Social media provides excellent tools for marketing strategies. LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and blogs are great content-distribution platforms that enable you to inform and educate your clients while positioning yourself as a financial planning expert.

The challenge is to generate enough quality content to satisfy the demands of an audience that’s hungry for useful information.

“Content that is timely, strong and original is one key to a successful social-media strategy,” says Richard Heft, executive director of Ext. Marketing Inc. In Toronto. “Leveraging that content is also critical.”

Here are some tips for developing a compelling online presence using social media:

> Create and curate
There are two ways to generate content for social media purposes: creating your own, and curating content developed by others.

Many kinds of information that you already have can yield original content, including white papers and PowerPoint presentations. Look for material that is timely and to-the-point.

“Each page or slide should contain interesting concepts,” Heft says. “A 30-slide presentation, for example, should yield enough content for 20 or more blog posts.”

Restrict your blog posts to 300-400 words. “Parcel out only the higher-level concepts,” Heft says. “For a deeper dive, let them come to you for more information.”

Not all the content you share via social media has to be original. Much useful information already exists online in the form of blogs, social posts, webinars and videos. When you use someone else’s content in a blog or social post, however, it’s important that you add value of your own. Introduce the material, comment on it or explain why it is relvant.

“It doesn’t show any leadership if you just pass on someone else’s content,” Heft says. “If you want to create a presence make sure to give your opinion on it.”

> Leveraging your content

When you post blog articles, the key is to promote them across various social-media platforms. This strategy allows you to leverage the content over a longer period and across a larger number of channels while reaching a larger audience.

LinkedIn and Twitter are both great tools for getting your message out, Heft says. Content should be produced for both of these platforms — and a blog — to ensure you’re posting in places where your clients will find it.

> Be consistent
“You don’t need to be everywhere in the social media world,” says Sara Gilbert, founder of Strategist Business Development in Montreal. “But you should have a consistent presence, offering articles and resources that bring value to your client network.”

The “optimal point” or minimum frequency for a blog is weekly, she says.

> Make it relevant
It’s not enough to post content regularly. You must also have something interesting or helpful to say, Gilbert says. Otherwise, people will tune you out.

“It should be information your audience wants or needs,” she says. “Something that helps them solve a problem or raises their awareness about an important topic. There’s a lot of competition online, and high-quality, relevant content will keep people coming back for more.”

> Don’t push sales
Social media is not the place to sell financial products and services, Heft says.

“If you push sales, you’ll lose people quickly,” he says. “Clients want to do business with advisors they trust. So, provide strategies, ideas and actions they can use. That’s more powerful than the hard sell and ultimately it should result in sales.”

This is the first part in a two-part series on getting the most from your social-media strategy.

Next: Extending your reach.