By D. Bruce Johnston, President, DBJ Associates

As Asset Management and Distributors of financial products struggle with how to embrace social media in order to improve acquisition and retention metrics, their brethren in other industry are facing similar challenges. 

The difference – they are moving forward because of the kind of thought leadership provided by Bryan Weiner, CEO and his team at 360i who have just published the Social Marketing Playbook. Their comprehensive strategic report aims to help marketers evaluate the opportunities available, determine which ones are best for their brands and develop a strategy following best practices for achieving success in social media.

Their goals for the Playbook were to:

• Provide a framework for establishing a set of clear objectives and strategy when approaching social marketing
• Move beyond the checklist approach and offer a filter for evaluating the myriad opportunities and platforms
• Encourage thinking of social marketing as an opportunity to have a continuous, valuable exchange with customers
• Advance discussions on amplifying marketing results through the integration of social marketing and offline campaigns

In addition to providing insights from contributors such as David Berkowitz, Sienna Farris, Shankar Gupta, Lara Hejtmanek, Katie Perry and Orli Sharaby, the Playbook also includes guest commentary by industry luminaries Randall Rothenberg (CEO of the IAB), Pete Cashmore (CEO of Mashable.com), Jeremiah Owyang (Blogger at Web-Strategist.com), Jeff Pulver, (Founder of Pulver.com and Producer of The 140 Character Conference) and Greg Galant (CEO of Sawhorse Media and Creator of the Shorty Awards). 

If you are a student of social media you will recognize or soon should recognize some or all of the names listed above.  Take the time to read their material as you will find it beneficial and well worth your time.

Of course their effort isn’t without critical comment, which, with the interactive nature of social media is to be expected and encouraged.  However, they defend their definition of “social marketing” well, I have yet to see their response to why no HTML/version.

For financial services sales and marketing professionals this may well be the most comprehensive and well researched single source book on social media available today.

As always I welcome your comments and other feedback as the folks at @360i or on Facebook would as well.