Two minutes with… Victor Sacks, VS Associates

“Social media is dating”. Victor Sacks is an Independent Financial Adviser, with 20 years experience working in financial services. In 2015 Victor received recognition for securing £190,000 for a client over unsustainable advice from one of the world’s largest IFA.
How consciously have you worked at building a profile of yourself in the media and on social media?
I think it was always important to try and build my profile within the industry, and using Twitter was a fantastic medium for that. Journalists are always putting out #journorequests, and where I saw one that was financial services related, I was always keen to try and get on it. It became quite apparent to me quite quickly that financial journalists were interested in my views and my opinions. Whether that’s because nobody else was coming to the party or could be bothered, I don’t know, but I was grateful to do that. Suddenly the next week in the financial press I’d open it up and read it and I’d be quoted.
Once I started responding to a couple of items then it seemed it was OK, and it was great for me. Financial journalists would email me saying ‘Victor I’m running a piece on [x] what are your thoughts about [x]?’. and very quickly those quotes from myself were appearing in the press.
People with a large enough presence on social media often face, at some point, online abuse, what have been your experiences of that?
It came as a bit of a shock to begin with, but then the realisation that when you start looking at other people within the industry who have similar followers and similar or bigger presences than mine in terms of media, there are going to be people like that. They’re the kind of people who don’t tweet under their own name, and don’t put their own profile picture up, and they’re just on the prowl and having a look around.
What newspapers do you like reading?
If I’m really honest, I haven’t read one for about seven or eight years. I’m very much interested in financial news and I subscribe to magazines that publish their pages digitally, Citywire, Investment Week etc, that will give me the feed that I need and I’ll take my stuff from there.
You have built a network on LinkedIn as well as Twitter – how do you find that?
With my previous firm, I was working with HSBC, there was very much an encouragement of ‘be on LinkedIn… but recognise that anything you say we’re going to need to sign off before we allow you to put it out there’. So by the time you put it out there you were basically posting fish and chip paper, the data was already a week old and a week in social media is a lifetime. So when I left and I was able to get ‘on,’ LinkedIn was the first place I went to. I recognised quite quickly the use of groups, working not only for financial adviser groups to build your reputation within your industry but also recognising that with business clients, and I work in the business sector of people that employ up to twenty also have their groups, and the Federation of Small Business had its group and the Chamber of Commerce had its group and so on and so forth. So I started gently filtering around in there not saying much, commenting on someone, liking a post… and then eventually smashing it in with an article that’s been quoted or my thoughts on something to try and generate discussion.
How should someone use social media effectively?
I’m one for analogies and always trying to associate things differently; social media is dating. and if you have that concept and you are going to try and go out and meet someone, would you go in there, jump in the middle, flashing lights over your head and go ‘hello, look at me’? Some people do and they’ll get a laugh, but that’s not what you’re gearing up for if you’re looking for a long term and looking to build up some relationships. So gently nod in, see who’s around, scout out the club, check out the personalities, have a look. If someone says something really good and you really genuinely like it, ‘like’ the comment and step back and see what happens. Then if there’s a thread that’s going to involve your industry, and you’re on the money, on point, and really know what’s going on, add the comment. Add a few more comments to different posts so people in that group are seeing you like and they’re stepping on your profile and they’re going to let you know they’re stepping on your profile, so LinkedIn is a really active tool where you know if you’re being watched and you’re being monitored. And if you get enough people in that group that are hitting on your profile then you go ‘bang, hello, my name is, this is what I’m about, and if you’ve got any questions then come and ask me’.
Who are you going to vote for in the upcoming election?
I’m going to vote for the Conservatives because in my own personal view there is no credible opposition. Farron, to me, had that chance when Cameron resigned, to stand up and be that calming influence in the sea of disarray that was going on and he didn’t in my view.
This is a segment of a Beer & Bytes podcast we recorded with Victor Sacks, the full version of which can be found on our SoundCloud.
You can learn more about Victor on his website www.vsassociates.co.uk or you can follow him on Twitter @smartsacks