In the words of Bob Dylan; “The times they are a changing” and from an advisor marketing perspective, predictably so.   According to a recent report by Cerulli Associates published in their July, 2011 newsletter on Financial Advisor use of social networking.  The results?   Seventy percent of advisors are now utilizing social media as part of their practice marketing efforts compared to only 30% in 2010.  Their preferred choice of social networking sites?  Twitter.  The reasons for this dramatic turnaround in the utilization of social media are straightforward;  1) Investor adoption of social networking continues to grow, particularly among younger investors  2)  Proven social media monitoring and archiving technology is readily available and affordable  3) Advisors who were in the “early adapter” phase of social media marketing met with success in the form of lead generation and client acquisition.  The key going forward for Financial Advisors and the institutions that support them is to commit themselves to a “continuing education” program both as it relates to their firm’s social media policy and regulatory guidelines as well as to developing their competencies in how to utilize social networking, whether it be Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook or YouTube.   Site specific competency coupled with the knowledge of how to leverage social media by integrating it into a firm’s practice marketing mix can yield significant dividends. … Read More

Financial Advisors seeking to improve client communications and improve their practice development efforts may want to take a hard look at integrating web-enabled marketing tools into their firm’s marketing mix. Why?