An adviser hot button: Social networking
Tuesday's InvestmentNews webcast, Using Social Media to Market Your Practice, broke all our attendance records. I knew — and Davis Janowski, our technology reporter, keeps reminding me — that social networking is important for advisers, but frankly I was surprised by the overwhelming interest in the subject.
As you notice from our e-mails, InvestmentNews conducts webcasts on a variety of timely investment and practice management topics about twice a month. I generally moderate the webcasts (fulfilling my Larry King/radio talk-show-host fantasy) with other members of the InvestmentNews editorial team.
I invite you to take part in our next one on July 28, Mid-Year Outlook, which has been accepted by the CFP Board for one continuing-education credit and by the Investment Management Consultants Association for one non-IMCA certified investment management analyst credit.
But let me tell you about yesterday’s webcast, Using Social Media to Market Your Practice, which broke all our attendance records (the complete webcast is being archived and will be available late Wednesday if you click on that link).
The webcast attracted an audience of more than 1,250 advisers — more than attended our webcast assessing the stock market collapse in the fall — composed of compliance professionals and others interested in the topic.
I knew — and Davis Janowski, our technology reporter, keeps reminding me — that social networking is important for advisers, but frankly I was surprised by the overwhelming interest in the subject.
Our three panelists gave insights into social networking from different perspectives. Consultant Kip Gregory gave us an overview of the social networking landscape — LinkedIn, Facebook, Xing, Ning and Twitter, to name just a few — and then offered some practical ways to use the sites as a prospecting tool.
Ted Feight, an adviser in Lansing, Mich., discussed how he has successfully incorporated Twitter into his practice and how it has paid rewards in new clients and greater visibility.
“I’ve been through four revolutions in the advice business,” he said, “and this is the latest one. If advisers don’t get on board, they’ll be left behind.”
Our third panelist, Dan Bernstein of MarketCounsel, a legal, compliance and practice management advisory firm for financial advisers in Englewood, N.J., gave real-world do’s and don’t’s for RIAs and registered reps who have to deal with slightly different sets of rules.
The discussion elicited about 200 questions from the audience. Obviously, we couldn’t get to all of them in the allotted time of one hour.
It’s clear that in addressing the issue of social networking we’ve touched a nerve among advisers. We want to go deeper into the issue and provide you with more, but to do that we need your help.
Here’s what you can do to give us feedback:
First, feel free to comment below.
Next, go to our Adviser Community and engage in a discussion with other advisers in our Social Networking Webcast forum.
Also, join the InvestmentNews group on LinkedIn.
Finally, if you’d like more specific help, Kip Gregory can provide you with some step-by-step ways to get started.
Let’s work on social networking together and see where it leads.
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