What Advisors Need to Know About Linkedin Stories and 9 Ways to Get Creative With It

LinkedIn stories were unveiled in late September, but now that I’ve had some time to experiment and play around ourselves, I have some tips to share on how to best use this new feature to help grow your advisory business.

This new addition to LinkedIn is the perfect way for advisors that are looking to be more authentic and make a connection with their audience. Stories were so successful for Instagram and Facebook, that it only makes sense the other social media platforms would want to join in on the action, right?

LinkedIn Stories are constantly evolving like anything else, and the creators will be working on “glitches” as they go, but for now, the available features are listed in the simple infographic below.

A study from Greenwich Associates finds that financial advisors are expected to increase their use of LinkedIn than any other platform over the next two years, yet many people are still posting the same articles and content that they have been for years now, so how can advisors really start to connect with their audience and start conversations with prospects, while staying at the top of their mind?

Enter: LinkedIn Stories

With LinkedIn Stories, advisors will have the opportunity to show what their business is like from a different perspective and engage with their prospects in a way that helps them to stay more connected. First things first, how do you upload your content to LinkedIn stories? And what types of content will perform best? Keep reading to find out.

Will Stories On LinkedIn Be Successful?

Linkedin is the most professional social media platform and the platform that financial advisors seem to use the most. The content that is put out on LinkedIn is incredibly polished and showcases the brand of the firm well.

However, I know that people connect with real people much more than brands, so utilizing stories will show the authentic and real side of financial advisors, more of what goes on with the actual people at the business, not just the brand itself. 

The type of content, such as a “behind the scenes” video, unscripted video or just a look into the daily life of advisors are what really forges connection and gets high-level engagement. It really is a golden opportunity for the first advisors who embrace LinkedIn Stories.

Twenty Over Ten CMO, Samantha Russell shows how Stories can really boost your engagement, as she did some research this week, and of the approximately 8,325 connections she personally has on LinkedIn, just THIRTY of those connections had a story up. And of those 30, just 20 were financial advisors. So, the opportunity to get in front of a much larger audience is HUGE right now for those that embrace this new feature.

How Do You Upload a Story to LinkedIn?

Before I dive into ways to get creative with your LinkedIn stories, here is how you can easily upload your first story. The first thing to remember is that you can only post a story from the LinkedIn mobile app, and you can only access the stories if you are using the most updated version of the app.

When posting, you can use the camera in Stories to capture videos or images in real-time or you can easily upload images that were already on your phone. You can add text overlay or stickers to the story, as well, adding some emphasis or “pop” to your story.

In the below images, you simply click on the profile picture where you would like to upload the story.

Once you have clicked on that, your camera will open giving you the option to choose from your library or take a picture or video through the Stories camera as you can see below.

Once you have recorded your video or chosen one from your library, you will be prompted to share your story. And that’s all there is to it!

9 Ways Financial Advisors Can Get Creative With Their LinkedIn Stories

1. Show “Behind the Scenes” Activity 

As I discussed, your followers connect with people more than with a brand, so if you show what goes on “Behind the Scenes” this gives them a sneak-peek into you or your team’s daily life. As many companies are continuing to work from home, you can get even more creative than usual, since you won’t be in the office. Rather you can show a lot more about how you manage your “work-life” balance while working from home. 

Some activities that you can show are:

• Projects that you are working on
• Your daily schedule
• Apps or tools that you use to stay productive

This type of content is popular on other platforms already and would work well on LinkedIn, as well.

2. Promote New Blog Posts, Podcasts, Videos or Infographics 

At Twenty Over Ten, we often promote new blog posts, podcasts or videos on our Instagram stories with the ability to click on them and find out more, and this is a great idea for LinkedIn Stories, as well. When you are creating a strong inbound marketing strategy, it’s crucial to create content that drives more traffic to your website. When you post these announcements on your stories, it opens up your content to a different audience that may not usually see your content.

Keith Wilson of Wilson Financial Planners used a story to tell his followers about a post going up on about the interview process. It’s a great way to inform your followers about what to expect from you this week and check your website.

FSC Wealth Advisors also utilized their LinkedIn Story to tell their followers about a blog post that went up on the same day about how to be proactive about behavior that will pay off in ten years.

Mac Gardner, CFP? uses his story to share an infographic with images that stand out with the phrases, “Save Diligently, Invest Wisely and Give Generously.”

3. Promote Upcoming Webinars or Live Events

I was already a big proponent of webinars, but they have become increasingly important throughout the pandemic since networking events and opportunities to meet in person have basically been non-existent. If you have an upcoming event or webinar, then you can quickly record a video story where you:

• Briefly discuss the event
• Discuss what people will learn or why they should attend
• How to register

It’s super simple to do this and will drive more traffic to your registration page.

4. Quickly Share Ideas or Pictures That Your Followers May Find Interesting

Stories are meant to be “on the fly” and so they aren’t incredibly formal by any means, so many advisors are choosing to share perhaps an interesting book or article that they came across. It’s a great pay to provide some quick insight to your followers.

W. Michael Jones, Wealth Manager at Boulevard Wealth Partners shares a useful book his followers might find interesting when it comes to retirees and social security

5. Find Out More About Your Followers

I’ve discussed the importance of engagement on social media, as it’s not just about posting your content but engaging with your followers, as well. With Stories, you can find out more about your audience, which in turn, can help know more about them and what type of content you should be sharing with them to get higher interaction. Some ways to do this are to incorporate things, such as:

• Polls
• Sliding Scales
• Text Fields

You will not only be understanding more about what they want to see, but you will also be showing that you care about them and want to be involved.

6. Host a Q&A Session

At Twenty Over Ten, we have hosted “Ask Me Anything” webinars with CMO, Samantha Russell, where people have an hour to ask Samantha any marketing question that they have. You can upload a video or stream a brief AMA or Q&A on your Story, which is a great way to boost engagement and show that you are a thought-leader in the industry.

Our “Ask Me Anything” sessions are unscripted as attendees can ask Samantha anything that they want about digital marketing. You could easily translate something like top FAQ’s you get from clients and prospects into a Q&A on stories on a smaller scale, this is the type of content that would be great for engaging with your audience and providing them with useful information. Additionally, the sessions can be filmed with questions that are pre-planned.

7. Use Stories for Social Proof

Did you recently win an award? Congrats! Include a picture with a quote or snippet on your story. Or perhaps you were recently quoted in a media article. Include a screenshot of it in your story. This is a great way to use social proof to get other people interested in what you have to offer, wanting to find out more and how it can work for them.

Kimberly A. Houston, CFP?, CRPC? wanted to do a quick shout-out about completing her CFP continuing education. This is a great way to show her followers that she is serious about being a financial professional and continuing to better herself as a CFP?.

8. Tutorials

You want to be able to teach your viewers how to do something or walk them through issues that they may have, which is why quick tutorials are a great option for your stories. You can take your viewers through a step-by-step or educate them on a topic, on subjects, such as:

• Tax Code changes for 2020
• What they should know about the CARES Act
• How to get organized and what documents they should bring for an initial meeting with a financial advisor

Those are just a few examples, as there are hundreds of topics that you can touch on, and educational content is always a great idea. Make sure your visitors are leaving with a new tidbit of information that they can use at their own business, help their own clients with, and much more.

Additionally, if you have a whitepaper, checklist, ebook or another guide that you have already created, then this would be a great piece of content to promote in your story. 

9. Special Announcements 

Does your website have any special announcements, such as company announcements, new hires, etc.? If so, then create a quick story that details more about the announcement with the option to find out more by clicking on them.

Final Thoughts

Social media is the way of the future, and connecting with your followers on multiple platforms is a great way to show that you are multi-dimensional and able to communicate with your audience in a multi-dimensional way. Social platforms are constantly changing, and even the most professional one, LinkedIn is changing with the times, and it’s a great way to boost your visibility, engagement and take your marketing strategy a step further.