Join us tomorrow on the BrightTalk channel at 1pm EST


Easy-to-use, low-cost social media programs are helping smaller fund managers and advisors stand out in a crowded market.

Advisolocity’s John Drachman and Zach Hedges open their social media case book tomorrow to show you how increasing numbers of investment professionals are putting the Internet to work by establishing fresh thought leadership themes, expanding their presence and measuring the results.

Join us at BrightTalk to reserve your place, August 24, 2010 at 1pm EST.  Please cut and paste to your browser: http://academy.brighttalk.com/best-practices/where-social-media-meets-client-acquisition.html

I WANT YOU TO JOIN MY PANEL

Looking for a “Few Good Financial Advisors”

By D. Bruce Johnston, President & CEO

That is the title of my November 10th BrightTalk webinar. In the new world, social media is beginning to help smaller fund managers and advisors stand out in a crowded marketplace. I have been charged with identifying two Financial Advisors willing to share how they are not only using social media, but how they are successfully linking some of the most popular applications to achieve success.

Just as social media is changing the way financial services professionals are connecting with customers, it is also changing the way job seekers are pursuing opportunity. So before you apply for one of the two positions it might be worth brushing up on how social media is changing the job search rules.

Here are a few tips from Tony McKinnon, president of MRINetwrok, one of the world’s largest search and recruitment organizations that I carved out of a recent MarketWatch column.

The first thing he notes is: “Social media sites have become increasingly important platforms for finding jobs by facilitating connections and demonstrating the achievements and interests of job seekers.” But, he cautions, “capturing the attention of prospective employers and recruiters — who have made the sites a routine part of their searches — has also become more difficult because of the overwhelming amount of information available.”

McKinnon offers a number of useful tips to help job seekers adapt their messages so they are more likely to go viral:

• Keep it simple. Trim your text to its core message and stick to the point. Leave no room for interpretation. “Remove any superfluous or flowery language, and clever wordplay,” advises McKinnon. “Remember, too, that your audience may include many for whom English is a second language.” He further cautions, however, that brevity should not come at the expense of clarity. Just be sure that people know what your message is, why it is important, why it affects them personally, and what they should do about it.
• Tailor your message to your audience’s needs. You won’t get far if the people you want to reach cannot see what’s in it for them. “Relate to them by tying your story to what drives them,” says McKinnon. “Make it about them and what they should do about it.” On a practical note, McKinnon suggests using pronouns like “you” and “your” and “our” and “ours.”
• Consider your timing. If you find your message is being drowned out by noise, change the timing of your posts. If you’ve noticed, for example, that your target audience tends to check their online sources in the late afternoon, you’re probably posting at that time.
• Be selective in choosing your channels. Although the three most popular channels are commonly accepted to be Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, it is very likely that an influential segment of your audience is listening to other channels as well such as blogs and specific groups.
• Craft an interesting story. Fundamentally, people care about people, says McKinnon. “We all seek connections, so don’t just push a bunch of isolated facts. Craft a story and keep spinning it as you send out your messages,” he says. “Not all your content has to be tied to one single thread, but weaving it into many of your posts will give readers continuity and help keep them coming back for more.”
• Push to get the word out. It is very hard to predict what will go viral and get noticed, observes McKinnon. To increase the probability of your message spreading widely, enlist the help of your friends, colleagues, and others in your network. Use every vehicle you can: Make your message into a blog post on your own blog, or if you don’t have one, ask other bloggers to post it or to publish a link to it on their blogs. Direct-message your Twitter followers and ask them to re-tweet it. Post it on your friends’ Facebook wall and ask them to share it with their friends. Post it on LinkedIn Groups and send a message to your LinkedIn network to post it as a status update.

In the case of my search I would add the successful Financial Advisor would have to have a minimum Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn following of at least 250 in each application to be considered.

So, armed with the new rules of job search and the minimum number of followers, if you would like to participate on my panel and think you’re qualified to be one of the two Financial Advisors on my panel, please ping me on my email, Twitter or LinkedIn accounts. I’m ready to be WOW’D!

Social media agency Advisolocity was invited this week to join a new leadership council that aims to cultivate and communicate the best practices of a growing number of social-media minded investment marketers, service providers and financial advisors.

The SocialTurns Council is made up of specialists from the fields of compliance, marketing, technology and financial services.

As one of the group’s founding members, Advisolocity joins industry leaders:

• Pat Allen, Principal, Rock The Boat Marketing
• Debbi Corej, VP of Compliance, Prudential
• Julie Gebert, AVP of Compliance, Cambridge
• Kip Gregory, Principal, The Gregory Group
• Bruce Johnston, President & CEO, Advisolicity
• Kristen Luke, Principal, Wealth Management Marketing
• Christina L. Nelson, Senior Editor, Financial Planning Association
• Stephanie Sammons, CEO, WiredAdvisor
• Stephen Selby, Director of Regulatory Services, LIMRA
• Pete Chiccino, EVP and CIO, The Bancorp Bank

The rationale for the group includes the following excerpt from its mission statement:

“Social media has so much to offer the financial services industry yet education, awareness and questions are holding it back. Our hope is that by bringing together industry experts, passionate users and those standing on the sidelines that we will be able to accelerate the adoption of social media.”

A group spokesperson added, “In the last few weeks we’ve invited users to sign-up for the preview and the reaction has been tremendous. To date we’ve had almost 500 users join SocialTurns from 13 different countries and the discussions are off and running ranging from enterprise social media adoption, to FourSquare, to employee guidelines.”

As president and CEO of Advisolocity, I would like to personally invite you to join the pre-release of SocialTurns.com. The site will go live to the public soon and I would like you to have a chance for a first look at the community and to join the conversation. Simply e-mail me here for a user name and password.

During Huntington Asset Services’ recent social media webinar event, I mentioned the new “ABCs” of financial social media.

Social media helps small advisors and managers stand out

In addition to the ABCs of wholesaling — “Always Be Closing” – today’s investment marketers are learning a new alphabet:  the ABCs of financial social media, “Always Be Connecting.”

The world of social media rewards those who are able to connect and engage their customers.  This benefits small asset managers and advisors because they not only can Always Be Connecting, they can also:

• Always Be Experimenting. Developing a social media strategy and presence is not a one-size fits all or one social media application fits all proposition. Small advisors can afford to experiment by testing concepts and approaches until they find those that work best. This ability to experiment and modify strategy while building relationships during the experimentation phase of your strategy advantages the small asset manager and advisor.

• Always Be Moving Forward – Just Do It. I’ve heard it hundreds of times from executives at large corporations: “We’ve formed a committee to evaluate social media and whether it’s for us or not.” While the larger organizations are in paralysis you should be moving forward with your social media strategy.  There isn’t a lot of testing that needs to be done.  Social media applications are being introduced at warp speed and are being fine-tuned at the same speed.  Advice and guidance are readily available.

• Always Be Touching Your Followers. Small asset managers and advisors hold a distinct advantage to their larger competitors when it comes to understanding their client and what they want. Large organizations pride themselves on the size of their customer base versus the quality.

• Always Be Engaging. If you’ve been in business for a while you probably have an established customer base.  With millions of people on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn it’s a safe bet to think that you may find your customers already online.   If asked they may be interested in joining your professional network.

One thing you can bet on, if your customers are not there now they will be in the near future.  Or, stated another way, why wouldn’t you want to have a presence where your customers are?

Perhaps you have made decisions about adjusting your staffing and business model to the challenges of the current environment. Social media programs provide a way for you to deploy more resources and effort into your distribution and marketing efforts without assuming a lot more cost.

Even in uncertain recovery, many smaller businesses like yours are committed to expanding their presence, yet have little appetite for going back to business as usual.

The pattern that characterized the emergence from similar market environments in the past is not being repeated. The cycle of down-sizing and staffing up has been altered as decision-makers look to boost production and distribution through technological innovations.

The new paradigm is simple: Always Be Connecting.

To Braden Hill successful pre-retirement planning shouldn’t depend on a person’s political viewpoint.

Advisor Braden Hill Stands Up for Pre-Retirees

“Still, the average person should know what Congress is contemplating,” he said, “to see how it might change you and your children’s savings and spending habits.”

Mr. Hill, the principal of Pinnacle Hills Financial Services, LLC, pointed recently to the testimony of Teresa Ghilarducci, the New School of Social Research professor who told a congressional committee in 2008 “that it’s time to reinvent the 401(k).” Ms. Ghilarducci advocated for a government-guaranteed alternative consisting of blue-chip stocks and corporate and Treasury bonds.

“The 401(k) is a failure,” Ms. Ghilarducci had said, “I want to spend our nation’s dollars for better retirement.”

That comment put other ideas in circulation, including one from Representative John Boehner, Ohio, who recently suggested increasing the retirement age to 70 for people at least 20 years from retirement.

“Retirement shortfalls don’t care who you voted for,” Mr. Hill said, “That’s why I want to raise our collective consciousness about ‘pre-retirement planning.’”

“Whether you are a liberal, conservative or moderate, planning for retirement is just plain getting harder,” the Rogers, Arkansas advisor added.

To make the case for better pre-retirement planning, Mr. Hill contracted recently with the Advisolocity social media agency to assist him in building out his thought leadership initiative.

To that end, Advisolocity will develop a series of topical posts and build a blog for Mr. Hill to integrate with his current web site. Additionally, Mr. Hill and his team will provide a forum for information and advice focusing on retirement challenges.

“There are many solutions out there that pre-retirees and investors may not know about,” he continued.

One example he concluded, is the in-service non-hardship withdrawals that are available to employees experiencing a financial pinch — and don’t know what to do.

Confronted with the shock of the new, it’s only natural for large organizations to trust that yesterday’s strategies will continue to work a little longer.

Social media raises awareness cost-effectively

However, after FINRA-1006 was released last spring, the regulatory guidelines that govern social networking policy for the investment industry leveled the playing field for everyone. As a number of the nation’s leading firms adopt a slow, but steady approach to social media strategies, the time may right for other firms to take the initiative.

For example, recent data from marketing firm LederMark Communications underscores the growing popularity of these tools among financial services professionals:

• 85% of those under 50 use social media
• 50% of those over 50 use these cost-effective tools
• Up to 40% of all users say that social media strategies are helping them build new business

Research from Spectrem Consulting Group last spring delivered similar findings:

• 63% of Twitter users read tweets that offer financial advice
• 46% of YouTube users and 41% of Facebook users seek information from social networking investment forums

A number of investment service providers and publications have been tackling the implications of the social media question. Recently, Spectrem Group and Financial Advisor Magazine sponsored a conference that identified a wide range of issues affecting advisors and investors in the shifting wealth management landscape.

Unified Fund Services, Inc., a subsidiary of Huntington Bank, which is based in Columbus, OH, announced its sponsorship of a webinar for financial advisors and fund marketers on August 3, called “Using Social Media.”

In addition to offering some practical guidance on how to use social media, the webinar also intends to feature insights on regulatory trends and archiving solutions.

“Using Social Media” is designed to alert up-and-coming money managers and financial advisors to the advantages of implementing low-cost social media marketing programs.

Interested investment industry professionals are invited to participate in Unified’s “Using Social Media” webinar by registering here.

Unified will continue to expand its social media marketing focus during its annual client meeting to be held September 12-13.

Personally, I think firms providing timely and accurate portfolio information, articles of interest and thought leadership pieces versus market commentary will distinguish themselves from the rest.

We are pleased to offer our readers an on-demand link to the popular webinar: “Social Media: Can Advisors Afford to Miss It?”

To hear the latest thinking from the industry leaders in financial services social media marketing — Fidelity, American Century, Socialware and Advisolocity — please click the accompanying thumbnail link.

Hear Jennifer Sussman, Director of Online Marketing for American Century provide highlights from her firm’s recently completed “Financial Professionals Social Media Adoption Study.”

Next, benefit from Ross Ozer’s insights. As Vice President of Marketing for Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services, Mr. Ozer comments on how social media can help advisors generate more referrals, greater marketplace awareness and extend their reach.

Do you consider compliance to be a major barrier to adopting social media in your practice? If so, you are not alone.

Eighty percent of webinar attendees saw compliance risk as a key obstacle — until they listened to Chad Bockius, CEO of Socialware, who had much to contribute to understanding how to overcome social media’s compliance risks.

I was pleased to be able to deliver the results of one of our case studies as an example of how social media can work effectively in advisors’ day-to-day practice to raise AUM and revenue.

Also, if you missed out on the opportunity yesterday to download a FREE copy of Advisolocity’s white paper: “One-2-One: How to have 1000 client conversations at once,” please do so on the link provided.

Topics covered during the 45-minute Q&A session ran the gamut from:

• What are the implications of FINRA Notice 10-06 for financial advisors and are there solution sets available to comply with the archiving requirements?
• Are clients really using social networks for financial advice and, more importantly, for advisor selection?
• Will social media overload the compliance department?
• What are the nuances of the compliance demands social media poses that make it so difficult for firms to understand?
• Why are some firms staking a claim to social media applications while the vast majority sit back and watch?
• What about advisors who have primarily older clients? Should they consider social media tools as strictly suited for Gen Y and X, and not baby boomers?

If you have questions that were left unanswered after you listen to the discussion, please contact Bruce Johnston at bruce@advisolocity.com. I will get your question answered for you in short order. In the meantime, enjoy!

Connecting is the new Closing – Engagement the new Goal!

Many firms have asked us: with the prevalence of dedicated manager research and due diligence teams at home offices and even dedicated manager research at the branch level are separate resources beyond relationship management professionals and wholesalers needed to call on this segment?

The answer may not be additional resources but how the resources are deployed in the field.  As gatekeepers get tied down with researching new managers and talking to existing ones on their platform, they simply don’t have the time to talk to those outside their immediate frame of reference.  Firms hurt themselves by continuing to press for face time at the home office and by not taking their gatekeeper research strategy on the road.

If you trust recent research by Cerulli which states advisors place a significant amount of weight on gatekeeper research and that 86.8% of wirehouse advisors said that the managed accounts platform was a significant factor in any decision to switch sponsor firms then firms should be crafting a field strategy which benefits the advisor.

One such strategy is for firms to identify Centers of Influence “COI” at the Regional and branch level and craft strategies that will help them meet their critical objectives.  Remember, these in-the-field “COI” meetings are where the money is.  Something which seems to have taken a backseat as firms placed added emphasis on the home office gatekeepers.

Regional “COI” meetings should focus on the COIs critical objectives.  Once determined firms can craft strategies which compliment the COIs objectives and work “with” them to accomplish both these goals.

Advisor meetings should focus on their business model, client profile and their portfolio structure needs.  Once these are discussed and determined, firms can now position their product.  All managers will benefit from this strategy but “undiscovered” managers may benefit the most as they now have the opportunity to explain the merits of their product in the context of the advisors strategy.

Try to schedule as many of these meetings as close to month and quarter end as possible.  This is when firms are armed with their most current portfolio information and it syncs with the COI and advisors reporting cycle to their clients.  Firms providing timely and accurate portfolio information, articles of interest and thought leadership pieces versus market commentary will distinguish themselves from the rest.  A portfolio manager as a resource is also welcome after the initial strategy sessions have taken.

Lastly don’t ignore the role technology plays in training and delivering your message.  As budgets continue to shrink, COIs and advisors are turning to those firms providing them with webinars and streaming video which help them understand the finer points of your investment process and how it benefits their clients.

Don’t get me wrong, the home office is important but in times like these it may make more sense for firms to focus their budget where the money is – in the field.

Visit us at www.advisolocity.com for a FREE copy of our latest white paper: “One-2-One: How to have 1000 client conversations at once,” and to access additional FREE information from our resource center.

Commerce on the Internet continues to skyrocket.

Chad Levitt, author of the “New Sales Economy Blog,” recently wrote a post, “Sales Reps, Are You Ready for the Digital Universe?,” based on information he gleaned from a recently released IDC report on predictions for the year 2020.

Here are some of the major findings from the IDC report:

• Between now and 2020, the amount of digital information created and replicated in the world will grow to an almost inconceivable 35 trillion gigabytes as all major forms of media – voice, TV, radio, print – will complete the journey from analog to digital.

• Last year despite the global recession, the Digital Universe, set a record. It grew by 62% to nearly 800,000 petabytes. A petabytes is a million gigabytes. Picture a stack of DVDs reaching from the earth to the moon and back.

• This explosive growth means that by 2020, our Digital Universe will be 44 times as big as it was in 2009. Our stack of DVD’s would now reach halfway to Mars.

• Most of the digital universe begins with an action by a consumer – an email typed on a laptop, a digital photo taken at a wedding, a movie downloaded from Netflix. In fact more than 70% of the Digital Universe this year will be generated by users – individuals at home, work, and on the go.

• The social media invasion has just begun. IDC estimates that by 2020, business transactions on the internet, B2B and B2C, will reach 450 billion a day.

While Chad asks, “How do sales reps rise to the top when the waves of information keep crashing on their heads,” I ask,  “How can advisors, money managers and distributors prepare themselves?”

Say it with content

Everyone needs a clearly articulated story that represents a big idea for what a firm represents. “Begin to create content so that you can get found in search engines, social search, and the blogosphere,” Chad wrote. “Do not get lost in the tsunami of digital information.”  I’ve noticed that most firms already have content, but have been slow to package it for different applications.  For instance, those comments from the Chief Investment Officer on the corporate website can be refreshed for corporate blogs, Twitter and Facebook.  The Holy Grail here is a firm’s key word recognition on Google page 1. Consistency, timeliness and relevance are all critical to  claiming one’s “social media turf.”

Thought leadership spoken here

Chad added, “Learn a thing or two about search engine optimization (SEO)…  to be a search engine and opportunity magnet.”  I’ve observed and mentioned before, SEO is the outgrowth of taking a strong thought leadership position.  For example,  Charles “Chuck” Steege, CFP® of SFG Wealth Planning Services, recently authored a white paper which discussed the merits of performance shares.  He quickly dominated Google page 1 rankings for keywords “performance shares executive compensation.” Individuals are hungry for such specialized  content and will engage with firms  that carve out their niche with keywords associated with their subject matter expertise.

Work the net

Chad pointed out the importance of daily digital networking. An interesting article about a company is a reason to reach out to that company’s CEO and other employees on Linkedin. Social networks beget digital conversations that can turn into a real relationship over time. Relationships turn into deals. Social Media Examiner recently pointed out that a significant 85% of all marketers indicated that their social media efforts have generated exposure for their businesses.  Improved traffic to their sites was the second major benefit, followed by building new partnerships.

Branding is a two-way street

The amount of content being created every day, Chad noted, is almost incomprehensible. The personal branders that are striving to solidify their personal brands now, will be the staples of their niche tomorrow. Asset management and wealth management firms that continue to sit on the sidelines are missing an important opportunity to win new customers now. We are discovering that major rebrands are not necessary.  Rather advisors and money managers are finding out they are able to evolve and grow their network with a “brand refresh”,  a more cost effective and efficient way to capitalize on the opportunity.

Find out more about the latest developments in social media for the highly regulated financial services industry on June 2, 2010. Sign up: brighttalk.com/webcast/20874 to join me and panelists from American Century, Fidelity and Socialware as we discuss:  “Social Media: Can Advisors Afford to Miss It?”

Click on Chad Levitt to access his full blog.

Last week I sat on a social media panel at the “Innovation and Growth In A Post Economic Crisis Era” Conference sponsored by Spectrem Group and Financial Advisor Magazine.  Other panelists were Daniel Bernstein, JD Director of Professional Services, Market Counsel and Dr. Christopher W. Young Jr, Ph.D, Global Director – Strategy and Solutions Wealth Management for Dow Jones.

Dan did an excellent job discussing FINRA Regulatory Notice 10-06, , FINRA’s Guidance on Blogs and Social Networking Web Sites. (View Full Notice). He pointed out, Regulatory Rule 10-06 makes it clear that any online communication, this includes social networks such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, are viewed by FINRA as the same as an in-person meeting or written communication to a client.

In the world prior to social networks, this information needed to be filed, reviewed and approved by a FINRA representative prior to its use.  Now, should an advisor choose to utilize one of the many financial services social media tools this information carries with it the additional requirement of being archived, supervised and made discoverable.

What’s apparent, financial service social media practioners we will have to get comfortable wrapping familiar terms around new concepts.  For instance, when you think of public appearances think beyond client seminars and client appreciation events and include Tweets, discussions on Facebook and the back and forth banter that occurs on the LinkedIn Q&A section.

Public appearances, sales literature, correspondence and advertisements still maintain their prominence but look for social networking content to be grouped into static, interactive and action classifications for ease of treating this content.

Chris informed the audience that social media growth has taken off quicker than any other media or technology innovation – surpassing the Internet adoption rates, computer rates and cell phone.  We’ve all heard the phenomenal growth story of social media and the staggering follower numbers.   The Wall Street Journal takes real notice when they see 400 million Facebook followers and only 2.2 million WSJ subscribers – a consistently diminishing number.

In his view social media applications will be the tool which provides continuous and real time communication between advisor and clients.  While social media has provided the individual with the voice to be heard, that voice could be that of the advisor, as individual service provider.  Any tool that allows advisors understand their clients likes and dislikes, coupled with aggregated feedback from their entire customer base can and will substantially improve service levels thus enhancing client loyalty and increased AUM, according to Chris.

As a social media practioner I was asked to discuss the results of a few of our case studies at DBJ Associates and Advisolocity.  After comparing the cost of these campaigns against their positive results,  I believe now more than ever that social media will be an extremely cost efficient,  effective and easily measured way for advisors and distributors to reach a very large audience.

The biggest hurdle to higher adoption rates of financial services social media marketing may lie in finding an archiving solution.  This was the number one question wanted answered by conference participants.  At conference time there may have been 4-5 solution providers all providing some degree of confidence and comfort to compliance officers dealing with the issue.

For those of you following this issue you may have noticed earlier this week that Smarsh, the managed service leader in secure and reliable email archiving and compliance solutions, today announced a partnership with Socialware, a leader in helping companies manage, embrace and leverage public social networks. The partnership brings together the companies’ innovative technologies to offer a unique solution for messaging and social media governance and compliance. The 360-degree offering will integrate Socialware’s policy enforcement, capture, moderation and analytics capabilities for third-party networking sites including Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, with the sophisticated message archiving and compliance platform from Smarsh.

We have had several conference calls with Smarsh executives to learn more about this new archiving capability and as I learn more I will keep you all posted.