How to Use Social Media to Grow Your Financial Services Business

Hello everyone and welcome to this week's Facebook Live. Welcome to all of you who are actually watching this live today. Also, if you're watching later, on the replay, then welcome to you as well. For those who are new here and haven't met me before, my name is David Miles and I'm on a mission to help mortgage brokers, financial advisors, and other financial services professionals to generate a consistent flow of leads from their websites, so they can stop stressing about where their next client is coming from.

Now, to help me guide you further down today that particular journey I'm joined by a special guest. Her name is Abigail Garland from a company called Dot Dash Digital. She's gonna be talking to us all about social media and how you can use social media to grow your financial services business online.

Just before I get to Abigail and introduce her. Just so I know that the chat and everything are working. If you are watching could you just put something in the chat, just say hello, or put #live or #replay to tell us if you are watching this right now, or whether you are watching it later on. That will just reassure me that my iPad which is down here working and bringing up the questions. As we go through the event, do put any comments or questions in the chat. All, I have to do today is answer the questions and Abigail is doing all the hard work. Hopefully, I will be in a much better position to keep an eye on the comments.

Then, if I see questions come in there, as long as they look friendly and not too hard, I will throw those at Abigail as we go through the session. Hello, Claire and Ian. Thank you for your comments. Hi to you. So without further ado, let's move over and say hello to Abigail. Abigail, thank you very much for coming and joining us today. Just tell us a little bit about yourself. What do you do? How did you get into this kind of thing?

Yeah. Well, thank you for having me. As David said, I'm Abigail Garland and I'm a founder of Dot Dash Digital. It's around a mouthful. We work with small to medium businesses on social media. Social media is wholly outsourced to us, or we work with their internal marketing teams and the business about three and a half years ago now. So yeah, that's me.

Excellent. The first question I suppose we should cover is, I mean, it's something I get asked a lot by members of this group and mortgage I face in general is there are so many social platforms out there. There are the ones that we've been familiar with for years, like Facebook and Twitter. Also, there are a lot of newer ones like Instagram, Snapchat and so on. How can mortgage brokers and IFAs use these? Should they be aiming to be on all of these channels, or is that spreading themselves too thin? Particularly bear in mind, some of these guys are only running businesses on their own or just a couple of them.

Yeah. Social media can be a bit of a minefield. Then, I always tell people, especially if you are working on your own or you are this small team and stuff, just start with one platform and make sure you're doing it well. Have a look at where your target audience is. Have a look at where your competitors are and see what they're doing. Take the good bits from them and fill in any gaps that they're missing in their content and stuff. 

But I think the key thing is just starting with one platform. Have a look at its features. Have a look at what's capable with that platform. Make sure you're doing that well first, before then moving on to another platform. Then learn that platform and take a bit more of a sort of problem. There's a process. Think it more of, you know what I mean?

Yeah. Then, you would say that there is as well as sort of looking at where your audience is, and I suppose that's gonna vary a bit, depending on thinking about mortgage brokers in particular. Particularly what kind of clients they're looking for. I guess if someone's focusing very much on first-time buyers, maybe that’s gonna be a different sort of social media platform they want to focus on.

Let’s say someone who's looking at equity release for pensioners and that kind of thing. I mean, I know from what my kids tell me that Facebook, for example, is kind of much an older person's platform now. Well, I mean not to say older but they call me a Boomer. Okay. I'm very firmly generation X, but they call me a Boomer. Although, as far as they're concerned, nobody in their twenties or whatever uses Facebook, do you think? Is that a fair comment?

No. Facebook, you're looking at around about the age. I was reading a couple of things recently for people around the age of 27 plus.10 years ago Facebook was and still is the biggest platform. Then, those people age 27 plus, who started on that platform have now grown. The people that have grown on that platform are now a bit older.

Right. Okay. Well, that makes me feel a bit better. Then, in terms of the guys watching today who are predominantly mortgage brokers, I guess the average age of first-time buyers going up and up all the time, isn't it? You know, if we're saying that Facebook is typically 27 plus, and even if you're looking at the first time buyer into the market, you have to find the people you want, on that platform. 

Yeah, Exactly.

Also, I guess in the context of this, everyone watching this today is at least on Facebook or else, they couldn't watch this Facebook live. 

Yeah, exactly. 

I know it's hard to generalize too much. Would you say as a whole, Facebook is a good platform for people to start with if they haven't picked just one yet from the whole thing?

Yeah, I think so. Facebook is the leader in terms of what you can do with ads. In terms of all this stuff. Anything that's sort of new in the social media market. For example, TikTok came out. Also, Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, now does reel. They're quick to implement all this extra stuff. Then, there are always bringing on all of this new stuff. Then yes, Facebook got the widest range of things you can do with it.

Yeah. I've just seen, Paul's just put in the comment the subject of ages on Facebook. He’s saying that what about later life clients. I mean, I don’t what you, I would've thought that the older demographic, they're on Facebook as well, aren't they? I mean, even I tend to think that they might not publish so much. They might not be putting their posts on there, but they're on there because they're looking to see photos of the grandkids and see what their children are up to, that kind of stuff.

Yeah. I have to say though, but my mum isn't on Facebook. She doesn't touch social media, so I think there are still people that don't touch it. But then, there are a lot of my mom’s friends are on Facebook. Then, yes. Older people are all on Facebook as well. 

Also, if they're on anything, they're probably more like to be on there than doing videos on TikTok, I guess.

Yes, exactly. 

Is your mom on TikTok? 

No. 

No. Okay. Fine. At least you know she won't be watching this. In terms of Facebook, if someone was gonna say, “Right, we're gonna focus just on Facebook.” A lot of the stuff that you see marketed on Facebook tend to be product-based. I mean, do you think that for a service-based business, like someone in financial services, do you think Facebook can work for that? Because often people say to me that oh, I should be on LinkedIn since that's where business people go. What's your thought on that?

Yeah, it can work for service-based businesses, but it's about getting it right. When you think about social media, it's meant to be social, so if you just want to be on there to hard sell, then that's like a no-no. I think as people get older and they've been on social media a lot longer, they're getting savvier. They can spot when someone's just out just to sell to them. 

Then, it's about creating, authenticity around you and becoming genuine. Position yourself as an expert and add value as well to the audience. What are you giving that your competitors aren't? Without giving too much away, I think we were saying one with David about a couple of topics like what mortgage brokers could speak about. Speaking about things. You don't just have to talk about what you do as a mortgage broker. You talk about related topics and things. 

Yeah, That stuff like around the property market, for example.

Exactly. Pulling other things in shows that you're at the forefront of your industry or what you do. Being in touch with those people constantly throughout the process before they're ready to make that purchase decision. Social media lends itself to that. 

Yeah. Then, I guess with something like but also one of the biggest stories and property market recently was when we introduced the stamp duty holiday. 

Yeah.

Well at least here in the UK, I know we've got people watching from, other parts of the world as well. But obviously, one of the big expenses in buying a house in the UK is this thing called stamp duty, which is basically where you have to hand a chunk of money to the government for the privilege of buying a house. They suspended that up to a certain level to try and get the housing market going post lockdown. I mean, I guess, as a mortgage broker you had put out some announcement about that and your kind of take on whether this was a good or bad thing. That you might have been the first place that someone heard about that, in which case if that then spurs, I mean, to actually going and getting involved by probably they're more likely to go to you rather than someone else because you are the one who helped facilitate the idea in the first place.

Yeah, exactly. It's something that, I don’t know whether you'd know more than me. Have their own houses that they can't act themselves, but it's something that is absolutely relevant to the process and stuff. It is that little thing, that could make that difference. Then yes,  adding value and it's about filling your sales funnel, your customer journey or your marketing funnel, whatever you want to call it as well. 

Social media helps, especially organic social media, at the top of that funnel. Then, you can use ads, lower down the funnel to bring those conversions and get people to buy in stuff, but that will quickly run out. It's about feeding that funnel as well and maintaining in people's minds for when, as you say, they are ready to buy and they're ready to move down.

Yes. Because I guess it's a bit like real-world networking, isn't it? As a mortgage broker, you could join a networking organization like BNI or something like that. You might get lucky and on your first meeting that you go to there's someone there who happens to need a mortgage right now, but given that most people only need a new mortgage every two or three years. That's unlikely. Then, what you're trying to do is become a known person. The go-to person's for that for mortgages. Then, when someone does have a need, they automatically think of you and I suppose that's what you're saying by becoming this kind of authority and knowledgeable person that on it.

Yeah, exactly. 

So I suppose the message there as well is this is not gonna be an instant win because I know, I talked to people and I'm just starting up as a mortgage broker, so I'm gonna get myself on Facebook and start posting stuff. Also, I tend to say, “Well, yeah, that's great. Do it, but that's not gonna give you leads tomorrow.” That will be giving you leads in six months, 12 months or whatever.

Yeah. It's like, you're looking at your pipeline and stuff as well. It's the customer journey, whatever you want to call it. It's the, it's the same funnel.

Yeah. I always make you laugh. I've got a question here from Mr Steve Wesner who says what's BNI. We'll have to explain that to him afterwards. Steve's a member of the same BNI group Abigail and I are both in, so he ought to know by now. Talking there about sort of posting stuff and being slowed burn. I think one of the things sometimes that puts people in financial services off using social media platforms or one of the several things is because let's face it, there's nothing particularly exciting or sexy about a mortgage or a pension. How do you post stuff that's gonna be interesting or engaging when you're not selling the latest gadgets or you're not promoting exciting holidays in the sun or stuff like that?

In terms of content, you need to keep things varied. So, each channel has different ways in which you can utilize the platform. You can use images, videos like we're doing now, we're doing life. Lives really good for reach if you're wanting to reach more people as well. Podcasts and blogs, look at rich content. Rich content is things like your lives, podcasts, blogs. Content that you can break down and use within social media. 

It's really important to make sure you've got reached content in your strategy. Using the features that are on that platform as well. At the end of the day, social media companies, are a business and they make money by advertising to you. Then, they want you to stay on their platform. If you are producing content that is keeping people on their platform, then they'll prioritize your content and then that'll increase your reach as well.

Yeah. Then, if you're using the things, I guess from Facebook's point of view if you're doing like you doing a Facebook live. They'll look far more favourably on that than if you are posting a link to a video on YouTube. Since, obviously with Facebook live, you're keeping them on their platform.

Exactly. Also, Facebook doesn't own YouTube. Google does. They don't want you to leave their platform because Facebook doesn't make money when you go to YouTube. They make money when you post videos native onto Facebook or by doing live.

Actually with the Facebook lives, as though, use this what we're doing now as an example. Of course, we are doing this very deliberately within a closed group. That's only available to members of this group. But of course, you can do Facebook lives in a more public way to anyone who finds your page, can't you?

Yeah, exactly. Then, you can do one just on your Facebook page. If you don’t have a page, you can do it on your profile. Wherever you are wanting to build knowledge and build your network. Sort of your ideal clients and network there. 

Yeah. I guess by having almost different types of content, it allows people to play to their strengths, doesn't it? Since some people would find the idea of writing an article about well used for stamp beauty holiday. Again as an example, some people would find it daunting to sit down and write a short article about the impact of that and whether it's a good or bad thing. Although, they might be comfortable sitting down and doing a five minute Facebook live, just explaining what it's about and how it can help people. They might be far more comfortable doing that, I guess.

Yeah. Also, it's quicker to do live.

Yes.

About lives though, they are better than just uploading videos. It's a little bit more daunting because it is live, but people get a notification when you go live. Then, you can expand your reach that way as well. Whereas if you just post a video on Facebook, doesn't notify people that you have posted a video. They will know if I am going live because that's a feature that Facebook wants to use and want to utilize. As I mentioned, if you're using the features has that are meant to be a priority for Facebook, then it should be a priority for you within your social media plan as well. That form of content. 

Yeah. Since Facebook lives are still a relatively new feature aren't they? Then, by a couple of years, three years, but compared to that whole age of the platform. Okay. Well anyway. First of all, you are playing to what Facebook want because you're using their new feature that they put all this time and effort into creating. But also I guess if you are one of the first to do it, there's gonna be a lot fewer mortgage brokers in Facebook lives than there are mortgage brokers posting blog articles. Then, you immediately stand out from the crowd more by using that kind of thing. 

Exactly. It's something I would say as well. Since, I'm sure that people watching this who thinks, “Oh, I could never go live and so on.”

It was one of those things where the more you do it, the easier it gets. I mean, I'm someone who's far more comfortable writing an article than doing this. This is not my natural thing at all, but by actually forcing yourself to do it. Now have been doing these for several months, I'm, quite relaxed about doing it.

The other thing I think as well as if they are quicker because if you do a put live, you do it and it's done. If you're putting a video out there there's far more temptation to do lots of retakes; try it, edit it and get it. Perfect. Whereas anyone's been watching my stuff well know, but I don't do perfect Facebook lives, but hey, it's a too late one. Well, we've got 22 people watching and haven't all disappeared yet. So yeah, I'm just dropped to twenties at that, but anyway, I'm sure that's just, someone's bad connection coincidence.

I guess as, sorry, go on.

No, I was just looking back a bit at the questions. What were you gonna say while I look back at some of the questions?

I was just gonna say that in terms of content as well and make sure it is interesting, you need a mixture of topical and evergreen content. Topical being, it allows you to show your expertise. It's what's going on right now in the news. That sort of thing. I guess the, what we were just talking about, the stamp duty. I was gonna say the share values. If that's in the news recently, getting out there is a piece of content. Again shows you at the forefront of your industry, in your knowledge and stuff. An evergreen content as well is can be used over and over. The topic or whatever it is can be used over and over.  It's not necessarily in the news at the moment but good for blogs as well. 

The kind of stuff, it doesn't go out date. I don't know, such as ways to pay off your mortgage early or reasons why you might want to convert your interest on a mortgage to repayment. Those kinds of things are just always the same. 

Yeah. Things like will sit there on your website and you can see I will do all it stuff. You can just update it every year if it's a yearly thing or whatever. You've got that content there then. 

Okay. That makes sense. One of the other things I was thinking of when we talk about content just now is one of the issues that anyone in a regulated industry like in financial services has. They have to be very careful about what they're putting out there as marketing, as advertising materials and stuff. 

If it's counting as a financial promotion, that it's compliant with all the financial services, rules and everything. That we're not getting in trouble with the financial conduct authority. Without being a compliance expert, what are your thoughts on how mortgage brokers I face can publicize what they're doing? Without necessary sort of breaking those kinds of rules and having to get every single thing, they do sign off by someone. Because that remote is a lot of spontaneity, doesn't it? if everything may do has got to be signed off by three layers of management or whatever. 

Yeah. In terms of complaints, you can look at the Facebook terms and conditions. From a social perspective, to make sure you're being compliant with Facebook's rules, what you can and can't say and you can't make claims.

Of course, yes. Because Facebook, themselves will have some rules around it in addition to whatever the FCAs rules are, won't they?

Yeah, exactly. Then, looking at it from a social perspective, especially if you're running ads and things, you've got to go through the process of it being approved and stuff anyway. Just make sure, you're sort of ticking, Facebook's boxes similar to creating content. Are you ticking Facebook's boxes in terms of what they want to see? Just don't say things you're not supposed to but in terms of like the FCA and financial services. Not all content has to be about financial services products. It can be related stuff. There's sort of ways around that. In terms of, not speaking directly about

The individual products.

Exactly. Giving advice or whatever it is to do on Facebook in terms of that. But if you look at the Facebook terms and conditions, you can do a quick Google search for them. There's each industry has like different rules and stuff.

Yeah. I guess that's another reason to keep your content varied. Instead of talking purely about, I know individual pension products, you are mixing it up with things about, maybe there's been some study done on life expectancy, the quality of life that people in retirement are having now compared to 20 years ago or whatever. If you can find most sort of things that offer a bit of a tangent, then you are less likely to be talking about a regulated thing anyway. In the mortgage world, if you are providing tips on how to sell your house faster or things you need to know when choosing a removal company. It's still related to what your target audience will be interested in but you're talking about non-regulated stuff, aren't you?

Yeah, exactly. I like that removal company one. That's a good one. 

Oh. That just literally just came to me. But also that's an interesting point to make actually on what you said about Facebook T&Cs because I think you said particularly when you're running ads, didn't you? Because I've come across this with a couple of clients recently where since Facebook introduce fees and rules fair within the last year or so. I think where for certain categories of business. They've got tighter rules on how you run your Facebook ads. 

Then, if you are involved in things like well credit and housing. Two of the special categories, aren't they? Articles as a mortgage broker you're involved in both. You are not allowed to target your ads based on things like age, gender and any of the other protected characteristics.

Oh right.

I was doing a one to one with, I don’t know if he's watching today, David who's in the Predictable Pipeline Program. I was doing a one to one with him where we were looking at his Facebook ads and he'd had a whole load disapproved simply because he said he wanted to show ads to people about something, age 25 to 50. Because he'd put an age limit and the ads were obviously about mortgages, housing and things. They disapproved of the ads. So what we did then was told in the full age range, but now with did it down to just people who were interested in buying houses or first-time buyers, whatever it was.  

A couple of questions coming worth picking up from, so they're sort of all tied together a bit. Raji said, what else do we need to do on Facebook other than a regular post or engaging in. I know there's supposed some stuff went to talk about in a minute about things like reviews and, like that. But it's follow on question. Is there any mileage when reposting and sharing an article from another site and what are the pros and cons? I think curating content from other places and sharing it. 

Yeah. 

John has asked that I get told frequent, we should be interacting more on LinkedIn. liking commenting, sharing posts of others. how does this help the profile? They have two different questions, aren't they? But let's take magic one. First of all, curating content from other places and reposting it is a good or bad idea.

It's absolutely fine. Just make sure it's varied again. Don't do too much of it because if everything you do is just curating other people's content, then you know people are savvy. They'll turn off and they won't be interested. Make sure when you do curate other people's content though that you do add your own opinion and you give credit to the person who whoever's content it was originally. It's absolutely fine, but just don't make every post like that.

Yeah. Also, I guess maybe try and add some extra value to it as well. If you are what you post say your own opinion on it as well at the same time. I guess, whether and because that might be, you agree with it or might be you disagree with it.

Yeah, exactly. Also if you are curating content and using other people's content, everything you do should be with your ideal client in mind. If it's not gonna add value to your ideal client, just think, do I need to share this? Is it gonna provide value for the people who you are wanting to attract into your pipeline, into your marketing funnel? Then, just something to bear in mind when you are looking at content to share just, or it is with your ideal client in mind. 

Yeah. Okay. Also, John's question about interacting more on LinkedIn. I think he's basically about liking, commenting and sharing other people's posts. If you haven't got something to post on your own, is it still a good idea to go commenting on other people's things?

Yeah, it's absolutely fine. The thing you need to consider is your ideal client. Other people, that you are going to be commenting on, are they your competitors, or are they complementary to what you are doing? You don't want to promote your competitors' services over yours. Then, adding a comment is just gonna enhance their products or their post, sorry. 

It's a similar thing to curate in the content. The question that was just asked is, think about your ideal client. If you are sharing an article or you are sharing someone else's post, is it gonna add value to you, your audience and your ideal client? Because if it's not, then don't share it. Yet, make sure again, you're giving credit to the original author or the original person who's done the post. Make sure you're adding your own opinion and asking questions as well to your audience. Do you agree with this? Is there something else you think besides this? Add some questions to bring that engagement onto your profile then as well?

Yeah. 

Does that answer the question?

Yeah. I think it does. John can come back and tell us if he thinks it doesn't. I think the key message is, if I come and comment on something you've posted on LinkedIn or Facebook, that's gonna help your content get a wider reach, but equally it's a way of me getting some visibility as well. Frankly, without having to come up with some content on my own. I've just gone and given an opinion on what you've posted. 

Exactly. Also, I think if you are commenting on other people's things, think about the people that you're wanting to introduce to your network or the people. If you are gonna be commenting on LinkedIn, specifically on second-degree connections, is that the sort of person that you want to bring into your network? Are you wanting to comment on a couple of their things to build that relationship before then reaching out and connecting with them?

Yeah. Okay. I think that that's good. I'll take one more audience question before I move on to a couple of others of my own. Steve is back. Steve asked in terms of getting more inquiries, do you think this is more to do with the quality or the quantity of the articles and other content that you post.

Quality over quantity every time. If you post too much and the quality is not there, then it's gonna come across as spammy. That's gonna be a turn off for people as well. Just don't overpost because like I say, it's gonna come across as spammy. Again, it should be done with your ideal client in mind. Providing that value. If that value isn't there, why would your audience, or ideal client be interested in what you are saying?

Yeah, I think you're right. I think well, consistency is another important thing. 

Yeah, consistency. Absolutely.

I see some people, you see this in January. I think in January, there's a group of people who decide we're gonna start, this will be ever gonna start going to the gym. Then, there's a group of people who start, who decide this will be year gonna get on this social media thing. You see them something starts blogging and posting on LinkedIn, whatever. For a couple of weeks, they're full-on. Then, they go silent for like three months. I think it's probably to be consistent. Post something once a week or every week, for example, rather than be all over the shop like that.

A hundred per cent, yeah. If you can only find time and carve time out of your diary. Put it in your diary. Put half an hour. A couple of times a week to do your social media posts. Just plant it in your diary so that it gets done. If you can only carve out like half an hour over two days, then do two posts a week, but make sure that consistency is there. Absolutely.

Yeah. Also, of course, I'm sure most people know anyway, but if you do have one of those weeks where you suddenly have ideas for three or four articles or bits of content and you write them, you don't have to post 'em straight away. You can schedule them too. Go out over the following as long as of course the evergreen kind of content you talked about earlier on.

Yeah, exactly. Unless it's topical. If you've got something planned an evergreen sort of content, and there's there changes, you can move that along and then pop your top topical content in instead, and then post that one, next week so that it makes the week easier for you. If you only have time to do one post a week, then post one time a week, but make sure it's consistent. If you have time to do three posts a week, that's great. But again, make sure it's consistent.

Yeah. But you can keep that it's a marathon, not a sprint isn't it? Now that is always physical health analogies.

I know. 

Okay. I was gonna ask, which is I get asked this a lot by people and I always say there's no right and wrong answer to it, which I think is true. I don't think that's just me fudging my way out of answering it. But the question is, what are the best days or times a day to post on Facebook or whatever network it is you're looking at?

Okay. I see why you don't wanna answer this question. This varies between business and business and person to person. What sort of business do you run in and everything else? Also, it depends on your target market and all that stuff. Once you get going, you work consistently and you start building up a little bit of data. 8 to 10 weeks being consistent, then you can have a look. You'll get a feel for it anyway without looking at the analytics. You'll get a feel for what times work well. 

But then you can look at your Facebook analytics or whatever analytics it is. You can see what is performing well. That'll be your guide then change it for the next 8 to 10 weeks. You need to be doing it consistently to be able to know when the best time for you.

If you just post once on a Wednesday, lunch gets a good take. That could be helpful.

It doesn't mean that Wednesdays doesn't perform well. It just means you've not got enough data to analyze when it comes to finding out what does work well. If you posted every Wednesday evening for 10 weeks, then you'd know if that time is right for you or not. 

Yeah. Then you compare it against 10 weeks of Tuesday evening, for example. You compare the difference between them.

Yeah, exactly. If you post two or three times a week, stick to three different at different times, then switch it. It's just testing. Everyone's got to do it. There's no magic. If there was a magic time to post, there's a magic time for you. But there's no magic time for everyone. Otherwise, everyone would be posting at the same time on the same day. Then everything would be just like there at once. 

That isn't how it works. You need to find what's right for you and your business. When your ideal client and your audience is there to interact with you. I know a couple of people who do live series similar to this and they pick evenings. Evenings for lives because people aren't at work. Their ideal client is on Facebook or whatever channel it is at that particular time. They do like a 10-week thing and they do it at like 8:00 PM. It's similar to watching Curry, EastEnders or whatever's on 8:00 PM. I don't know. I don't watch either. 

You busy watching Facebook live, aren't you? 

Exactly. But you can watch Facebook lives. Then 10 weeks, people can tune in to watch you if you're adding that value and stuff. It's like maintaining anyway.

This is, I mean, really a different league from Eastenders. We're doing, there are minutes to happen in the next five minutes. There's gonna be a massive cliffhanger ending.

Yeah. But if it's the right time for people to buy your product or they're thinking about it, they will tune in and they'll watch Curry later.

Yeah. Quite right too. There was something that Raji asked earlier on about other things to be doing. That ties in with some of the things, something I was gonna ask about and see Facebook is not more, just a platform for publishing. It's a kind of two way. It's becoming more and more of a two-way communication channel, isn't it? In particular, one question I had personally was a Facebook messenger. Is that something that mortgage brokers, IFAs, and others should be getting on board and using? Should they be using Facebook messenger or automated chatbots on Facebook or is that a bit overkill?

No. Messenger and WhatsApp are all owned by Facebook. Then yes, you should be utilizing them. Again, going back to like a point earlier on about it being a Facebook feature or tool. If Facebook wants you to use it, then you should be utilizing it. It's like any sales process. It's about having genuine conversations. Messenger and WhatsApp lend themselves to that. 

It's like having a conversation on a phone but it's just another way of doing that. By having like conversations you get to qualify your leads and find out where are they in the buy-in process. Do you need to book a face to face or do you need to direct them to? Your page or something else that you've got going on within your digital marketing strategy or whatever.

There's a WhatsApp for business now as well. Most people have got WhatsApp on their phone but there's WhatsApp for business. If you've got a business mobile, you can download WhatsApp for business. If you are running Facebook ads, you can direct people to message you on WhatsApp. 

You're bringing in those hotter prospects I suppose. Direct to your phone and then you're there able to have a conversation with them. Then, even move them to a phone call or whatever it is. Whatever your sales process is and it's fitting that in there. Messenger is another tool. It's another way of having those conversations and you know exactly.

Does WhatsApp for business give you a different phone number then? Does it give you the ability to let’s say, for multiple members of your team to all access the same WhatsApp mailbox or whatever?

No. You can only have WhatsApp as in the personal WhatsApp that everyone knows and I don’t if they love it or not, but they know it. You can have WhatsApp for business. You can have both on one number. If you had a work phone and a personal phone, you can have WhatsApp for business on one phone which is where you can then direct your Facebook ads or other call-to-action. Direct them to there from the Facebook products or you can have your one. 

Right. Okay. But I guess you could always buy. I know you get a page, you go sim and just have the number on that just for your WhatsApp for business stuff, I suppose, couldn't you?

Yeah, exactly. With WhatsApp for business as well, similar to email, you can set out of offices, you can set messages presets and stuff.

It's got a bit more of a kind of chatbot kind of thing.

Yes. Sort of, I think it's quick replies. You can have three different ones and you can choose depending on what’s coming through.

Oh, okay. Yeah. Right. Makes sense. The final thing I was gonna ask then is again, about things going a little bit beyond just the posting on Facebook, what about Facebook reviews? Because one of the things at the moment is people. We all know reviews and social proof is important. Because If you're gonna go to clients or past clients and ask for reviews, then what do you do? You ask them to review on Google, Facebook, Trust or LinkedIn. Since, even the client who loves you the most, isn't gonna want to write four different reviews. Then, which is most important, would you say?

You can't do that, Google versus Facebook. You can't do that to me. Okay. It's important. This is reviews, right? They offer you social proof and everything. It's important to be getting them and having them in one place rather than no place. Having them in one place or whatever. What you can do, you can take your reviews. If someone left a review on Google, you could use that as a post on your Facebook page. You can share that Facebook reviews there with a link back to Google or take a screenshot. Use it as an image, that particular review. Create a photo folder with all the reviews so that people can see that.

It's important to get those reviews going first off and have a process around getting those reviews. I remember going to a restaurant and I had a look at it on TripAdvisor. Then, they had a ridiculous number of five-star reviews. I went there was like, what's all this about, and it was a nice place. But what they do, they give a little business card saying for every single person that comes through the dot and eats there, reviewers on trip advisor.

Every single person that comes through reviewers, and so getting that process into your processes, a way of generating that. Yeah, in terms of Google as well, this is straight away from social media a little bit. But if you have like a website, when you get in new reviews on Google, it'll help your SEO, if you're doing SEO. If that's part of your strategy 

I suppose actually, it's important you touched on the process day. Because if you had the process that you made sure that every single person you did a mortgage for or did a pension for whatever, got asked for a review. Most advisors are doing enough clients per month or year. That, even if they just automated it, one client got asked for a Facebook review and one got asked for a Google review, then over a year, you'd build up a respectable number of reviews on both, didn't you?

Exactly. Also, you wouldn't expect everyone to leave a review. Because let’s say you've got like, I don't know, a 30% rate of people that do leave a review out of the people that you ask. You're still gonna get several reviews that month and over time that will build up. Like say over a year, that'll lead to a lot, assuming it's a 30%. I've just sort of pulled that number out. To be honest, you're not gonna get a hundred per cent. I mean, you might get a hundred per cent, but I'd be shocked. 

If you get a hundred per cent, then we wanna know how you're doing it.

Yeah, exactly. It’s like, what are you doing? 

Okay. I'm conscious with time. I'm gonna check got any final last-minute questions. No, I don't think so. Raji said what's the best days and time for mortgage brokers to post, but I think he has just taken the meek that came in, after that. Raji if the answer is seven o'clock on a Tuesday morning, everyone knows that. Yashin says, is using WhatsApp for business or you can group clients with labels and tags as well? That's yes, so clearly you've got a few more features than just the bulk standards one.

Okay, brilliant. Well, thank you very much Abigail for coming on. If people have got other questions that we've not had time to answer, put them in the chat and between us, we will go back and look at those and answer anywhere that we've missed. 

In the meantime, Abigail if people want to find you or get in touch with you, where can I assume you're on social media somewhere? Are you on Twitter, LinkedIn or anything? 

Yeah. You can connect with me on LinkedIn.

Right. Okay, and your Instagram?

On Instagram or Facebook.

Right. We'll put some links in the comments. 

The business I handle is Digital Dot Dash.

Right. Okay. Brilliant. Well, thank you very much again for coming on. Thank you to all of you for watching, for putting all your questions and stuff. We'll see you again for the next one of these in two weeks. See you then. Bye. Thank you.