content ideas for what to post on social media. The idea is to keep your feed varied and relevant to your audience. Make it less about you, and less about them.

1. Industry news

There are now 30 lenders offering cash backs...

2. Answer FAQs

What's the difference between an offset and redraw facility?

3. Explain your services

Ever wondered how much it costs to use a broker?

4. Share a review

Our client Mia was finding it hard to get help from her bank...

5. Introduce your team

Meet Michael, our fabulous parabroker. What's a parabroker, you ask?

6. Thank your customers

We've just celebrated 100 loans settled this quarter. This represents 100 clients who've trusted us to make their dreams a reality. Thank you...

7. Promote a referrer

Shout out to @trustedpartner - every time we send one of our clients their way we receive exceptional feedback on their services...

8. Witty quote

"There's more to life than losing weight and paying bills" - time to get off the treadmill, both literally and figuratively, and set yourself up to actually enjoy life.

9. Define jargon

LVR, SVR, LMI, WTH?

10. Budgeting tips

Do you have a favourite budgeting app?

Here are our picks for where to find good (non-cringeworthy) stock photography.

Rather outsource your content creation to us?

We've mapped out five ways to build trust on social media and build your personal brand - which is really just another way of saying 'help people get to know YOU'.

1. Be real

Communicate in an authentic, human way. Your customers are loyal to you (not head office). Show them who you are and provide a sense of what it'd be like working with you. Develop a distinct and engaging voice and stick to it.

2. Be social

Have you ever been to a BBQ and complimented the host on their salad-making prowess only to be met with radio silence? Of course not. Don't forget Manners 101. This means responding to comments and interacting with other accounts.

3. Be generous

Sharing insights without asking for anything builds trust, exemplifies your service-oriented approach and of course shows off your technical expertise. People will very quickly switch off if they see you're continually asking for something.

4. Be consistent

Consistency in your messaging, tone of voice and aesthetic builds a strong brand, which conveys stability and dependability. Don't let this stop you from refining content and allowing for variation between social media channels.

5. Be part of something

No one wants to be accused of virtue signalling, however we all have a role to play in leaving the world a better place. By raising awareness of the causes that matter to you and your community, you can help drive volunteering and donations.

It's tempting to focus on quantity over quality content for your social media channels. We get it, how else are you expected to get people to notice you?

Now's the time to build your brand and connect with your target audience. This calls for content that's authentically YOU. It's not the time to spam the ether with sales pitches, ads that say 'Call me!' or generic, off-the-shelf updates that do nothing to connect on an emotional level.

To make sure you’re not just posting one sales pitch after another, we’ve prepared a helpful guide. Check out these five content ideas for when you’re feeling stuck on Instagram.

1. Share your expertise

Improve your audience's financial literacy by explaining the ins and outs of finance and mortgage-related concepts. Use plain language, and keep it light, fun, and relatable. Be helpful without being preachy.

2. Showcase your values

Motivational quotes serve a bigger purpose than simply bulking up your feed. Use the captions to link back to your value proposition, and showcase your values, sense of humour, personality, vibe.

3. Explain your services

Let people know what it is you do and how you've helped people just like them. This could be answering commons questions, busting myths, or sharing case studies. Focus on benefits. Stay clear of industry jargon, unless you're explaining it.

4. Amplify social proof

Share your testimonials, Brokermatch, Facebook or Google reviews. Carefully consider how to phrase your caption in a customer-centric way. It should be less: 'Look how good I am!' and more: 'I loved working with this customer!'

5. Introduce the team

Provide insight into the culture of your business by introducing your team and showing some of the behind-the-scenes. To maintain your feed's polished aesthetic, keep the casual, ad hoc photos and videos to your Instagram Stories.

There’s immense opportunity for mortgage and finance brokers to build a niche brand on Instagram. However, how can you realistically be expected to create high-quality content alongside mastering the core functions of your role? After all,  you’re in the business of finance broking, not social media marketing.

In response to unmet demand, we’ve developed Social Broker, which provides fully-customised Instagram content to enhance your brand, attract followers, and keep you top-of-mind.

However, if you’d rather go down the DIY route, read on for some practical suggestions of what to consider when crafting content for social media.

Persona

Tone is absolutely everything. It’s about striking the balance between authoritative and engaging. It’s an opportunity for you to showcase your expertise, brand values and your personality. Your audience needs assurance both that you’re competent, and that they’ll enjoy working with you. This is why generic, head office-generated content often doesn’t get the cut-through and often won't be relatable or compelling - simply because it doesn't showcase you.

We suggest defining your persona before creating your content. Write down the attributes you want your brand to personify. Is your brand ambitious, chic, intellectual / conservative, strong, stable / approachable, helpful, direct / confident, witty, playful. Your brand persona should align with the experience that customers can expect to receive from you.

Targeting

While Instagram can help you cast your net wider (than traditional word-of-mouth referrals), try avoid taking a scattergun approach. This means identifying who your target audience is. Are you seeking to connect with a certain demography, profession or buying-behaviour? Be clear on who your ideal customer profile, and then design every piece of content with them in mind.

Messaging

Your Instagram account presents an opportunity to showcase your values, highlight your expertise, educate people, stay top-of-mind and give insight into your personality – so they know what it might be like working with you.

And, to keep you Instagram feed engaging for the long-term, think about what other finance-related topics you could cover. For instance, real estate, interior design, small business/entrepreneurship, financial empowerment for women, growth mindset thinking, financial literacy. The topics you cover will depend on your target audience, and your own expertise and interests. By covering a range of topics you’ll make your account appealing to more people, and improve visibility (via hashtags).

Including a call-to-action in marketing material is something that is drilled into us at every turn. Yet, we need to remember Instagram is a social media channel – so we've got to be social, not 'salesy'. Be very purposeful with your CTAs. Not every post needs to include one, and it doesn’t always have to be a ‘Call me today on 0406 BROKER’. Consider asking questions to build engagement, or provide links to useful tools or articles.