Not sure how to use social media to build your career or business? We asked an informal panel of three social media gurus to share their thoughts on the best way to leverage it for success in the financial industry. This is the first in a two-part Analyst series on social media in finance. Our expert panel members are:

Heather Angus-Lee, a marketing and content strategist at PROsocialmedia, expert in search engine optimization and social media optimization, and blogger extraordinaire.

Boyd Neil, Senior Vice President at Hill & Knowlton Canada, an international communications consultancy.

April Rudin, Founder and President of The Rudin Group and an acclaimed financial services marketing strategist and social/digital media expert.

Some people feel that social media strategies are trendy and that finding your next job (or client) requires good old-fashioned face-to-face networking, not social media. How do you weigh in on this debate?

HEATHER ANGUS-LEE: That kind of skepticism is old thinking today. My experience has been that people who dismiss social media as being ineffective are those people who haven’t even tried social media, at least not in any meaningful way. Skeptics say things like: “Why bother being on Twitter? Everyone is tweeting ‘I’m waiting for a bus,’ ‘I’m eating soup.’” Sure, some people are, but not successful business people, not the people you will choose to follow and who will choose to follow you.

BOYD NEIL: In terms of finding a job, it’s not an either/or option. Ignoring social media altogether is not a good idea. If you’re a job seeker, you should be using all of your networks, including social media. You can use them to reach out to people. People forget that LinkedIn is a social network. People get job listings and active leads there and can research what it’s like to work at a particular company by utilizing their contacts.

APRIL RUDIN: I would argue that social platforms may be trendy, but social/digital media communication is not. I don’t know if LinkedIn is going to be around in 10 years, but communicating virtually will be. Social media can be used to amplify word of mouth. You can use social media to communicate to a broader audience what you are saying on the phone or what you are sending via email. Social media can allow you to set up more face-to-face interactions if you utilize it properly. Creating a strategy in the digital/social space is key. Don’t approach it in a haphazard way. Planners need a plan!

Research completed by RBC Dominion Securities Inc. in 2012 revealed that only 6 percent of clients want to hear from their advisors via social media. But then again, the average age of a client is over 50 years old. How do you think this is going to change as time goes by and the client demographics shift?

HAL: The age variable can be a factor in the changing use of social media. For example, I have discovered that, as a 50-year-old frequent user of many forms of social media for many years now, I am not the norm. But then again, I’ve worked as a journalist since 1987, so I am trained to recognize and use great communication channels, which obviously is not going to be the case for many of my baby-boomer peers working in other industries. I do, however, believe that old dogs can learn new tricks. I tell my older-demographic clients that social media is not rocket-science; it is easy to start and to manage, given solid strategy and common sense. If I can get them to spend an hour at the keyboard with me, the “Aha!” light bulb goes on in their heads, and much of their fear of the unknown subsides.

BN: This research is not viable because it depends on who the advisor is. But if you were to ask “Would I follow my investment advisor on Twitter because they are providing a flow of useful information online?” the answer would be yes—totally. The largest uptake of social networks is people under 50, but the number of people in the 50- to 80-year-old range is growing, especially on Facebook. As this develops, demographics will switch. There’s no reason that this wouldn’t change five years from now. Look at the number of 50-plus people using iTunes now, as compared with a few years ago. Don’t look at today; look at the trends for the future. Also, note that social media is a great way for people who are less mobile to connect.

AR: I think the survey is a little bit skewed. Social media isn’t necessarily the only way to communicate with your clients. It’s a way to connect and engage over, rather than one-way communication. Communication via social media platforms is a generalized way to share information, and it is the clients’ choice about whether or not they subscribe or click on the link. Advisors can use it to “listen”—meaning look for other sources and opinions. “Talking” and “listening” on a wide variety of platforms will allow you to reach the maximum number of people. Curation and dissemination of information is the goal for engagement and visibility.

Of the four main pillars of social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter) which do you see as being most useful to someone in the finance industry now and in the years to come? Why?

HAL: The one social media that a charterholder cannot afford to be absent from is LinkedIn—both a personal profile and a company page. LinkedIn is by far the largest business networking online community in the world, and the investment industry is strongly represented there. A quick search on “investment” in LinkedIn yields more than 85,000 company pages, 12,000-plus LinkedIn groups, and over three million people.

BN: LinkedIn has grown dramatically and is excellent for the industry. There are many ways to use it without significant investment, and to date, many of the available tabs are underutilized by companies. If you’re a professional, you can create a company tab and make it work to promote your brand. You can feed news to get to people in and outside of your network. I’d say that LinkedIn and Twitter will continue to evolve deeply. YouTube is a great option for the future, provided you have a really interesting personality and time to create videos people will want to share.

AR: LinkedIn is like the gateway drug to social media, as it is the most familiar. In years to come, video and visual will be key (whether it’s YouTube or its evolution). Seeing someone and their mannerisms and nuances shows authenticity. People will continue to utilize video conferences and Skype to communicate with clients.

What key advice can you give to a beginner in social media?

HAL: Start with creating a presence on a single social media site. When you’ve done that well for a while, consider adding more social media to your working life, based (always) on research and/or anecdotal evidence of which social media your audience is using the most. There is never a good enough excuse for not having a professional head shot in all your social media locations. Tell, don’t sell. Stories, not spam. Be honest at all times online. If you make a mistake, correct it in writing—don’t delete it (online footprints never go away, anyway!) Don’t cross the line between personal and professional social media content; i.e., your Facebook “friends” don’t want to get your business updates and vice versa.

BN: Don’t be scared of it. You can control what you say on Twitter—you control content. You can teach your clients to be on Twitter and use it build a relationship. You can learn how to filter, follow who you want to follow, and use a tool that allows you to group your tweets so you can scan for small packages of information. TweetDeck and HootSuite are two great tools to help you manage your social media platforms. A lot of the tools to help you manage are free to use.

AR: Social media is not a “cancer.” It’s not your enemy, nor the enemy of compliance. It’s a poorly named set of Internet tools. Digital/social is just a variety of platforms that allows you to amplify your message and reach a global audience.

What books or online publications can you recommend to help both individuals and businesses form their social media brand and plans?

HAL: Your best and fastest shortcut to social media strategy and tactical excellence, frankly, will be to find a company and/or individual (ideally in your industry) who is doing it well and then learn from him/her. If you don’t know these industry peers personally, reach out anyway and set up a mentoring coffee date. Also, you can look to an organization to which you belong, such as CFA Society Toronto, to lead hands-on workshops on social media. As an avid reader, both in print and online, I can recommend the following, a book: LinkedIn Marketing: An Hour a Day, by Viveka von Rosen; and if you only have time for a single site or blog online, then SocialMediaToday.com.

BN: Social Media ROI: Managing and Measuring Social Media Efforts in Your Organization by Olivier Blanchard is a really good book that I use in my social media course at Ryerson University. Harvard Business School has some great content. If you want more information on trends, visit: Mashable.com, SocialMediaToday.com, or SocialMediaExaminer.com.

AR: Utilize YouTube and view SlideShare presentations. Hire a consultant who can help you to create messaging and decide where and how to place it. It’s not a “do-it-yourself” project. Anything that is in a book is going to be old. Online publications are more news-focused. If you are not a do-it-yourself-er, seek professional advice. Don’t delegate your social media corporate plan to an intern.