Social Media | DBJ Associates

Explore Social Media’s Powerful Techniques for Financial Advisors

On August 23, 2010, In Financial Services Social Media Marketing, By Bruce

Discover how to complement your lead generation efforts with social media’s powerful contact capture techniques

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

SOCIAL MEDIA: Can Financial Advisors and Asset Managers Afford to Miss It?

On May 12, 2010, In Uncategorized, By Bruce

By D. Bruce Johnston, President, DBJ Associates

Much has been discussed in the industry around Financial Advisor’s use of social media. Should they use it? Is it valuable? What are the risks? What are the compliance issues? Can we afford to wait?

Similar questions are being asked by the major asset management companies and distributors. Firms such as Putnam have aggressively moved onto Twitter. TIAA–Cref, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, American Century, Raymond James, USAA, Russell Investments, Virtus and Pimco are also on Twitter. Now Northern Trust has entered the arena with Vanguard possibly next. What issues did they struggle with and more will be discussed.

Please join me June 2nd at 2pm EDT as I participate in an interactive round table panel with other industry experts from Fidelity, American Century Investments and Socialware. We will be discussing how advisors are using social media to communicate with clients and peers and you will able to tune in online from the convenience of your desk. We will also be discussing how firms are utilizing social media to keep advisors and shareholders informed. The free webcast will be streaming live online and you can sign-up, watch the presentation and submit questions through the BrightTALK website. If you can’t attend live you can also tune in to the recorded version anytime afterward on-demand.

To make sure your question gets answered we welcome your questions prior to the webinar. If you would like to submit a question prior to the webinar please do so in the comment section below or at our Twitter sites: http://twitter.com/DBJAssociates or http://twitter.com/Advisolocity.

You can sign up for the webinar here: http://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/20874

We look forward to having you join us on June 2nd at 2pm EDT.

Tagged with: FINRA • social media

How are RIAs approaching social media?

On January 16, 2010, In Uncategorized, By Bruce

By: D. Bruce Johnston, President, DBJ Associates

With hope and fear. If they can publish a few blog posts, advisors can extend the life of a public relations story nearly effortlessly. With social media and its ability to generate attention inexpensively, it’s hard not to consider it.

The difficulty comes in when you ask an RIA what they are willing to pay for it. An RIA must opt for at least a minimal, consistent effort to communicate their subject matter expertise to their prospects.

So, while the vehicles underlying all that publicity are almost free, the talent to assemble content and distribute it is not.

And that’s the rub: RIAs need to make a commitment to reach out and sustain an effort to attract new prospects into their loop. Whether an RIA is ready to take the deep dive into social media, he or she needs to answer four questions.

Do I like the idea of using nearly free marketing tools to attract prospective clients? This one is easy: “Yes.”
Should I “do-it-myself” — or recruit professionals to help me? The RIA must decide whether they want to take time away from client-facing activity to master the web’s ins and outs. Caveat: Do-it-yourself errors can be a deal breaker.
Am I committed to spending some money? RIAs don’t have to commit to hefty retainers, but they do need to commit somewhere between $5,000 to $10,000 initially to dedicate to professional resources.
Am I willing to experiment a bit, journey into unknown territory? I have found that this is the most important question for advisors to answer. An experimental sense of social media’s possibilities is the key. There is no locked in blueprint for how to proceed. Social media strategies are a trip through a new frontier; the efforts are flexible, motivational and engaging when done well. And, if you make a mistake, they are pretty easy to correct.

Why is it that a prospect who won’t return an advisor’s phone call won’t hesitate to connect with that advisor on LinkedIn? Why is it that a prospect will unsubscribe from an advisor’s newsletter and then immediately start following that same person on Twitter?

I think it’s a matter of control: individuals like to pick and choose what they want from a service provider and who they want to have a conversation with — and that includes RIAs.

But advisors cannot join the conversation if their potential prospects don’t know where to find them.

Tagged with: FINRA • RIAs • social media • Wealth Advisor

FocusShares’ Erik Liik tells why social media marketing is an ETF start-up’s best friend

On November 18, 2009, In Uncategorized, By Bruce

By: D. Bruce Johnston, President, DBJ Associates

Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) have grown so quickly for so long, it is easy to forget that Erik Liik, the charismatic CEO and President of FocusShares was there at the beginning. Erik played a key role in the launch of the very first ETFs, the legendary Word Equity Benchmark Shares (WEBS), which provided access to international country-specific indexes in 1996.

Four years later, Erik co-authored with Financial Research Corporation, the landmark study “The Future of Exchange Traded Funds,” a prescient analysis of the challenges and opportunities confronted by ETFs. That document uncannily projected almost to the penny the asset growth that ETFs would experience from 2000 to the present. Erik’s passion for the ETF concept took a giant leap in 2008 when he and a small group of investment colleagues began building the groundwork for another, unique foray into ETF world. This time around Erik and company are setting out to build a first-of-a-kind, patented, principal-protected ETF target date series called FocusShares.

While pausing recently in his search for institutional funding, Erik met with me to discuss his views about the role social media marketing will play in launching his ETF program once funding is secured. He also shared his observations on Cerulli Associates’ just-released study.

DBJ When will you launch FocusShares?

Erik As soon as we have completed financing and or strategic partnership, we are set to go. We have the marketing and sales teams in place and ready to move once the whistle blows.

DBJ Will anything be different your FocusShares’ launch as opposed to WEBS 13 years ago?

Erik A few things will stay the same, but much will be different. We’ll have a simple, standard sales kit and broker selling guide. Beyond that, we intend to take maximum advantage of the many freeware or near-freeware tools available on the Internet to get the message out.

DBJ For instance?

Erik We’ll use a very interactive press release approach to drive readers to our web site and blog which will be the centerpiece of our thought leadership marketing strategy. We intend to engage and build conversations with as many in our peer network as possible: individual investors, institutional investors, DCIO platforms, RIAs, wirehouses, the press and all who are looking for a better alternative to conventional target date portfolios.

DBJ How important a role will social media marketing play?

Erik Tremendously important. In this economy, we cannot afford to overlook anything cost-efficient that can help us build a conversation about FocusShares. One area we will look at immediately is beefing up our presence on LinkedIn. Each of my partners has a contact page. Once we launch, we will have a contact page for FocusShares itself, too.

DBJ Are there any competitive ETFs doing something similar on LinkedIn?

Erik Yes, AdvisorShares has a fairly high visibility on LinkedIn. They’ve done a good job of putting weekly podcasts and other information out there, although they seem to have lost a bit of interest in it. The last post up was in June.

DBJ That’s one of the problems with a social media strategy. You have to keep it current.

Erik We know that going in. I told the team, we are all responsible in developing a one-to-one approach to establishing our thought leadership in this area and expanding our presence through social media efforts. It will be a lot of hard work and success won’t come overnight, but I believe we’ll have done the spade work to create lasting, long-term relationships with our clients.

DBJ On another topic. The new Cerulli Associates’ study came out called “Exchange Traded Funds: Threat or Threatened?” What do you think of it?

Erik I think the title is a little cryptic.

DBJ It is a little cryptic. Cerulli, basing his survey on just 400 advisors, stated that 45% prefer using actively managed mutual funds in their clients’ portfolios rather than ETF products.

Erik Well, that flies in the face of what most consider a mass exodus out of mutual funds to ETFs. It really contradicts a recent Schwab study that said 83% of RIAs prefer using ETFs in their asset allocation strategies. It would probably be helpful to have a better understanding of the advisor demographic Cerulli was referring to. Today’s ETFs provide passive exposure to markets, sectors and industry group. They are excellent tools for executing many investment strategies.

DBJ Will the use of ETF wrap products increase?

Erik Yes. But wraps will not be the only way advisors and investors increase their ETF participation. Almost any investment objective can be offered in the ETF structure. To date the majority of ETFs are passive.

DBJ It appears that actively managed objectives and solution based objectives are the next step in the evolution of the ETF. Do you agree?

Erik Absolutely. IndexIQ has launched a series of ETFs that actively seek to replicate various hedge fund strategies.

DBJ How is FocusShares positioning to meet the opportunities and challenges of tomorrow’s ETF market?

Erik In 2008, we identified flaws in traditional target date mutual funds, which were exposed in the recent historic market collapse. Traditional target date mutual funds do not provide investors with protection of capital as an integral part of a retirement planning and nor do they provide transparency of fund investments. FocusShares, on the other hand, developed an investment methodology that would provide progressive capital protection within the ETF product structure.

DBJ Erik, these are exciting times for you. I wish you much luck with your new venture.

Erik Thanks much Bruce.

Tagged with: AdvisorShares • ETFs • Exchange Traded Funds • social media • Target Date Funds • target date mutual funds

How 12 million people brand your company 27.3 million times every day

On November 17, 2009, In Financial social media marketing, By Bruce

By: D. Bruce Johnston, President, DBJ Associates

That’s 12 million people engaged in 27.3 million conversations on Twitter every day. They are branding your company even if they are not mentioning you. That kind of branding is called “ignoring the non-entity.” In financial social media marketing and every other industry it’s the branding of the invisible.

This increased and increasing volume of “conversation” is indicative of the heightened adoption of social media in general and reflects a significant shift in how marketers approach customers. The shift from talking “at” customers to having a conversation “with” them has begun in earnest.

Watch Mad Men on AMC and see the difference between an ad monologue to many and a one-on-one conversation. Brands no longer say to their customers what they are. Rather, it is the customers themselves who are saying to the brand, “Here’s what you are to me.”

“You can’t just say what the brand is. You have to get the people to say it to each other,” says James Farley, CMO Ford. By giving away 100 Ford Fiestas to influential bloggers, 37% of Generation Y was aware of the Ford Fiesta before its launch in the United States. Is it any wonder why 25% of Ford’s marketing spend has been shifted to digital/social media initiatives? And, for those keeping score, Ford is the only U.S. auto company that didn’t take a government loan.

Social media applications, like Twitter, are where the customers, prospects, cynics and champions of your brand reside. Like it or not they are talking about your brand, forming opinions about your brand and sharing that opinion with anyone that will listen – 27.3 million times a day.

Given this new communications paradigm what should financial services product originators and distributors do?

Let’s talk about what they shouldn’t do first – they can’t cut their way to growth. They’ve been there, done that and it doesn’t work. It does however assure that firms doing this will lose precious ground to savvy competitors who are engaging their customers on a regular basis.

Throwing money at wholesalers, internals and marketing types is expensive and not likely to be tolerated during this time of margin and scale compression. Although the last half of 2009 will help margins they are still projected to be down from just below 30% in 2008 to just over 25.5% in 2009. If investor comfort with fixed income persists firms have but one choice to achieve scale, bring in more assets.

There I’ve already given you the answer: Engage customers through social media to improve sales, scale and margin. To engage customers get this right: “Social media is not about being promotional or selling, it’s about engagement”.

A Wetpaint/Altimeter Study: “The World’s Most Valuable Brands, Who’s Most Engaged” ranked the top 100 global brands. The study found those companies that are both deeply and widely engaged in social media significantly surpass their peers in both revenue and profit. The study places brands into one of four engagement profiles. Mavens are those firms with the highest level of social media activity and Wallflowers are those firms with the lowest level of social media activity.

The study reports that Mavens experienced Gross Revenue growth of 18%, Gross Margin growth of 15% and Net Margin Growth of 4%. Wallflowers saw their sales decline -6%, Gross Margin growth decline by -9% and Net Margin growth decline by -11%. Maven results would certainly improve the three statistical areas that most financial services executives monitor on a daily basis. Yet as compelling as these results are a recently released Forrester Research report finds financial services companies will spend only $200,000 on social media in 2009, the least amount of any industry.

The trick for financial services companies is to create meaningful marketing content that rises above self-promotion and allows you to connect directly with your customers? Start by listening. Since listening is the basis of trust in all relationships it allows companies to determine what information will be the most relevant and valuable to their customers. Use this information as the cornerstone of building a trusted relationship with your customer. If you are concerned about where your customers might go when the equities markets return spend the bulk of your time here developing their trust.

Your customers can now get information anywhere and your urge is to sell products. The new marketing isn’t about self-promotion; it’s about giving customers what they need to become educated consumers. We have entered the age of content and education marketing. If you want customers to see your brand as the trusted information source, you must begin to think like an information provider, not just the provider of goods or services. By empowering customers with genuine news and information, a company becomes one-half of a trusted relationship.

If your customers view your firm as representing an idea or theme they care about, they will engage you on a one-to-one basis engaging in two-way dialogue. However, if customers view you as just promoting products and services, they have to be willing to be the recipients of a one-to-many, one-way monologue. At this point more and more individuals choose to opt out of the one-way monologue.

Social media has changed the rules. Once an individual finds a better service or product through a peer network that affirms or changes their opinion, they can’t go home again. They can’t go back to the one-way monologue from a company for their sole decision-making input — no matter how good its products and services may be.

Tagged with: conversations • engagement • financial services • listening • social media • Twitter

Social Media Strategy Nets NEW AUM for RIA

On September 21, 2009, In Uncategorized, By Bruce

By D. Bruce Johnston, President, DBJ Associates

RIAbiz.com recently discussed the findings of an August 24-25, 2009 Investment News survey conducted on the Twitter habits of the financial-advisory community. Not surprisingly the survey reveals that “a mere 14.9% of financial advisers say they communicate with clients or colleagues through Twitter. Meanwhile, only 44.9% and 43.8% of advisers say they use LinkedIn and Facebook, respectively, the survey found”.

Has RIAbiz.com and Investment News missed the point? It’s not about Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn! It’s about communicating with one’s customers and clients utilizing ALL the tools available!

So, what’s my point?

Practical, functional, and sensible go a long way to enhancing the relationships financial advisors are trying to create between themselves and their customers and clients, with or without social media tools. Social media tools allow financial professionals to enhance and simplify and extend their communication and marketing efforts to customers and clients.

So, how does that work?

Here’s an example to illustrate my point. Also, in the spirit of full disclosure DBJ Associates did play a role in the viral marketing aspects of this program.

I followed up with Charles “Chuck” Steege, CFP,^® to see how his three-part webinar program, Uncovering The Fortune That Lies Hidden In Executive Compensation, fared over the summer.

“The program was very successful for us,” Chuck said. He credited John Drachman of The Drachman Group, Inc., which developed the content, with much of the attention the program attracted. “In addition to having wordsmith expertise,” Chuck said, “John is a deep listener, quickly grasps the message you want to convey, and works his intuition to best convey a positive impression.”

Social media strategies: Low cost approach to higher AUM

The following chart shows attendance and results for three-part webinar program: Uncovering the Fortune that Lies Hidden in Executive Compensation.

	Webinar 1	Webinar 2	Webinar 3	Total
Registered	16	17	11	44
Prospects	12	12	9	33
Existing clients	4	3	2	9
Replay viewed	1	1	3	6
Replay downloaded	1	0	1	2

In summary, the program, aimed at HNW investors with a minimum of $1 million-plus in investable assets, netted approximately $45,000 in new and ongoing annual fees on estimated AUM of some $4 million.

What did the program prove?

I asked John Drachman what these results proved.

“For under $10,000, Chuck was able to put a social media strategy together that used conventional webinars and a press release to springboard his expertise to a new audience that ranged from the United States to Germany and India.”

“We began with establishing Chuck’s thought leadership in the area of executive compensation, especially around the timely topic of the Alternative Minimum Tax Credit Refund – which should be top of mind for anyone who has paid their AMT and would like their money back,” John continued. “Next, we set out to expand Chuck’s message to his target audience of HNW prospects with an e-mail campaign to draw viewers to the webinars, a press release, as well as the webinar links themselves. Then, of course, DBJ Associates took the messaging and put it out on the blogosphere earning a #1 Google ranking for almost two weeks. That’s how Chuck’s program got picked up by Reuters and Smart Money. Then when BusinessWeek picked it up, it really went viral.”

The firm’s abundant appearances in financial blogs were also used for marketing purposes. “Sending a blog posting via e-mail to a client is similar to sending a photocopy of a press clip. It establishes a thought leader’s presence,” John added. “This proves to me that viral marketing can succeed with targeted, smaller numbers of prospects and institutions. Applying these free, readily available public domain tools to an outreach campaign is the short-cut to sales success.”

So, by working closely with Chuck and his compliance department John built a successful strategy utilizing both traditional marketing and social media tools. The three themes driving John’s strategy were: thought leadership, targeted communication plan and measurable results.

And, the entire successful strategy was built utilizing social media but not Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook.

As always, I welcome your comments and insights. Please leave a comment or send me an email directly and I will personally respond.

Tagged with: Alternative Minimum Tax • AMT • AMT Credits • AMT refund • social media

60% of Mutual Fund Executives Say: “Ignore Existing Shareholders”

On July 8, 2009, In Financial social media marketing, By Bruce

By D. Bruce Johnston, President, DBJ Associates

At least that was my take-away from a recent poll conducted by Ignites during their Exchange: Social Media’s Role for Mutual Funds. Ignites is the pre-eminent source for news about the mutual fund industry, and their sponsored session offered two different perspectives on the use of social media at mutual fund firms.

According to the Ignites poll – What do you think is the greatest benefit of social media marketing efforts? – conducted during the event, social media’s greatest contribution maybe a “spike in direct communication with potential fund customers”. Roughly 32% of respondents saw this as the greatest contribution of Web 2.0 tools.

Enhanced “direct communication with potential fund customers” (32%), was followed by: “reaching a younger audience” (25%), “ building brand loyalty” (23%), “building product awareness” (17%), “generating sales” (3%) and “I don’t see much benefit” (2%) where the other findings of the poll.

The data suggests that slightly less than 60% of respondents view social media as a means to access a new and younger audience of potential investors. The balance of the votes goes to brand loyalty, product awareness and generating sales. What about existing clients or client loyalty?

Doesn’t it make sense that firms should be communicating “with the one that brought them to the dance?” Firms need to view customer acquisition and customer retention as part of the same equation with customer retention holding a heavier weighing.

Remember, the $10 Trillion existing shareholders have with mutual fund companies generates roughly $100 billion a year in revenue to your firm or $2,000 per household. To ignore this group is to ignore the disproportionately weighed part of the equation: profitability is built on customer retention!

If profitability is built on customer retention, why then do mutual fund companies resist investing in the shareholders who have invested in their products and services?

As counter-intuitive as this may sound, there probably isn’t a group riper for a well thought out and executed social media campaign then existing shareholders. Social media would provide mutual fund companies the unique opportunity to both listen and communicate with existing clients directly.

Would this audience respond to social media? Recent data from Engage: Boomers shows that roughly 95.3% of baby boomers travel with computers, while 91% to 92% have access to the internet all the time. They dislike generalization and personalization, customization and service are important to them.

Twenty-five percent of this group has Facebook accounts. Is that important? Total minutes spent on Facebook increased nearly 700% from April, 2008 to April, 2009… that translates into $10 BILLION in sales just LAST WEEK.

What strategies would you enlist to keep existing shareholders loyal? Start with…

Exceptional Customer Service. I’m sorry, but a majority of mutual fund companies cover the Morningstar style boxes. You may not think so, but to the customer your Large Cap Growth fund is no different in their eyes then the other 3,500 it competes against. It is well known that in other industry when firms compete against companies that offer similar products and services “exceptional customer service” is a key differentiator.

It’s not complicated. Shareholders have problems; they want them solved. Shareholders have questions; they want them answered. Companies that provide shareholders access to an internal customer service representative with the authority to resolve shareholder issues win. When shareholders have questions about their investments and future financial well-being they don’t have time nor want an interactive voice response system.

Reduce call volume and improve your bottom line by designing a website that answers most customers FAQs. Performance is important but most customers are looking for statement information, the firm’s current thinking on the economy, portfolio moves and adherence to investment style.

Customer retention is a profit center – start viewing it as such. In the commoditized world of mutual funds get the Exceptional Customer Service part right and you will experience marked improvement in your customer retention scores and profitability.

Once you have the Exceptional Customer Service part right then social media campaign discussions can begin. This discussion needs to take into account the shift occurring in customer consumption habits. Not only do customers have the power to access, consume, customize and forward information, they can do it however, wherever and whenever they want. By actively listening, watching, gathering and learning from your customers you will know this and will be able to convert this information into customer advocacy, brand building and inspire loyalty.

Let’s hope the slightly less than 60% of the mutual fund executives polled are wrong and will rethink their position with regard to existing customers and social media’s benefit’s to their organizations.

Tagged with: Exceptional Customer Service • Ignites • Mutual Fund Executives • social media

Where Social Media Meets Traditional Media – the Windshield Postcard

On June 2, 2009, In Uncategorized, By Bruce

By: D. Bruce Johnston, President & CEO, DBJ Associates

Yesterday I had the distinct pleasure of having lunch with Jason Heinhorst, Partner at FUSE Research Network. The purpose of our lunch was to discuss asset and wealth management firms’ various approaches to incorporating social media and social networking technologies into their business models in order to enhance client acquisition and retention.

The topic at hand certainly jumped to a new level when returning to our respective cars we found on our windshields postcards that read: IS YOUR 401K HAPPY?

With that simple question and supposedly unsophisticated delivery system – the windshield postcard – RIA Patrick Jolliffe of Jolliffe Capital, Inc., Denver, CO got our attention. The question was driven by data gathered by Deloitte Consulting LLP and Pension and Investments in their 2008 Annual 401(k) Benchmarking Survey. When asked what was the biggest concern of employees, 81% of employers surveyed responded – “where to invest and which funds to use”.

I quickly called Patrick and asked, “What was the major driver behind your decision to pursue this type of client acquisition strategy?” His answer was simple: “The numbers of advisors waiting on 401(k) rollovers is extremely crowded. I felt that I needed a strategy that was “cyber” in nature and allowed me to participate at all levels of this opportunity.”

The point of Patrick’s traditional media postcard was to drive people and prospects to www.happy401k.com where a wealth of social media interaction, information and qualifying tools awaited the visitor.

According to Patrick, the site was designed to attract 401(k) assets from participants at all levels of investment sophistication and investable dollars; provide a consistent communication strategy tailored to certain asset levels and provide face-to-face (f2f) contact for individuals at $250,000 of investable assets or more.

His strategy and site meets the definition of social media. At its most basic sense, social media shifts how people discover, read and share information and content. The social media tool box of technologies is transforming monologues (one too many) into dialogues (many to many). Through their participation in dialogues, we are finding out that you can transform prospect interest in your product into prospect publishing about your product. In effect, your prospects become your advocates before they become your clients.

That’s why Patrick’s strategy seems to sync well with new research from the study Capturing the Hearts & Wallets of Peak Accumulators: Building Profitable Investment Business among Generation X and Younger Boomers, which the Wall Street Journal recently discussed, stating that:

“After feasting on the baby boomer gravy train for decades, wealth managers now face the reality that this generation will not feed their bottom line so amply in the future.”

The simple math for fee-based advisers is calculated by befriending their social media prospects first as thought leaders to knowledge seekers; then as advisors to clients second.

For the next best growth opportunity, wealth managers should start skewing younger to the next wave of big asset accumulators. And it turns out this potential market is just waiting to feel the advisers’ “love”.

Patrick’s strategy also seems to fit well with an emerging Baby Boomer theme – they are locking into the three “W’s” – www. – at record levels. An integral part of Boomers’ lives, the Internet is an increasingly comfortable place for them to conduct business, communicate via email and Twitter and learn about products and investment products through websites, blogs and forums; as well as groups of like-minded individuals. In fact Patrick’s “cyber” Boomer strategy is spot on according to one travel industry study as 95.3% travel with computers, 91.08% have access to the Internet “all the time” or “at Wi-Fi hotspots.”

We constantly need to remind ourselves that we are human beings and after all isn’t that what this social media thing is all about? It’s connecting people to people. It’s connecting people to you, your product, your service, your solution.

And what will happen in the future? It will be about connecting clients to clients where they will discuss you, your product recommendations, your service standards, and results of the solutions you recommended.

How will you ever provide this high level of connectivity? Will it come through B2B, P2P, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, some “killer apps”, F2F meetings or maybe windshield postcards? The correct answer is all of the above – it’s all integrated!

At a time when investor skepticism in the 28-52 demographic is at an all time high — only 18% work primarily with a financial professional — Patrick may have created an elegant solution on how to blend the need for communication with the need for cost efficiency.

By the way, it wasn’t until I was miles away that I noticed I had another windshield postcard, this one issued by the Denver Police Department for parking in a no parking zone. Man, those windshield postcards really get your attention!!!

Tagged with: 401(k) • asset & wealth management • Gen X • social media • Younger Boomers

Thinking Beyond LinkedIn

On May 24, 2009, In Uncategorized, By Bruce

By D. Bruce Johnston, President, DBJ Associates

While LinkedIn offers an attractive gateway to the world of social media, many financial professionals we have been speaking with downplay the importance of other social media tools like Twitter. That sentiment was forcefully expressed recently in John Ridley’s Visible Man column, which decries Twitter as a stomach-churning indulgence for navel gazers.

Is John right? Are Twitter and its fellow social media apps best suited for distracting easily bored, attention deficit fad followers? That thought was on the minds of many at the Russell Reynolds Distribution Roundtable focused on Social Media tools as a way to expand distribution for asset & wealth management firms in New York recently. The other side of the story was well-represented as well: That every game-changing communications improvement arrived first as a fad. Those over 20 may remember the early cellular phones in their lunch box-size vinyl bags; when it wasn’t unusual to wonder: “Isn’t that guy just showing off? Does he really need to have a phone with him all the time?”

Every communications improvement finally wasn’t really about the app after all, it was about the content, about what the message was trying to achieve.

· It’s about the characters stupid A cross between blogging and instant messaging, Twitter currently has 5 million users and is growing at a rate of 7500 a day. Each “tweet” is short and sweet, 140 characters. What can you do in 140 characters? Use the word count/character count feature in Microsoft Word, and find out. Remember; work backward from the URL you wish to hyperlink to. That italicized text is 140 words long right there.

· An application is not a vendor Asset and wealth management firms considering adopting social media applications to enhance customer relationships and loyalty should do so by utilizing a combination of social media applications, not just a specific application. For most this will be a difficult concept to grasp because as managers, most of us are usually being asked to choose one vendor over another.

· The power of social media lies in their combination. There is no single application that is right for everything all of the time.

· Face-to-face (F2F) is part of the social media tool kit too F2F is at the heart of every successful media program. Even with communications preferences changing and online engagement tools becoming commonplace, F2F selling still has a place in the solution suite. “Social” means “passed in pleasant companionship with one’s friends or associates” – that’s F2F in action.

· You are your own thought leader Social media also represents the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into publishers. Through identifying and publicizing your expertise – or thought leadership – you begin to set the standards of engagement for your network to generate exposure, opportunity and sales.

Some enterprising CEOs are taking to the promise of social media in a big way. Take a look at this message from Vanguard CEO Bill McNabb on the firm’s financial stability. Posted on their web site in April, to date 96 visitors have commented. Simultaneous to the posting of the message on the Vanguard website, they very well could have sent a tweet, allowing recipients to forward, or “retweet”, the message to friends thus enhancing the number of receipients.

Sprint Experience Makes Us Think Twice

Sprint and many other companies and their managers could take a page from this experience that my good friend Scott McKain had recently with Sprint. He twittered a complaint to Sprint about excessive advertising covering up a loss of customers and received this series of 140 character tweets from Stephanie Vinge of Sprint PR:

· Thx 4 the feedback. You’ll find we’re doing far more than just running cool ads& our customer serv metrics continue 2 improve

· And, as U can see, we have been watching, listening and helping our customers consistently via twitter, etc. Tweet me anytime

· Did U know: Sprint has the most dependable 3G network and is now rolling out Sprint 4G. DM me anytime for Sprint info

· Did U know: Sprint 3G is faster in more places than AT&T

Scott was impressed at her persistent follow-through and responded this way:

· Grateful for…and impressed by…your kind responses. Challenge is (obviously), how do you re-interest former customers like me?

· Don’t mean that sarcastically or disrespectfully! It’s that we think it’s tougher to re-engage former customers than acquire new.

Stephanie responded:

· I get it. not taken that way. I agree. I have been an angry, unsatisfied customer myself (of select companies) but we know what we need to do!

· Oh, what I’m doing is nothing compared to our company progress. Thanks and give us another chance – you’ll be glad!

And, he’s considering it.

The takeaway is this: When someone voices a concern about your organization, you strengthen your hand by responding just like Stephanie did: Immediately, openly, and sincerely. And she made an attempt to reconnect with a former customer. Who knows? You might get that dissatisfied client back.

Would it be worthwhile for you and your firm in terms of AUM and revenue if you could respond immediately, personally and sincerely to your customers? Would it be worthwhile for you and your firm to stay connected with current customers reconnect with former customers and stay in front of potential customers?

The promise of social media and Web 2.0 is to answer those questions in the affirmative.

Tagged with: asset & wealth management • Russell Reynolds • social media • Sprint • Vanguard

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