As word of mouth and credibility are the start to getting your foot in the door with investors, understanding the power of social and its role in unlocking additional distribution channels are the first steps to utilizing it to carve out your company’s brand image with perfect precision. The first two steps you must tackle are (1) to properly identify what are the core components of your brand’s DNA and (2) what is your intended use in your overall marketing efforts. It is from this that you can start to build out a successful plan for your fund.

We will focus this insights post on the investor as an audience. Investors want to know at the heart how you structure your investment thesis, portfolio in addition to how you intend to outline your business strategy. When you can do this as well as being able to effectively communicate how you think, then through social media you will begin to unlock transferrable value creation for your firm and if properly implemented a component to support your ambitions in growing your assets under management (AUM).

Knowing how to approach social media has become a great challenge for investment managers trying to ensure that their plan does not affect their ability to raise capital and garner investor interest or if done wrong, disinterest. However, if done correctly it can open more doors as you go through the fundraising process, but only if done scrupulously.

The 5 Ways Social Media Can Offer Value To A Fund Manager

Here is a quick list of 5 ways social media can be a good fit for your fund:

1. It is a cost-effective way to build credibility and market your business.

2. It can act as an opportunity to create multiple distribution channels opening up more prospective opportunities and referral traffic to your main website (read: potential leads).

3. Allow you to create a voice that uniquely identifies your company and communicate in a marginally controlled setting, how you think – a very important element in connecting with investors.

4. It aids you in reaching audiences outside of your local market.

5. Social media has the power to make you more authentic and trustworthy while also gifting you with the added bonus of improving your authority within search engines making you more relevant. (Pro Tip: All investors are going to conduct a simple google search as a start in getting to know you so you might as well make yourself look good.)

Social Media As A Secret Weapon

Social media can be a double-edge sword for asset managers. It has the power to build your influence and open up more channels for investors to interact and learn more about your firm. However, it can also be detrimental if managed poorly.

Investors are looking to get a full profile on the manager of which includes your digital profiles. Allocators are looking to collect as much information on a manager, both online and offline to better grasp the risk exposures they could have in investing with a manager.

In a survey conducted by Corgentum Consulting, a firm specializing in background checks on asset managers, “67% of investors said they have begun to search social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram over the past year, as part of their pre-investment investigations.”

Investors want to know your investment style, but also seek to understand the team behind the portfolio. Therefore, it is crucial to extend the appropriate amount of finesse and accurately outline how you intend to use it to avoid future issues.

Nevertheless with the growth of digital marketing and media, if embraced properly it can be an incredibly powerful tool to create and unlock more opportunities for your fund. What social media can offer a fund is really what is called ‘controlled transparency’. The ability to allow public audiences to understand your company, your investment philosophy, your ‘uniqueness’ as well as the team members tasked with creating, building and determining the success of the company.

We are in an unprecedented age, where funds are breaking down the proverbial walls and are becoming more transparent than ever before. But the ones who succeed are the ones who’ve taken the necessary steps to execute it in line with their business priorities. The more ways that investors can unearth the potential your company has the more opportunities you can create for yourself. Social media will only continue to evolve in decades to come and those who understand how to properly extract its value are presented with endless opportunities.