Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-09-03

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-09-03

by Stephanie Sammons on September 3, 2010 in Weekly Weblinks

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The time-crunched financial blogger’s best friend: Opinion + summary

by Stephanie Sammons on September 2, 2010 in Advisor Blogging

A big welcome to Susan B. Weiner, CFA, and our guest this week!  She’s doing a terrific job teaching financial advisors how to become better bloggers.  Read on!

If you’re a financial advisor who feels too busy to blog, you’ve got lots of company. It takes hours–maybe even days–to craft a finely tuned, completely original, 1,000-word article. RELAX. I’m not suggesting you write a literary masterpiece.

Short blog posts are fine. Especially when they also express an opinion and give a sense of who you are, two things that are key to attracting readers. You can do both in only 250 to 400 words. That’s as little as one double-spaced page. In fact, this is the length that I recommend to students in my writing class, “How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read: A 5-Week Teleclass for Financial Advisors.”

One quick way to achieve this goal is to summarize and express a personal opinion about an article, blog post, or other brief communication.

Here’s a five-step process to write an opinion-plus-summary blog post.

Step 1: Find an article (or other short piece) about which you have strong feelings. At least for me, it has to be a piece to which I have a gut reaction. Like “This is nuts!” or “I love how this writer made the case for deflation.”

Step 2: Identify the points that you want to make about the article. For example, “This is nuts because of reasons #1, #2, and #3.”

Step 3: Write an introduction that summarizes your topic. It should say the following in a few sentences:

  • The author says X in his article “NAME of ARTICLE with LINK TO IT ONLINE.”
  • The author makes some good points, but I disagree–or strongly agree–with a certain part of his argument.

Step 4: Summarize the parts of the author’s piece that are relevant to your argument. You don’t have to discuss the whole thing. Be selective. The nice thing about summaries is they’re relatively easy to write. After all, an author has already tried to organize thoughts logically for you. It’s fine to quote the author, but don’t copy too much or you’ll bore your reader and be vulnerable to accusations of copyright violation.

Step 5: Inject more of your opinion into the piece. You hinted at your opinion in your introduction. At some point, you’ve got to explain why you feel that way. Where you place your opinions depends on the flow of the blog post. For example, in “ ‘CFA credential implies a standard of care not always upheld,’ says Forbes opinion piece,” I spent three paragraphs summarizing the article before elaborating on the opinion I’d briefly expressed in my introduction.

Follow these five steps, and you can write compelling blog posts more quickly than your colleagues who begin by staring at a blank monitor.

Learn how to write better financial blog posts, readers of this post on the Wired Advisor blog can register at my Newsletter Subscriber discount for “How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read: A 5-Week Teleclass for Financial Advisors,” which starts Sept. 23. The Early Bird Newsletter Subscriber rate expires on August 31 at 12 midnight. A smaller, but still-significant discount is available after Sept. 1.

Susan B. Weiner, CFA, has more than 15 years of experience writing about financial topics for leading investment and wealth management firms as well as publications including Advisor Perspectives, Financial Planning, and Bottom Line/Personal. Susan has spoken on “How to Write Investment Commentary that People Will Read” across the U.S. and Canada for the CFA Institute. Her Investment Writing blog is popular with advisors who care about writing that deepens their connections with clients and prospects.

Don’t have your own blog site yet?  Learn more about Wired Advisor Blog Sites.

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"facebook places for financial advisors"

Facebook Places – What Financial Advisors Need to Know

by Stephanie Sammons on August 27, 2010 in Facebook

"facebook places for financial advisors"

Facebook Places

You may have heard a thing or two this week about the unveiling of Facebook Places, the new geo-location feature that is now a part of the most powerful social network at 1/2 billion people strong!  Geo-location platforms that allow you to check in literally anywhere you go from your mobile phone have been increasing in popularity.  Yelp has a check-in feature, and both Foursquare and Gowalla are social geo-location platforms gaining traction.

Frankly we’ve never written about these applications because the rumor has been that Facebook was going to roll out their own. Given that the majority of people who are participating in online social networks are Facebook users, this was a logical direction for the company to go in.  In addition, Facebook users aren’t going to need to adopt a new network or learn new technology. Facebook Places is built right in and is very easy to use.  When you log-in on your mobile phone, the “Places” icon is right there front and center!

As the geo-location becomes more widely adopted, there are a few things you need to know about what it means for you as a financial advisor.

More than likely, you won’t be worried about offering coupons and special discounts when prospects or clients “check in” to your office.  You are not a retail establishment such as a restaurant or a store.  However, there are a few ways to benefit from understanding what Facebook Places can offer.  As more information unfolds about the service, we will continue to update this article.

Benefits of “checking in” to your favorite places

Let’s assume that with your personal Facebook profile (hopefully you have one by now), you are connected to a number of clients, prospects, community leaders, and friends.  By sharing the places that you frequent through the Facebook Places application, you will become more visible to those connections. For example, your check-ins will appear on the actual Place Page, your friends’ newsfeeds, and on your own wall.   By default, your connections are going to learn more about your personal preferences, likes, and favorite places to frequent in town.  This can start conversations and even lead to arranging a face to face meeting at a favorite place, where you might ask your known contact to bring a friend along.

Access to your friends, connections,  and their “check-ins”

Now let’s look at the reverse and probably the most interesting opportunity with the geo-location platforms.  It could be quite interesting to learn where your clients, prospects, and centers of influence are spending their time.  Not only could this potentially be a conversation starter, but you could easily put together a breakfast, lunch, or dinner based upon what you learn, especially if you find that particular connections have common favorites!  Also, having insight into your contact’s favorite places can help in providing small gift ideas such as a favorite restaurant gift card for example.

Events

How often have you held a client or prospect breakfast, lunch, or dinner event at a local restaurant?   What if that event attendance could now be broadcasted via check-ins?  With every connection who checks in at your event on Facebook, their friends will see what they are up to, and this may encourage their friends to learn more about who you are and what you do for people.

Claim your Facebook Places Page

So far I have yet to see an actual “Places” page, but they will show up soon.  In other words, you can actually create a “Places” page on Facebook about your business.  This is separate from your personal profile, and even your Facebook Business Page if you have one.   Just as claiming your profile in Google Places and Bing Business Listings is very important in optimizing your local online presence, you will want to have a “Places” page on Facebook as well. Consider it your local business listing inside of the largest online social network!  Remember, as more and more people are searching within the social networks, above and beyond Google searches, it will be important to have a presence and be discoverable there as well.

hint: Facebook integrates with Bing for mapping, so you will need to first set-up your business listing in Bing before you can claim your Facebook Places Page.  You can also simply add your location to the Facebook Places mobile application if it doesn’t show up, but it is very important that you establish local business listings with all the major search engines and we highly recommend this as a first step.  It will allow you to be more thorough and detailed in your descriptions.

The Privacy Dilemma

A quick note on privacy as it relates to Facebook Places.  You will want to go into your Facebook privacy settings and make some changes here. Otherwise, any of your connections can tag you, or check you in to any place without your knowledge.  I don’t know about you but I’d prefer to do my own checking in thank you!

Below are a couple of privacy settings to consider with regard to Facebook Places

Currently I allow “friends only” to see my check-ins, but I may open this up to friends of friends.  Remember, one of the goals of leveraging social media is to increase your visibility, which can ultimately increase your influence.  As for allowing friends to check you in to places, I would recommend disabling that feature.  Obviously you always want to be careful about making your whereabouts known to strangers, so use caution whatever you decide.

Facebook Places Privacy Settings for Financial Advisors

Facebook Places Privacy Settings for Financial Advisors

Building your social media strategy based on where you live and work is the best way to begin establishing your online foundation.  You can read a recent article we wrote about the 7 Important Elements for Financial Advisor Social Media Strategy and learn more about why geography matters.  Optimizing your social presence for “local” will be a crucial factor in managing your online reputation.  Geo-location services such as Facebook Places may be able to help you in building relationships around common interests.  Keep in mind that Facebook Places is brand new and there are probably many kinks that need to be worked out (Facebook Places FAQs).  Over time, however, I believe it will be a very powerful platform that you will want to understand.

Your thoughts and comments about geo-location or the new Facebook Places?  Please share with us!


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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-08-27

by Stephanie Sammons on August 27, 2010 in Weekly Weblinks

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7 Important Elements for Financial Advisor Social Media Strategy

by Stephanie Sammons on August 21, 2010 in Social Media Marketing

Financial Advisor Social MediaIf you are a financial advisor, your social media foundation should be built upon the elements that are most relevant to growing your practice. Where are your clients geographically located?  Where do your clients spend time online?  What do your clients do professionally, or are they retired?  How have you discovered and captured new clients in the past?  These are all questions that need to be considered when developing your social media strategy.

Generic social media strategies just don’t work for financial advisors. Why?  You are not in the business of selling products to the masses.  A focus on building a small, but qualified online network of connections can potentially help you accelerate introductions and referrals into your business.  However, your social media participation simply cannot be all about business.  You must showcase your personality, passions, and interests, as well as your areas of expertise in order to truly attract the right following and potentially land new clients.

Here are the 7 most important elements that financial advisors should focus on when crafting a social media and blogging strategy:

  1. Your Online Reputation is Sacred – Credibility, authority, and trust are of the utmost importance in a world where we’ve experienced significant financial turmoil and industry scrutiny.   Have you taken steps to define your online brand?  Google your own name.  What do the results show about your reputation?  Are they positive, negative, neutral, or perhaps irrelevant?  Taking control of your personal brand and managing your online reputation on an ongoing basis will become the most important piece of growing your influence.  Social media and blogging can help you do this.   Your reputation is your lifeline!
  2. You Need a  Unique Thought Leadership Theme – You have a unique value proposition with regard to who you are and what you do for clients.  How can you best communicate this message to your target markets through blogging and social media?  What makes you different and what will make an ideal client want to trust you and work with you instead of  your competition?  Leveraging and highlighting your unique strengths, personality, background, and expertise in order to “tell your story” will help you attract new clients in the age of social media.  Having a professional blog site is a great way to do this!
  3. Focus on Introductions - With professional practitioners, referrals are the key to growing your practice. Your social media strategy should be centered around gaining new introductions through your existing personal and professional connections who are more likely to refer you to like-minded people.  Forget about trying to prospect the masses through social media and blogging.
  4. Leverage Existing Relationships- Did you realize that blogging and social media engagement can help with client retention?  Being visible and sharing your thought leadership on a consistent basis can help clients feel that you are not only on top of things, but you are accessible.  Placing a renewed focus on service, education, and communication through social media and blogging in order to build advocates out of your existing client-base is not only smart, it’s good business!
  5. Optimize for “Local” – Although you may have clients in various geographical locations, building your social media foundation around your current location and optimizing your online presence accordingly will enable you to be discovered by target clients in your local market. Start at home and build from there.
  6. Attract, Capture, and Cultivate Potential Clients – At the end of the day, a successful social media and blogging strategy is measured by one result; can you capture the attention of qualified leads and cultivate those relationships?   Your social media strategy should be an efficient and effective “system” for generating leads in your niche markets.  Otherwise you will waste significant time.  The exposure and reach you can achieve by focusing your efforts will result in new business over time.
  7. Online to Offline – Getting that first appointment or meeting with a potential client is the only way to have any opportunity to solidify a new relationship and capture assets.  Social media and blogging will help you build relationships in your target markets, but to win new clients in a high-trust environment, you will ultimately have to get face to face!

Generic social media strategies are simply not effective for financial advisors.  With millions of people searching, sharing, commenting, recommending, liking, tweeting, rating, reviewing, shopping, and learning online, you must spend time crafting your online social media and blogging strategy around the most relevant components to your business in order to achieve a return on your investment.

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