SocialMediaforMutualFundsAndETFs

8/14/2019 SocialMediaforMutualFundsAndETFs

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Who Says You Cant?

5 Friction-less WaysInvestment Management MarketersCan Take Part in Social Media

May 5, 2009First revision: May 6, 2009


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Who Says You Cant? | 2009 Rock The Boat Marketing | Twitter.com/RockTheBoatMKTG2

Introduction

This was going to be just another post on my blog. Earlier in the day, Id skimmedthrough a handbook on Twitter for teachers and then I came across a whitepaper about

digital strategies for pharmaceutical companies. My instinct was to draft a post that

would seek to appeal to financial services marketers sense of shame: Really? Do we

really want to be the last industry that embraces the power of social media?

I say we because I worked for many years inside investmentmanagement companies and I work for them today asa consultant. I understand the forces that conspire daily tokeep financial services marketing from innovating or evenfast-following.

The financial crisis, which has required cutbacks onmarketing spending, staffing and even planning, is onereason that mutual fund companies, ETF providers and othermoney managers are conspicuous by their absence in social media.

Just about everybody else is wandering in. See the growing lists on:

Social Brand Index

A List of Social Media Examples

Ongoing List of Social Media Efforts from Banks,Credit Card, Financial Institutions and Lenders

Contents

Social Media Adoption by

Financial Advisors......6

1. Prepare Your Content To Go.....10

2. Think In Bite-Sizes...17

3. Embrace The Tweet22

4. Get Out and Meet Some People...27

5. Give A Picture, It Will Go Further..33The Return On Your Investment ...35

Your Next Step.36

About Rock The Boat Marketing37
http://www.rocktheboatmarketing.com/http://www.socialbrandindex.com/http://www.beingpeterkim.com/2008/09/ive-been-thinki.htmlhttp://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2008/06/23/ongoing-list-of-social-media-in-the-financial-industry/http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2008/06/23/ongoing-list-of-social-media-in-the-financial-industry/http://www.beingpeterkim.com/2008/09/ive-been-thinki.htmlhttp://www.socialbrandindex.com/http://www.rocktheboatmarketing.com/


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Investment Managers/Financial AdvisorsHave Similar Objectives

FinancialAdvisors

InvestmentManagers

Have suffered recent revenue losses Have some rebuilding to do in the eyesof their clients

Are focused on content for bothattracting new business and for servingthe information needs of their clients

Welcome it for use

with clients

Produce content for

advisors to useAre actively pursuing new and creativeways to grow their businesses online

The next move isyours, Marketing


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A Common Response

For many years, that was a valid reason for not taking part in what

consumer marketers were doing. We dont think that can continue to be anexcuse, for these three reasons at the very least:

> Across the board, Compliance officers are favoringcommunications that assume clientnot financial professionalonlyuse. While previously the concern might have been that theintermediary relationship would be threatened, todaysenvironment requires a reset: Are you effectively communicatingwith investors? Thats what supports most advisors needs most of

the time.> More than ever, the Web is commingling audiences, and financial

advisors are showing a preference for being where the investorsare. Investment management companies that develop anunderstanding of these new settings and how to engage will be atan advantage.

> Your customer base is in transition, with an unprecedentednumber of financial advisors preferring to become independents.

Asset management companies admit to knowing the least aboutindependent financial advisors yet some believe that distributionsuccess will turn on your better understanding whatadvisors now need. Using social media to engage with advisorsespecially the independents who are today the most activeonlineis a meaningful way to become better acquainted. Thecompany that bets it all on email blasts will be disappointed, webelieve.

Is it conceivable that you are imposing limitations on your marketing thathave the unintended effect of limiting your ability to be relevant to yourtarget audience?

But were focused on theintermediaries, not the end investor.

ITS DIFFERENTON THE WEB

Of course, you know that.

More specifically, the ability to use a

hyperlink to link from one Web pageto a prospectus offering on another

Web pageacknowledged by the

National Association of Securities

Dealers (now FINRA) more than 10

years agois nothing short of

liberating.

If your communicating has been

weighed down by rules that apply to

standalone print communications, the

best practice examples that follow

may open your eyes.


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Facebook page of Cathy Curtis, certified financial planner and investment advisor

Social Media Adoption by Financial AdvisorsEXAMPLE:

Facebook pages
http://bit.ly/WGgiEhttp://bit.ly/WGgiE


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Video blogs by Doug Simmang, financial advisor who also comments extensively on his site aboutwhat he believes to be the shortcomings of active investment management.

EXAMPLE

:Embedded videoon Web sites

Social Media Adoption by Financial Advisors
http://www.turtlecreekadvisors.com/videoblogs.htmlhttp://www.turtlecreekadvisors.com/videoblogs.html


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Adam Zuercher, certified financial planner and CPA, uses the presentationsharing platform, SlideShare.net, to distribute his presentation.

EXAMPLE:Presentations

uploaded to contentsharing sites

Social Media Adoption by Financial Advisors
http://www.slideshare.net/adamzuercher/the-key-to-success-in-the-stock-markethttp://www.slideshare.net/adamzuercher/the-key-to-success-in-the-stock-market


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9 Who Says You Cant? | 2009 Rock The Boat Marketing | Twitter.com/RockTheBoatMKTG

1. Prepare Your Content To Go

2. Think In Bite-Sizes

3. Embrace The Tweet

4. Get Out and Meet Some People

5. Give A Picture, It Will Go Further

Who Says You Cant?

5 Friction-less WaysInvestment Management Marketers Can Take Part in Social Media


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1. Prepare Your Content To Go

We understand your interest in investing in the brand value of your own domain. Our

fear is that you are at home, setting the table and lighting the candles for guests who

are not coming. You need to take your story on the road.

CONTENT: YOUR MOST

LEVERAGEABLE ASSET

More than ever before across allindustries, content is being used tomarket thought leadership,products and solutions. (For moreon this, see David Meerman Scotts

How Will You Create a WorldwideRave? ebook.)

Investment management marketersare fortunate to have deep, richcontent available. Its time toleverage its power and appeal tothe advantage of your brand and

your business. For specificrecommendations on howinvestment management marketerscan establish an online newsroom,see SwanDog Strategic MarketingsThe World Has Changed, Part 1.

Most asset management companies conscientiously andconsistently add to their Web sitesmarket commentaries, fundupdates, educational pieces. Still and all, the frequency of yourupdates is not likely to be able to compete with the prolificness ofSeekingAlpha.com or YahooFinance.com. Its a poor use of anadvisors time to check daily or even a few times a week to see ifyouve added anything to your site since his last visit.

We urge you to rethink sticky as a primary Web site goal. Instead,

make it possible for an advisor to show interest in your contentasevidenced by his arrival on your siteeven just once, sign up for afeed and receive your content updates on his own terms in his ownRSS feed reader.
http://www.davidmeermanscott.com/products_ebooks.htmhttp://www.davidmeermanscott.com/products_ebooks.htmhttp://www.swandogmarketing.com/content/view/51/38/http://www.swandogmarketing.com/content/view/51/38/http://www.davidmeermanscott.com/products_ebooks.htmhttp://www.davidmeermanscott.com/products_ebooks.htm


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RSS Feeds

Its a mystery why RSS feeds are not more common on asset manager sites.

Its not a technology hurdle. Your IT group could set you up with a feedby the end of this week. Your Compliance is unlikely to haveobjections.

And, advisors are known to like them and use them. Since kasina threeyears ago documented advisor interest, RSS as a means of takingcontrol over ones content consumption has become only more popular.
http://kasina.com/kasina/press/2006/Top10Advisor.pdfhttp://kasina.com/kasina/press/2006/Top10Advisor.pdf


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Example:Northern Trust offers a variety ofcontent feeds.
http://www.northerntrust.com/pws/jsp/display2.jsp?XML=pages/nt/0802/rssFeedList.xml&TYPE=interiorhttp://www.northerntrust.com/pws/jsp/display2.jsp?XML=pages/nt/0802/rssFeedList.xml&TYPE=interior


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Example:T. Rowe Price uses RSS to deliver customized daily prices.
http://individual.troweprice.com/public/Retail/Mutual-Funds/Daily-Priceshttp://individual.troweprice.com/public/Retail/Mutual-Funds/Daily-Prices


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Example:iGoogle Gadget

RSS can be employed in other ways, too.

In mutual funds early Web days, the daily NAVs were by far the sites most visited pages. Today, of course,fund prices can be accessed on sites that aggregate all funds prices. American Century offers this Googlegadget for users of iGoogle home pages. Users can customize the list of funds they want to track, add thegadget to their home page and from then on see their daily prices in context with everything else on their

customizable iGoogle page.

This is the only mutual fund-related Google gadget offered by an investment manager.

Above: How iGoogle offers the gadget. Tothe right is how the customized list of fundswould appear on an iGoogle page.
http://www.google.com/ig/directory?type=gadgets&url=hosting.gmodules.com/ig/gadgets/file/105833732012639751084/dailyprices.xmlhttp://www.google.com/ig/directory?type=gadgets&url=hosting.gmodules.com/ig/gadgets/file/105833732012639751084/dailyprices.xmlhttp://www.google.com/ighttp://www.google.com/ighttp://www.google.com/ig/directory?type=gadgets&url=hosting.gmodules.com/ig/gadgets/file/105833732012639751084/dailyprices.xmlhttp://www.google.com/ig/directory?type=gadgets&url=hosting.gmodules.com/ig/gadgets/file/105833732012639751084/dailyprices.xml


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Wells Fargo Advantage Funds makes its podcasts available off its sitebut broadens the offer bydelivering them through iTunes, too.

Example:Podcasts
http://www.wellsfargoadvantagefunds.com/wfweb/wf/splash/ittr.jsphttp://www.wellsfargoadvantagefunds.com/wfweb/wf/splash/ittr.jsp


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A one-time download of this iShares widgetenables users to track leading and trailing indexeson their desktop.

This customizable Fidelity widget isthe only mutual fund-related widgetavailable from Windows Live. Its alsodownloadable from Fidelitys site.

Examples:Widgets
http://us.ishares.com/tools/tools.htm?toolId=100003108widgetshttp://gallery.live.com/search.aspx?q=mutual%20fundshttp://gallery.live.com/search.aspx?q=mutual%20fundshttp://us.ishares.com/tools/tools.htm?toolId=100003108widgets


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2. Think in Bite-Sizes

The rest of the world may never know the depth of content locked up and hidden inAdobe Acrobat files on investment management Web sites. But you doand wechallenge you to find ways to better leverage it.

An 18-page Adobe Acrobat document on the marketsrepresents a significant amount of work by high-priced

talent. The writer did his or her job by providing the content,its Marketings job to assure the contents broadestdistribution. You can do more than just add its headline tothe top of a list of headlines on a single page on your Website.

Enter the blog, by now a common content form on most

Web sites but rare on an asset management site. It tookVanguard until this year to launch one and, like most moneymanager blogs, the Vanguard blog cant accept comments.In fact, broad awareness that Compliance would neverallow us to publish comments may have discouragedconsideration of blogs altogetherthat and the awarenessthat blogs require a steady stream of content.

Whether you atom-ize your content or not,you can expect others will. This is a natural

extension of what weve known thatsalespeople have done in the field foryearswholesalers rarely show every slidein the deck.

Online, though, the content is in the publicdomain and you can exert no control overthe pieces that people (financial advisors,

investors, the media) will extract.What do you know about how your content isbeing used online? Thats where you start,as monitoring is among Marketingsresponsibilities. Once you know, what canyou learn from how real live people areinteracting with it?

How your audience uses what you createcan be a powerful input to continuouslyimproving the relevance of your work. Acontemporary marketing communicationseffort needs to have a content strategy thatconsiders post-delivery issues, opportunitiesand a feedback loop.


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We call your attention to Navelliers MarketObservations blog as a best practice example ofhow to unpack some of the content that today ispublished in one big dense package under a single,thin headline.

As shown in this example, each blog post is no morethan a few paragraphs long. The narrative explains asingle chart that can be expanded for viewing orprinting.

Note that the blog accepts comments, encouragessocial bookmarking and can be followed via RSS.

Example:The Power of a Single Chart
http://blogs.navellier.com/market_observationshttp://blogs.navellier.com/market_observationshttp://blogs.navellier.com/market_observationshttp://blogs.navellier.com/market_observations


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Heres the tweet promoting the slide.

A self-described aspiring trader uploaded a singleGrantham, Mayo slide to Scribd, then embedded it ascontent for his siteand then used Twitter to announceits availability.

Example:The Re-Use of a Single Slide
http://twitter.com/VariantPrcption/statuses/1583125663http://www.variant-perception.com/2009/04/21/grantham-mayo-van-otterloo-forecast/http://www.variant-perception.com/2009/04/21/grantham-mayo-van-otterloo-forecast/http://twitter.com/VariantPrcption/statuses/1583125663


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Examples:Advisors Use of Content

Advisors who commit to Twitter or maintain their own blogs need valuable content. These are just a fewexamples of the content theyre creating.

What did advisors think of your due diligence meeting? Previously you might have strained to read theirhandwriting on a survey returned on their way out the door. Now theyre using it as a source of content fortheir blog. And, the example below suggests that some portfolio updates are actually getting read and quoted!

Above left: A recent Freedom Financial Solutions post published Tony Hixons notes from a Selected American Sharesmeeting. Above right: Adam Zuercher quoted a Selected fund update.
http://blog.ffsllc.com/2009/04/notes-from-due-diligence-meeting.htmlhttp://blog.ffsllc.com/2009/03/when-youre-goin-through-hell.htmlhttp://blog.ffsllc.com/2009/03/when-youre-goin-through-hell.htmlhttp://blog.ffsllc.com/2009/04/notes-from-due-diligence-meeting.html


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From our perspective, Vanguard Investments is by far the social media leader in the investment managementspace. Notice how Vanguard uses social media to collect and publish feedback (# of users and * assigned) onits News & Media content.

Web analytics and online monitoring are other, standard sources of feedback and insights.

Example:Transparent Content Consumption
https://personal.vanguard.com/us/newshttps://personal.vanguard.com/us/news


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#1 and #2 leads us, naturally, to the

microblogging phenom: Twitter.

3. Embrace the Tweet

THE SEC AND TWITTER

The SEC has had a Twitter accountsince August 2008 when then-Chairman Christopher Coxannounced, The SEC has to be

just as functional, and just as

technologically adept as anycorporation today.

Yes, people are using Twitter to let others know when theyll beshampooing their hair. That is what it is. There are businessreasons for you to explore Twitter: For visibility, to establish

your authority and relevance with the content you distribute, togather customer/prospects insights, to gain competitiveintelligence, to develop sales leads, etcetera.

Asset managers today are the only piece of investment productdistribution not represented on Twitter. Financial advisors areout there, shareholders are out there, the media is out there.

Everyone on Twitter today is still learning about its power, evenas every day brings more Twitter-based applications launchedin the beta stage. We implore you to join the learners. Peoplewho dismiss Twitter remind us of those who dismissed theInternet 10 to 15 years ago. At that time, the Internet wasbelieved to have value for only geeks, not seniors, not theaffluent, certainly not top producers.
http://twitter.com/sec_investor_edhttp://twitter.com/sec_investor_ed


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Example:Your Content Is Circulating,

With or Without Your InvolvementWhile marketers toil over advisor-only communications they intend to make available to a limited number offavored distribution partners, others are interacting with pieces of your public-domain content in the context ofthe rest of their lives. Thats how Twitter works.

Pimco is a ready example because its one of the most tweeted-about money managers, according toour monitoring. The tweet shown below is an example of a random line out there in the Twitterverse, a search

result for Pimco.

In contrast, asset managers could use Twitter as another, more effective way to get the word out. When a

portfolio manager or investment strategist is scheduled to appear on CNBC, dont you today send a hasty alertto your Sales force? This is the same idea. The next step would be to follow up the appearance with a value-packed line of what was said, with a link to your site for more information.

Theres no fighting thisand why would you want to stop people talking about your company? We encourageinvestment management marketers to come to the conclusion that other brands have: The conversation ishappening with or without you, its time to take part. To date, AdvisorShares is the only investmentmanagement firm weve been able to find active on Twitter. Shortly after we published this eBook on May 5,

we discovered that Pimco has been using Twitter since March 31. Its handle:PIMCO_tweets.

Heres an example of a chocolate chip cookie-eating entrepreneur publishing what he found tobe a highlight of a Pimco appearance onCNBC.
http://twitter.com/jamie_thompson/statuses/1533249177http://twitter.com/AdvisorShareshttp://www.twitter.com/PIMCO_tweetshttp://www.twitter.com/PIMCO_tweetshttp://twitter.com/AdvisorShareshttp://twitter.com/jamie_thompson/statuses/1533249177


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Above left: Heres an example of a random tweet onApril 16, 2009, about Eaton Vance. A click on the URL(shortened to save characters) shows that the link wentto content on Zacks.com about Eaton Vances funds.

Example:Redistributed Fund Company Content
http://twitter.com/ZacksInvestment/statuses/1537376286http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/19221/Top+Eaton+Vance+Funds+-+Mutual+Fund+Educationhttp://www.zacks.com/stock/news/19221/Top+Eaton+Vance+Funds+-+Mutual+Fund+Educationhttp://twitter.com/ZacksInvestment/statuses/1537376286


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Tweeting Within Your Limits

The prospectus offering requirement is something asset management marketers cannever get too far away from. Have you thought that Twitter was out of bounds for

you because the 140-character tweet wouldnt accommodate a message and a

prospectus offering?

We are not and never have been Compliance officers, but we know and like some. According to ourCompliance friends, you should be able to tweet for the very reason that asset managers can create onlinebanner ads without a prospectus offering (in many cases, depending on the actual message): Because an ador a tweet is a link away from the prospectus offering on your site.

You can do this. Its just a matter of organizing for it in the same way that your company prepared tocommunicate using a Web site. You may get more elaborate as you get more experience but start by givingone or two trusted marketing communications staffers the responsibility of creating the tweet, getting it

approved, sending it and archiving it, all according to FINRA record-keeping rules.

This is what financial advisorsmany of whom lack the infrastructure that you havedo in order to comply. Itsthat important for advisors to be engaging online.

All brands that use Twitter need to exercise caution. As communicators subject to regulation, caution issomething you are accustomed to building into the way you approach all communications. It should be acommunication strength of yours, not a handicap.

To repeat: You can do this.


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Twitter Quick-Start

We could do hours on what Twitter can do for you and how, but heres our quick-startrecommendation:

1. At the minimum, start listening. Listen to whats being said about yourbrand and your products. Search.twitter.com for your companys name,people, product categories. Your search will produce results and offer

you an RSS feed to continue to follow.

For example: Our monitoring seeking accounts created by the top 25fund companies has identified two companiesFidelity Investments andAmerican Centurythat have created accounts but posted no updates.

2. Next, establish an account so you can start following financial advisors,

publications, whoever you care about. Remember that this is a businessaccount and that who you will follow will be public.

3. Once youre organized to start talking, why not start out tweeting aboutthe availability of your content as you produce iteach commentary,presentation, etc.? Call out a specific insightdont make the mistakethat so many Web sites make in their headlines (i.e., First quarter

commentary now available.)

Based on our monitoring as of this date, only AdvisorShares andPIMCO_tweets are posting updates to their Twitter accounts.

Your tweet will need to be written for impact so use your 140 characterseconomically. Youll get the hang of it and develop a certain voice onceyou start tracking which tweets get the most pick-up and do the best job of

driving traffic to your site and interest in your company. How will youknow? Turn to your Web analytics for real-time insights.
http://www.search.twitter.com/http://www.twitter.com/FidelityInvhttp://www.twitter.com/AmericanCenturyhttp://twitter.com/AdvisorShareshttp://www.twitter.com/PIMCO_tweetshttp://www.twitter.com/PIMCO_tweetshttp://twitter.com/AdvisorShareshttp://www.twitter.com/AmericanCenturyhttp://www.twitter.com/FidelityInvhttp://www.search.twitter.com/


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4. Get Out and Meet Some People

The more you know about your customer, the better you can serve them. And yet,

previously, marketing teams of intermediary-distributed mutual funds had little direct

access to financial advisors. There was the rare travel with wholesalers and the shared

subscriptions to Investment Newsand Registered Rep. But, mostly marketing

mandates were based on information trickled down from the field.Thanks to the Webto financial Web sites and now to Twitterand other social networksthe financial services marketerwho wants to understand the customer has a direct pipeline.Whats more, Marketing is in a position to take the lead andhelp Sales better understand the independent advisorcustomer and prospect.

In a recent blog post, we discussed the influence of some ofthe well-followed advisors on Twitter and suggested that theyare the new corner office producers.

Advisors who retweet (translation: forward a Twitter post) orotherwise direct his/her followers to your content are linking

their personal brands to yours. Its tantamount to anendorsement.

The value of a referral is something well known in thefinancial advisor world. We mention it here because thebetter you know your audience, the more relevant yourcontent, the more likely you are to catch the attention of

influential online advisors. Doesnt that beat hoping someonewill forward an email?

MIND THE

TWITTER PROTOCOL

There is a protocol to be followed

when seeking to join any community,and thats true online across-the-board in the Twitterverse andespecially when youre hoping tofollow customers and prospects.Proceed with care. The Twitter wikilists several resources for

establishing a Twitter identity.
http://www.rocktheboatmarketing.com/blog/corner-office-advisor-live-and-well-onlinehttp://twitter.pbwiki.com/http://twitter.pbwiki.com/http://www.rocktheboatmarketing.com/blog/corner-office-advisor-live-and-well-online


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Where Are Advisors Online?

Facebook Financial advisors are known to have Facebook pages, personal pagesat the very least. A search for financial advisor brand pages showssparse results, although thats likely to change.

Financial Advisor Forum A new but growing moderated forum of the most active (online)independent advisors, founded by advisor Russ Thornton.

LinkedIn LinkedIn is the leading business networking site. Advisors are showingan interest in networking with known connections, as well as in newbusiness development.

Participation as of May 4, 2009Total U.S. current Financial Advisors: 35,750Total U.S. current Financial Planners: 6,002 Smith Barney: 2,550 current financial advisor names Wachovia: 1,750 current financial advisor names Raymond James: 576 current financial advisor names

Twitter Find advisors to follow using:Twellow.comTwibs.comWeFollow.com

Publishers will tell you in aggregate where financial advisors are, but these social networks offer a way to get to

know (follow) individuals.
http://www.facebook.com/http://fintech.ning.com/http://www.linkedin.com/http://www.twitter.com/http://www.twellow.com/http://www.twibs.com/login.phphttp://wefollow.com/http://wefollow.com/http://www.twibs.com/login.phphttp://www.twellow.com/http://www.twitter.com/http://www.linkedin.com/http://fintech.ning.com/http://www.facebook.com/


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A Side Note

In investment management companies across the country, there are Sales and

Marketing people who are convinced that financial advisors wont wear t-shirts.

We submit this T-shirt from the popular and well-regarded Behavior Gap as evidence to the contrary.The Behavior Gap has developed brand fans among

financial advisors, who are clamoring for this shirt andhave used Twitter to alert their followers when the shirtarrives!

Your challenge:How to spend less time justifying the case foraccelerating an investment in logowear and more time

working on creating brand fans. What is it about yourbusiness value proposition that will engage advisorsas Behavior Gap (the thought leadership, the messagedelivery and the t-shirt) has?
http:///reader/full/www.behaviorgap.comhttp:///reader/full/www.behaviorgap.com


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WebSite/ Blog Tw itter Handle

Advice America A developer of financial planning tools and other applicationsfor advisors. Gary Kinghorn is director of marketing andproduct management.

Advice America blog Twitter.com/gkinghorn

Advisor Products(Andrew Gluck)

CEO of marketing/technology company serving independentinvestment advisors, has been sponsoring a Financial CrisisWebinar series

AdvisorProducts.com Twitter.com/agluck

David Glickman Former strategist and marketer with Fidelity Investments,now helps financial advisors with their retirement income-related issues

Retirement IncomePractice Management

Twitter.com/David_Glickman

IFA Life The leading social networking Web site for professionalfinancial advisers and Life Planners worldwide, based inEngland. Created the Twitter Directory of Financial Planners.

IFA Life Twitter.com/IFALife

Kristen Luke Principal of Wealth Management Marketing, a firm dedicatedto providing marketing advice and support for financialadvisors.

Financial MarketingWire

Twitter.com/KristenLuke

Lawain McNeil President and chief marketing officer, The Advisor Lab.Hosts Social Media Bootcamp for advisors onBlogTalkRadio.

AdvisorBlogger.com Twitter.com/lawain

Mark Astarita Issues, news and commentary on the law of the financialmarkets

SECLaw.com - TheSecurities Law Blog

Twitter.com/astarita

Elmer Rich III Principal of Rich and Co., providing consulting and coachingto RIAs and TPAs

Getting Rich--Growth Twitter.com/ElmerRichIII

Susan Weiner A CFA who helps financial professionals increase the impactof their writing on clients and prospects

Investment Writing Twitter.com/susanweiner

Bill Winterberg Technology specialist for financial planners FP Pad Twitter.com/billwinterberg

Advisor SupportHeres a sampling of active Twitter users whose work includes supporting advisors in some way.
http://fppad.com/http://aablog.typepad.com/aablog/http://www.twitter.com/gkinghornhttp://www.advisorproducts.com/webinars.aspxhttp://www.advisorproducts.com/webinars.aspxhttp://www.advisorproducts.com/http://www.twitter.com/agluckhttp://ripmblog.blogspot.com/http://ripmblog.blogspot.com/http://twitter.com/David_Glickmanhttp://www.ifalife.com/index.asp?PageID=1&LinkID=7http://www.ifalife.com/http://www.twitter.com/ifalifehttp://kristenluke.wordpress.com/http://kristenluke.wordpress.com/http://twitter.com/KristenLukehttp://www.blogtalkradio.com/advisorbloggerhttp://www.advisorblogger.com/http://www.twitter.com/lawainhttp://seclaw.blogspot.com/http://seclaw.blogspot.com/http://twitter.com/astaritahttp://www.richandco.com/blog/http://www.twitter.com/elmerrichIIIhttp://investmentwriting.blogspot.com/http://twitter.com/susanweinerhttp://fppad.com/http://www.twitter.com/billwinterberghttp://www.twitter.com/billwinterberghttp://fppad.com/http://twitter.com/susanweinerhttp://investmentwriting.blogspot.com/http://www.twitter.com/elmerrichIIIhttp://www.richandco.com/blog/http://twitter.com/astaritahttp://seclaw.blogspot.com/http://seclaw.blogspot.com/http://www.twitter.com/lawainhttp://www.advisorblogger.com/http://www.blogtalkradio.com/advisorbloggerhttp://twitter.com/KristenLukehttp://kristenluke.wordpress.com/http://kristenluke.wordpress.com/http://www.twitter.com/ifalifehttp://www.ifalife.com/http://www.ifalife.com/index.asp?PageID=1&LinkID=7http://twitter.com/David_Glickmanhttp://ripmblog.blogspot.com/http://ripmblog.blogspot.com/http://www.twitter.com/agluckhttp://www.advisorproducts.com/http://www.advisorproducts.com/webinars.aspxhttp://www.advisorproducts.com/webinars.aspxhttp://www.twitter.com/gkinghornhttp://aablog.typepad.com/aablog/


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Publisher Name Twitter Account Description Twitter Handle

AdvisorPerspectives Online publication for advisors with high andultra high net worth clients

Twitter.com/AdvPerspectives

ETF Trends Online publication tracking the ETF market Twitter.com/ETFTrends

Financial Planningmagazine

Marion Asnes, editor-in-chief Twitter.com/marionasnes

FundMojo FundMojo.com provides investors andfinancial advisors with deep financialintelligence through systematic datacollection, correlation and analysis

Twitter.com/FundMojo

MorningstarAdvisor Leslie Banks, Director of Marketing,Financial Communications

Twitter.com/lesliebanks

RIANewsFocus Human-filtered news for RIAs Twitter.com/RIANewsFocus

SeekingAlpha Stock market news from SeekingAlpha.com,a very active market site characterized bythe level of engagement of its users (see thearticles comments). In April 2009 introducedits own Follow/Followers list capability.

Twitter.com/MarketCurrents

StockTwits An open, community-powered investmentidea and information service. You can think

of it as Bloomberg for the little guy and gal.

Twitter.com/Stocktwits

Heres a sampling of active Twitter users representing media properties offline and online.

Media On Twitter
http://www.twitter.com/advperspectiveshttp://www.twitter.com/etftrendshttp://www.twitter.com/marionasneshttp://www.twitter.com/fundmojohttp://www.twitter.com/lesliebankshttp://www.twitter.com/rianewsfocushttp://www.twitter.com/marketcurrentshttp://www.twitter.com/stocktwitshttp://www.twitter.com/stocktwitshttp://www.twitter.com/marketcurrentshttp://www.twitter.com/rianewsfocushttp://www.twitter.com/lesliebankshttp://www.twitter.com/fundmojohttp://www.twitter.com/marionasneshttp://www.twitter.com/etftrendshttp://www.twitter.com/advperspectives


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5. Give a PictureIt WillLast Longer and Go Further

Credible sources tell us that nobody says that anymore. Maybe it has something to

do with the ubiquitousness of camera phones

Thats too bad, because the saying had a point that we will now try to co-opt: Drowning in a sea of words(HTML text) online, your audience today is showing a true preference for pictures. They tend to spend moretime with a good picturespecifically visualizations of complex, often data-based stories and they like toforward the pictures on.

The next page shows some popular visualizations, which financial advisors have enthusiasticallyexchanged with their Twitter friends and followers this year. Weve written about visualizations previouslyand cite these here as examples of financial communications that are resonating.

What do pictures have to do with social media? They are an underexplored content form that has viral

power you can tap as a means of building your brand, meeting new people and creating content thatadvisors rely on and turn to, repeatedly. In other words, pictures last longer and go further, maybe than yourwords.

Despite the embarrassment of data riches in your world, investment management marketers produce a fargreater volume of text-based financial communications. We believe its time to redirect some of that effortinto creating pictures. Count on your audience and their audiences to be receptive.

Take a picture, it w ill last longer.
http://www.rocktheboatmarketing.com/blog/fresh-ways-explain-financial-crisishttp://www.rocktheboatmarketing.com/blog/fresh-ways-explain-financial-crisis


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Visual guides to the Financial Crisis

Examples: Data-based Visualizations

The New York Timesgeography of a recession

How Far Have We Fallen?A comparison of bear markets
http://www.wallstats.com/blog/http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/03/03/us/20090303_LEONHARDT.htmlhttp://michaelcovel.com/images/bear-markets-comparison-xlrg.gifhttp://michaelcovel.com/images/bear-markets-comparison-xlrg.gifhttp://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/03/03/us/20090303_LEONHARDT.htmlhttp://www.wallstats.com/blog/


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The Return On Your Investment

What exactly will our five suggestions do for you?

While ROI typically stands for return on investment, some socialmedia enthusiasts talk about a different ROI: the Risk of Ignoring.

Simply put here, we recommend that you evaluate the return onyour social media participation in terms of what you learn fromengaging.

In order to know that, youre going to need some analytics inplace. Think of the engaging and learning as just two parts of acommunications cycle that also includesmeeting/sharing/reacting/tweaking/testing/refining. None of whichcan be done if youre not on top of what youre going to measureand how.

Youll need analytics capability for what happens on your owndomain and youll need to take advantage of other systems thatare available for tracking and monitoring your content andmessaging as its distributed.

To say much more would be to go beyond the scope of this

document, but we urge you not to give measurement short shrift.The analytics that can be harnessed to evaluate youreffectiveness are a significant piece of the enthusiasm thatsurrounds social media.

UH, IS IT TOO LATE

TO MENTION

Social media participation alone will

not compel a financial advisor todistribute your investment products.

What you can expect: You will havemore information on whats beingsaid about your brand and yourcompetitors, you will deepen your

understanding of what contentadvisors value, you will be therewhen needs are being expressed.

Your listening should lead to betterbrand positioning, inspired productdesign and management, a more

real-time CRM, more relevantmarketing and better informed salesinteractions.


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What would you do if you knew you could not fail? Thats the luxury of many

businesses in non-regulated industries, some of whom are blazing the trail in social

media today. Theyre to be admired and envied at the same time.

Weve focused this report on friction-less ideas as a means to get the investment management marketerthinking about some tactical social media possibilities for brand presence, customer engagement, new

customer acquisition, using content to marketing and overall positioning the company as committed to timely,relevant communicating. We know the limits you operate within and wouldnt want you not to try becauseregulation imposes higher hurdles.

Please dont forward this to your Web team to w ork on.Its an unrealistic expectation to ask the Web team to lasso something that encompasses all aspects ofmarketing (branding, marketing communications, product marketing, public relations, customer service,

research) and marketing systems (customer relationship management, email marketing, Web analytics).

As with anything, your best prospects for success is to develop a strategy that considers your firmsopportunities and challenges, capabilities, resourcesand constitutional fortitude for planning to forgerelationships and to do business in a dramatically different, contemporary way.

Even if its a baby step, the next step is to take one.

Your Next Step


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About Rock The Boat Marketing

Rock The Boat Marketing, LLC is a consulting boutique specializing in digital marketingstrategy for financial services companies.

Founder and Principal Pat Allens financial services experience is a blend of marketingand publishing. It uniquely qualifies her, with her network of hard-working professionals, tohelp financial services companies draft and execute on digital strategies.

Pats resume includes several years in senior marketing and communications positionswith Chicagos great investment management companies (Claymore Securities as

Director of Marketing, Calamos Investments as Director of Web Channel Development,Morgan Stanley/Van Kampen Investments as Director of Marketing Communications andScudder Funds/Kemper Funds as Director of Electronic Communications) and severalyears in senior editorial and publishing roles for retail bankings leading professionalservices organizations (BAI as Director of the Publishing channel and the U.S. League ofSavings Institutions as Senior Editor). Shes been consulting with investment managersand associations intermittently since 2001.

Since 1996, when she led a wee team in the development of the intermediary industrys

first Web site (Kemper.com), Pats passion has been directed toward the speed-to-marketcommunications advantage and measurability of digital media.

Services include: Digital strategy consulting Content strategy consulting CRM/database marketing Web analytics Social media Training

27475 Ferry RoadWarrenville, IL 60555(630) 717-2899

www.rocktheboatmarketing.com

New address effective August 1, 2009

Rock The Boat Marketing30 S. Wacker Ave.Suite 2200Chicago, IL 60606

What do people do when

the boats rocking?

They rethink the positionstheyve taken.

Would you like to be notified when the next Rock The Boat Marketing ebook isavailable? Please send an email to info@rocktheboatmarketing to subscribe.

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