The results of Hearsay System’s 2023 Social Selling Content Study were released by the reputable global leader in digital client engagement for the financial services sector. Hearsay’s 2023 Financial Services Social Selling Content Study, now in its sixth year, compiles information from more than 100 top global financial services companies, including Asset Management, Wealth Management, Property & Casualty insurance, Life & Annuities, and Banking, and their combined 225,000 advisors and agents who used the Hearsay platform in 2022.
The study this year examined 16.3 million social media postings that were published and had more than 22.3 million interactions on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. To learn more about the actions of corporate social media program administrators, field publishers, and customers, data was taken from the Hearsay Systems platform and examined.
Leslie Leach, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer of Hearsay Systems, stated, “Reviewing the data from one of the most comprehensive studies of its kind, it is clear that social selling is here to stay. Since the pandemic began, social media has emerged as an unrivaled source of news, money, and financial information. The 23% increase in overall engagement shows two things: consumers are increasingly turning to agents and advisors through social media for information, direction, and support, and advisors are becoming more skilled at using social media for networking, requesting referrals, and carrying out other business-building activities that were previously done in person, over the phone, or via email.”
Summary Findings:
- The overall interaction increased by 23% between 2020 and today across all platforms, content kinds, and business lines. This is quite noteworthy.
- In 2022, the proportion of original content (as opposed to modified and unmodified) increased from 3.9% to 6.6%, leading to a 55% increase in the number of original posts published.
- The most effective content for interacting with social connections generated engagement rates of about 3.7, which is roughly eight times higher than the 0.4 average for unaltered content.
- Nearly 91% of all posts were made on social media in 2022, with Facebook and LinkedIn continuing to be the most popular networks (51% and 40%, respectively).
- Apparently, Instagram was the most interesting. On Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram, the average engagement rates were 0.4, 1.6, and 0.6, respectively.
- Twitter generated the lowest levels of interaction. The highest engagement rates were between 0.1 and 1.5 for Asset Management (picture posts) and P&C Insurance (text-only posts).
Dissecting Post Elements:
Regular publishing schedules and social reciprocity are important when discussing social selling best practices. Post ingredients, such as the links, photographs, videos, or text that make up a post, may be less obvious but are still important to take into account.
- Links were by far the most popular content type across all business sectors, followed by photos, video, and text. Despite having the lowest average interaction rate (0.3), links were shared at a pace that was 2 times that of photos and 11 times that of videos.
- Across all lines of business, text-only posts—without a link, image, or video—driven the highest engagement (4.4), 6x more than photos and 5.5x more than videos. For all business lines, LinkedIn text-only posts in particular had the greatest interaction rates. The power of original and modified content is reinforced by the fact that text-only posts are typically original.
- Program owners and field teams can make meaningful connections with clients and prospects by combining high-effort, high-engagement material with corporate-provided, lower-effort library articles.
