Two years ago, I received my first negative comment on social media.

It was particularly poorly timed, as it came right off the back of a career high – delivering my very first paid-for LinkedIn workshop to 22 financial advisers and planners.

The session finished at 1 pm and, in a rare display of self-recognition, I spent the afternoon soaking up the attendees’ glowing feedback.

Until about 7.30 pm, anyway.

The aforementioned negative comment landed, followed up by an equally deflating LinkedIn post. The general suggestion was that anyone delivering, or benefiting from, being taught how to use social media should “**** off”.

I messaged Phil, “Have you seen this?”

He got straight back to me, “That’s out of order. I’ll have a word.”

“The salmon lady” et al

Looking back now, my experience pales in comparison to the hatred you’ll have the displeasure of reading if you spend any significant time on social media.

It ranges from downright vitriol to laughable, unnecessary negativity.

Just last week, I happened across a content creator who had shared a pretty tasty looking teriyaki salmon dish. “I’ve never liked salmon” was one particularly dismissive comment left by someone we’ll refer back to later. Let’s call her “the salmon lady”. That’ll annoy her.

I’ve been casually following three impressive 20-somethings who have transformed a container into a family home, ostensibly to surprise their sister with. As the reveal edged closer, they teased that it might not actually be for their sister after all (spoiler: they had always planned to gift it to their very grateful electrician).

Some charming individual remarked, “I hope they don’t pick me”. Yes, so do the rest of us.

And let’s not get started on any content vaguely related to race, sexuality, or gender (just to name a few). The comments are often, quite frankly, foul.

The psychology behind online hate

Why do some people resort to this kind of behaviour?

One study well worth your time is ‘Social media and online hate’ by Joseph B. Walther. He suggests that online hate is “not so much about antagonism toward targets, as about attachment, acceptance, and recognition by other like-minded people.”

It makes sense.

If your personality or psychopathologies compel you to hurt people or make you feel lonely, and you happen across a post you don’t agree with, you immediately feel excluded. And nobody likes to be an outsider. So, you publicly share your disagreement in the hopes of finding others who feel the same way. You’re back in the inner circle.

And, while the vast majority of us would never even consider this sort of behaviour, it isn’t something we’re going to be rid of any time soon.

Of course, you can limit your exposure to social media and block people who display behaviour you disagree with. That’s good practice regardless.

And I’m not suggesting you go to war with these people in the comments!

But there are two empowering things you can learn from online hate that will help you better educate your ideal clients and improve your future content.

1. Niche down as much as you can

It’s probably fair to say that the salmon lady isn’t a member of any social media groups exclusively preparing pink fishy dishes. Perhaps she felt offended that such an affront to the culinary world dare feature in her Facebook feed.

Had the content creator in question posted her recipe exclusively in a group of salmon lovers, it’s highly unlikely the comments would have been flooded with such derision.

Of the various niche social media groups I’m a member of, whether that be tips for looking after Monstera deliciosa, weightlifting advice, or a local community forum, there is very rarely evidence of online hatred. Because everyone wants to be there.

You can never please everyone, and you shouldn’t try to. At Yardstick, we know that our marketing support is very well suited to financial advisers and planners. If we tried to apply the same tenets to florists, the likelihood is that they would flop.

And the same is true of your firm. Ask yourself:

• Where is the cross-section between people I work best with, and people I love working with?
• What’s their financial situation?
• What aspects of financial planning do they value the most?

From there, you’ll be able to more accurately outline their unique financial challenges, life goals, and advice and planning needs.

Check out pages 20 and 21 of our latest definitive guide to understand how this exercise can form the foundation for fantastic, tailored content.

As they say, the riches are in the niches!

2. Break down (un)commonly held misconceptions

A couple of years ago, the Times posted a video on Twitter explaining why employees shouldn’t stop paying into their workplace pension.

Three replies that stood out were:

• “I doubt the money is going to be there by the time I retire.”
• “Putting money into a Cash ISA is my best way. Know where it is Guaranteed to have it all back when I eventually retire.”
• “Pensions are for clowns. Buy gold and silver instead and you won’t lose 90% of your money to inflation and tax!”

The natural response is to think that these are extreme, uncommonly held views that your ideal clients would never agree with. But if these sorts of comments gain traction with no significant opposition, you’d be surprised how powerful herd mentality can be.

Back in April 2015, the front cover of Woman’s World magazine claimed you could “lose 70lbs drinking get-slim detox tea”. At the time, they had 925,000 readers. Nearly a million people were led to believe that a few cups of the warm stuff would “whisk away ‘obesogens’, stimulate fat-burning, stabilise blood sugar, and flush away water weight”.

But their only factual statement was that these teas would “flush away water weight”. What they failed to mention was that most of that weight will likely be regained when normal eating patterns are resumed. The fact is: there is no scientific evidence to support the use of herbal teas for weight loss, and the only way to lose weight is through a calorie deficit.

And yet, the detox tea industry is expected to be worth $9.65 billion by 2032.

As an experienced and knowledgeable adviser or planner, you should be using whatever platform you have to educate your ideal clients against potentially dangerous misconceptions about their finances. And you’ll find plenty of those on social media!

It’s important to respect that many people will simply not have received adequate education about managing their money effectively. And, as Joe Glover told us during our webinar together last November, “clarity is kindness”.

Turn negativities into opportunities

Remember that word Phil was going to have?

He fought my corner and got a response the following morning: “I have deleted the post. Please tell Abi it was 1,000% not aimed at her.”

That supports Walther’s theory that the motivation behind online hate may not be to upset the target, but the whole experience still stung.

However, as we practise what we preach, I’ve used it to my advantage. You’re reading this blog after all! We’re firm believers that nobody can be expected to be an expert at something without either time or help.

Thankfully, there are hundreds of wonderful, open-minded financial advisers and planners who are already benefiting from support using LinkedIn after gratefully requesting a copy of our LinkedIn definitive guide.

If you’d like to do the same, or chat generally about the joys(!) of social media, please drop me an email at abi@theyardstickagency.co.uk – I’d love to hear from you.