Financial Social Media | DBJ Associates

Advisolocity Named to Financial Social Media Leadership Council

On August 17, 2010, In Financial social media marketing, By Bruce

By D. Bruce Johnston, President & CEO, Advisolocity

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.

Memo to Smaller FAs: “Always Be Connecting” with Social Media

On August 6, 2010, In Financial social media marketing, By Bruce

By D. Bruce Johnston

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.

Tagged with: Bruce Johnston • financial advisor • financial social media • smaller financial advisor • smaller money manager

Financial Advisor Braden Hill’s Pre-Retirement Social Media Focus

On August 6, 2010, In Financial social media marketing, By Bruce

By John C. Drachman, Guest Contributor

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.

Tagged with: Braden Hill • DBJ Associates • financial social media • in-service non-hardship withdrawal • John Drachman • Pinnacle Hills • pre-retirement planning

Social Media Benefits Seen for Smaller Fund Managers and Advisors

On July 21, 2010, In Financial social media marketing, By Bruce

By D. Bruce Johnston, President and Chief Executive Officer, Advisolocity

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.

Tagged with: financial social media • huntington bank • social media agency • unified fund services • wealth management

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