As
The large independent broker-dealer announced Feb. 21 that it was rolling out Instagram Professional as an option for all its advisors, whose ranks number
The social media tools come as the St. Petersburg, Florida-based company labors to hire more advisors, following a year of
Scott Curtis, the president of the Private Client Group at Raymond James, said in a statement that the tools are "consistent with our advisor-centric approach" and will help advisors "build their brands and grow their businesses while remaining compliant with regulations."
Among other
Advisors hoping to connect more with next-generation younger clients will find engaging and prospecting easier on Instagram, said Erica Sackett, the vice president of marketing and digital strategy at Raymond James.
"For those especially who have a slightly younger-than-average client or prospect base, this is a really attractive channel for them to tell their stories and reach those potential and existing clients," Sackett said in an interview.
One-third of American adults said they trusted social media to help them make financial decisions, according to a 2021 online
But the use of social media for financial advice and investing activities is rife with dangers.
Advisors who use the Instagram platform at Raymond James will be able to choose from posting and commenting on items from a library of pre-approved content that publishes instantly, or crafting and publishing their own content after sending it, in some cases, to a compliance team for approval. The advisors will manage the posts in an internal RJ Connect portal that is integrated into advisors' emails and websites.
"It tries to allow as much as possible to post instantly where it's compliant to do so," Sackett said of the system for handling Instagram content.
The company ran an internal pilot of the Instagram program in the past few months prior to its launch on Feb. 15, Sackett said. It plans to do the same with YouTube and Spotify.
The upcoming YouTube and Spotify platforms will likely help advisors who already have a reputation for 'thought leadership' in their existing podcasts or video content and could nudge some who were on the sidelines into trying these new tools, Sackett said.
"We have some advisors on the fringe that would consider these things, as they become a little more mature in their marketing … it's maybe an easier adoption for them" if they know there is company support behind them, she said.
Sackett said the new tools can be tailored to each advisor's practice as they see fit. "Some of them are looking to use it for client acquisition, but a lot of them are just using it for client retention," she said.
A "majority of our advisors, especially on the independent sides, and even in the employee channels" were already engaged with the existing social media platforms offered by RJ, including LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, Sackett added. Still, advisors had asked for the new platforms to help grow their practices. Among advisors and branch staff, there are currently over 10,000 users on RJ Connect, a company spokesperson said in an email.
Asked if the company had plans to launch advisor support on TikTok, the spokesperson said no but added, "We are constantly evaluating the social media landscape."
"I think being as regulated as we are, we're never going to be the first industry to jump on that new, emerging social media platform," Sackett said, citing the need to research platforms and perform due diligence. "It makes sure that we don't jump on the trends too quickly."
Sackett considers Raymond James to be "one of the pioneers" of social media marketing within the wealth management industry. The company offered its first social media support tool for advisors in 2011. For context, Facebook launched in 2004, overtook MySpace in popularity in 2008 and went public in 2012.
"I applaud Raymond James for their innovation, and for opening as many marketing channels as possible for their advisors," Robert Sofia, the CEO of industry marketing firm Snappy Kraken, said in an email.
"Specifically, opening up channels that many other firms do not allow is a differentiator for their advisors. That is a good move."
Sofia added that the firm would need to equally invest in advisor education to make full use of the new marketing tools, since "most advisors are not up-to-speed on advanced marketing capabilities" and "when it comes to creating content, their content is rarely engaging."
