What You Need To Know About… LinkedIn
Much has been written about how financial advisers can use LinkedIn to help them grow their practices—but what’s in it specifically for the 401(k) adviser?
Reported by Ellie Behling
However, advisers must tread carefully and make sure they follow the guidelines of regulators and their home offices. Luckily, there are ways to use LinkedIn and still meet varying levels of compliance. Eventually, the Web site might become more of a vehicle to communicate with plan sponsors and participants but, for now, it is most useful for plan advisers as a research tool about businesses and a way to network with others in the retirement plan industry. Below, we outline some simple and more advanced ways you can lasso LinkedIn to help your business—that is, if your compliance department allows.
Main Ways Retirement Plan Advisers Can Use LinkedIn
Finding and getting to know clients. You can use LinkedIn to search for people, companies, and industries for prospecting purposes or to learn more about the companies you have connected with already so you are more prepared when you meet face to face.
Digital presence. On the flip side, LinkedIn helps others research and find you. Having a LinkedIn profile could help you be more visible in Web searches. Even if your LinkedIn profile is static, it is a type of digital resumé where you can outline your relevant expertise and qualifications for others to view.
Industry networking. LinkedIn is a great way to meet and interact with other professionals in your field and possibly build more respect among your peers. Like a Rolodex on the Web, it can help you build and categorize your industry connections.
Getting Started
For beginners:
Sign up and create a profile. LinkedIn actually tracks how “complete” your profile is. To start, you can at least put your name and job title and a link to your Web site. You can always develop a more complete profile later.
Expand your network. Find friends and colleagues by searching for people and businesses that you know and/or work with. As you develop more connections, you can find other connections to add from their lists of connections. LinkedIn also will recommend people you might know based on your credentials (i.e., employment history) or people in your network.
Join industry-related groups. Similar to searching for connections, you can use key words to join industry groups. For instance, searching “401(k)” will give you pages of groups. Joining groups can be a helpful way to learn from your colleagues and develop more industry connections. Furthermore, those viewing your profile might look at the groups you are in to gauge your expertise.
For advanced users:
Beef up your profile. The more complete your profile is, the better you will do in search results. So, add a picture and fill out more information about your expertise.
Use advanced search to find and research clients. Advanced search allows you to be very specific about criteria, such as industry or key words. The tool can help you find contacts at or information about companies you are looking to prospect.
Use connections. LinkedIn is useful for tapping connections because, in any search, it shows you your relation to the people in the search results. If you are researching a prospect, you might find out that a contact of yours knows the prospect. Another way to use connections is if you are trying to research a certain industry. You can search for that industry and see if any of your close connections have experience in that area. You can even click on the “get introduced” option to ask your connections to introduce you to prospects or experts.
Dig deeper with industry groups. 401(k)-related groups might help you gain esteem and learn something, but it doesn’t necessarily help you build your business. You might look into joining groups that interact with plan sponsors, such as HR-related groups. Not only could you meet future clients in these groups, but you also could learn more about what makes them tick.