A visual guide on the 'why, what & how' of social media marketing for professionals in financial advisory, insurance, accounting & real estate

1. Top 10
Social Media
Answers
For professionals in financial advisory, insurance, accounting & real estate
A brief guide on the why, what & how of social media marketing
InvestmentPal March 2013

2. Content
1 Why does social media matter? ----------------------------- 3
2 Is there a ROI? ------------------------------------------------------ 6
3 What are some success stories? ----------------------------- 9
4 What are my peers doing with it? --------------------------- 13
5 How do I use it? ---------------------------------------------------- 16
6 How can I attract more readers to my posts ? --------- 19
7 How can I do more with less time? ------------------------- 23
8 How does search engine optimization (SEO) fit in? --- 26
9 What about compliance? ------------------------------------- 30
10 Who can help? ----------------------------------------------------- 34
InvestmentPal 2 March 2013

3. Why does social
1 media matter?
InvestmentPal 3 March 2013

4. Your clients & prospects use social media regularly
1BN +
users
of U.S. adults with an
investment account
500M +
87% visit social networks
regularly
Forrester Research, 2012
“The Social Advisor: Using Social Media
Effectively in Wealth Management”, Accenture
200M +
InvestmentPal 4 March 2013

5. Social media influence finance-related decisions
of affluent investors use social media
34% specifically for personal finance &
investing purposes
reallocated investments,
nearly
70% started or changed investment
provider relationships based on
social media content
“Social Media’s Impact on Personal Finance & Investing”
Cogent Research, Feb 2013
InvestmentPal 5 March 2013

6. 2 Is there a ROI?
InvestmentPal 6 March 2013

7. Social media is producing tangible business results
believe social media has
57% significant future potential
for their business
39% report social media has value for
their business
21% of financial professionals report tangible
business results from social media
“Financial Professionals Social Media Adoption Study”
American Century Investment, Q1 2012
InvestmentPal 7 March 2013

8. Advisors are winning new clients from social media
40% won new clients through
Facebook
25% won new clients through Linkedin
21% of financial advisors won new clients
through Twitter
“Closing the Gap: How Tech Savvy Advisors can Regain Investor Trust”
Accenture, March 2013
InvestmentPal 8 March 2013

9. What are some
3 success stories?
InvestmentPal 9 March 2013

10. 10 notable client wins
1 David Armstrong (wealth manager) wins $3M account from a
prospect who followed his firm’s Facebook Page for 8 months
“A Look Inside LPL Financial’s Social Media Strategy”, Mike Byrnes, Financial-
Planning.com
2 Mark Scribner (wealth advisor) wins a $2.6M 401K rollover
account from an acquaintance whom he noticed had
checked out his Linkedin profile
“For This Financial Adviser, Tweets Are Good Business”, Jennifer Cummings,
WSJ Blogs
3 Paul Hees (financial advisor) wins two IRA accounts after
learning about prospect’s job switch via Linkedin
“Social media tricks to help advisers get new clients”, Jennifer Cummings,
Reuters
InvestmentPal 10 March 2013

11. 10 notable client wins
4 Kerry Wilson (insurance professional) wins a new policy
resulting from a “personal roadside assistance” photo posted
on his Facebook page by a client’s sister
“Kerry Wilson Q&A”, Jeff Bair, Foremost Insurance Group
5 Jim DeWitt (insurance professional) wins 3 clients from a single
story he shared on Facebook
“How an insurance agency generates business using Facebook”, Michael
Reynolds
6 Jim Bourke’s (CPA) knowledge of prospects’ car racing
passion from their Linkedin updates helps win new client
“Social Media: From a CPA Firm’s Perspective” Youtube, Bob Scott, Editor, The
Progressive Accountant
7 Sharon Gubinsky (CPA) wins significant client resulting from
referral of another CPA who follows her on Twitter
“CPA stories on the Social Front” Youtube, Bill Sheridian, MACPA
InvestmentPal 11 March 2013

12. 10 notable client wins
8 Tim Ayres (realtor) wins 3 clients resulting from “a single tweet”
“Tim Ayres Interview”, Chris Burdge, bWEST Interactive Blog
9 Joy Moore (realtor) closes a transaction for her daughter’s
friend after joining Facebook and connecting not only with
friends & family but also with her daughter’s friends
“A Facebook Real Estate Success Story”, Stephanie Pfeffer, The Real Estate
Beat
10 Jo Lay (realtor) closes 2 outgoing referrals after learning about
the passing of a friend’s aunt from Facebook and a need to
sell 2 homes
“Jo Lay Interview” Youtube, Sarah Poston, Coldwell Banker King Thompson
InvestmentPal 12 March 2013

13. What are my peers
4 doing with it?
InvestmentPal 13 March 2013

14. Your peers use social media for business regularly
of financial professionals own
89% a business or personal social
media profile or account
of financial advisors use
58% social media for business at
least several times a week
“Financial Professionals Social Media Adoption Study”
American Century Investment, Q1 2012
InvestmentPal 14 March 2013

15. Top use of social media by financial professionals
1 Read expert commentary insights
2 Post commentary
3 Monitor industry / market news
4 Share relevant news /content with clients
5 Build brand / promote business
6 Research people
“Financial Professionals Social Media Adoption Study”
American Century Investment, Q1 2012
InvestmentPal 15 March 2013

16. 5 How do I use it?
InvestmentPal 16 March 2013

17. 4 steps: Connect, listen, share & measure
Connect with friends, clients &
1 prospects on social networks
Monitor expert commentaries
2 & industry news
Curate, create & share
3 relevant content
4 Measure activity & response
InvestmentPal 17 March 2013

18. 3 levers: Network size, sharing freq., content quality
Social media marketing
Friends
Curate, Re-share ‘Friends Prospects
Clients
create & Reply of
Prospects
share Like friends’
Size of Size of
Content Prospect
Sharing your friends’
X X response X = contact
frequency social social
rate frequency
networks networks
Social media equation
InvestmentPal 18 March 2013

19. How can I attract more
6 readers to my posts?
InvestmentPal 19 March 2013

20. Craft titles that draw both humans & search engines
Titles on Google Page 1
1 Concise
2 Clear benefits
3 Focus attention
- numbered lists
- action verbs
- why what when how
- ask a question
4 Engage emotions
5 SEO keywords
Google - Mar 19 2013
(1) Brock & Associates (2) Dennis Volz, State Farm
InvestmentPal 20 (3) Bader Martin, CPAs & Business Advisors
(4) Jay Calafiore, Mortgage Architects

21. A picture is worth a thousand words
Visuals increased persuasiveness by
“Use of digital visual media in presentations”
University of Minesota & 3M
43%
1 Rich colors
2 Photographs
3 Charts
4 Black & white
(1) Sinclair Risk & Fin Mgmt (2) David Lloyd, Newport Wealth Mgmt
(3) Dagny Eason Realtor (4) XSI Insurance (5) John Nicola, Wealth Mgmt
(6) Mark Fuchs Realtor (7) Sam Pollock, Quantum Fin (8) Fran & Rowena
InvestmentPal Realtors (9) Michael Hsu, CPA, DeepSky (10) Carl Richards, CFP (11) Sherri
Dodsworth Realtor (12) Tanya McCaffery, CPA & Brad Diller, Cartoonist

22. A video is worth a thousand pictures
“If video & text covering the same topic are on
59% the same web page, I will watch the video first”
“Executives embrace the non-text web”, Forbes Insights, 2010
1 Animation
- Explainer
- Intro
- Whiteboard
2 People
- Tips
- Q&A
- Interview
3 Entertainment
- Song
- Dance
- Parody
(1) Madison Wealth Managers (2) Lawton Insurance (3) Plante
Partners (4) Jeff Rose, CFP (5) Mark Feldstein, Accountant (6)
InvestmentPal Mike Stewart, Realtor (7) PetFirst Healthcare Insurance (8)
WithumSmith + Brown CPAs (9) Silicon Valley Bank

23. How can I do more
7 with less time?
InvestmentPal 23 March 2013

24. Combine created content with curated content
of U.S. news consumers say they rely to some
50% degree on people around them to tell them the
news they need to know
Pew Internet Report, 2010
1 Select relevant & quality articles
2 Craft unique commentaries
- Offer your point of view
- Highlight key point
- Ask a question
- Summarize
- Explain
3 Share comments &
content links
InvestmentPal 24 March 2013

25. Real Estate Accounting Insurance Financial Advisory
& Mortgage & Tax
InvestmentPal
~100 relevant news, industry & blog sites
March 2013

26. How does search engine
8 optimization (SEO) fit in?
InvestmentPal 26 March 2013

27. SEO boosts social media marketing & vice versa
InvestmentPal 27 March 2013

28. 5 publishing SEO tips from Google’s Matt Cutts
1 Put relevant keywords in url;
do not stuff keywords
Aug 25 2010
2 Craft compelling titles to
increase click throughs
Mar 6 2009
3 Weave keywords into post;
penalty for overdoing
Aug 18 2011
4 Describe images in text
using ‘alt’ tags & file names
Dec 5 2007
Surface key pages with
5 internal links; do not over
Aug 18 2011 engineer
goodfinancialcents.com - Jeff Rose, CFP
InvestmentPal 28 June 7 2012

29. Keyword choices that put posts on Google Page 1
advantages of roth ira build wealth 401k tax deduction
Financial
Advisory
selecting a financial planner average retirement savings
life insurance planning what is personal liability insurance
Accounting Insurance
2012 hsa contribution limits
how much is home insurance a year how much life insurance do i need
debit or credit capitalize or expense how to minimize taxes
& Tax
federal tax deductions 2012 quickbooks chart of accounts
& Mortgage
Real Estate
where to live in Austin buy a house in seattle sell a home
chicago real estate prices how a mortgage works
Google - July 14 2012
(1) Brock & Associates, Financial Planning (2) Ken Faulkenberry, Arbor Inv. (3) Fern LaRocca, CFP
(4) David & John Compton, First Sec. Fin. (5) Jeff Rose, Alliance Wealth Mgmt (6) Richard O’Boyle,
Schaefer Ent. (7) Neal Frankle, Wealth Resources Grp. (8) Glenn Cooke, Life Insurance Canada
(9) Dennis Volz, State Farm (10) Jay & Louise Norris, Insurance Shoppers (11) Sandy Tunwell,
InvestmentPal Accountrain (12) Blue Willow Bookkeeping (13) William Brighenti, CPA CT (14) Bader Martin, CPAs &
Biz Advisors (15) Jim Yih, Think Box (16) Realty Austin (17) Craig Blackmon, WaLaw Realty (18) Joe
Manausa, Century 21 (19) Lucid Realty (20) Jay Calafiore, Mortgage Architects

30. 9 What about compliance?
InvestmentPal 30 March 2013

31. Email vs social media – Early years
Email Social Media
1996 Hotmail launched 2006 Twitter launched
NYSE/NASD: Broker-dealers must Pre-FINRA 10-06 assumption:
review & approve all outgoing & All status updates, tweets, posts
incoming correspondence (1) to discussion boards require pre-
approval (4)
I worked at a broker-dealer
during the advent of email.
The initial industry-wide 2007 There is no social networking for
response was – I kid you not – business. It’s not going to apply
“No”. Meaning nobody
Manager at brokerage that later started
could have email using social media (5)
Financial professional (2)
FINRA: Firms may consider
1997 SEC: Broker-dealers must retain blocking access to online
all business emails (3) message boards (6)
8M Hotmail users 2008 6M active Twitter users (7)
(1) Jeffrey Plotkin, NY Law Journal Dec 2002 (2) Financial Advisor WSJ
Blog, 2011 (3) Rule 17-a-4 interpretation, Carol Curtis, Securities Tech
InvestmentPal Monitor, Nov 2009 (4) Socialware Guide to FINRA/SEC, 2010
(5) PodTech.net, 2007 (6) FINRA 07-59, Dec 2007 (7) eMarketer, Sep 2009

32. Email vs social media – Later years
Email Social Media
1998 NYSE/NASD amendment: 2009 35% of financial advisors used
Broker-dealer has option to social media for business (4)
eliminate pre-use review of
FINRA 10-06: Pre-approval for
all incoming or outgoing 2010
interactive content not required
emails (1)
FINRA: Messages on online
“Reasonable sampling” in 2011 interactive forums need not be
email review allowed (1) filed post-use (5)
2002 25% of financial firms used 2012 140M Twitter users (6)
email marketing (2) FINRA: Six communication
110M Hotmail users (3) categories halved to three (7)
58% of financial advisors use
social media for business at least
several times a week (8)
2006 61% of financial firms used
email marketing (2)
(1) Jeffrey Plotkin, NY Law Journal Dec 4 2002 (2) Silverpop findings,
“Leveraging the Inbox”, Jim Bruene, Jun 2006 (3) theregister.co.uk, Sep
2002 (4) Aite Group Survey, Q4 2009 (5) InvestmentNews Dec 2011
InvestmentPal (6) Twitter blog, Mar 2012 (7) FINRA 12-29, June 2012 (8) American
Century Investment Study, Q1 2012

33. Financial social media guidance
FINRA 10-06 & 11-39 highlights (1)
1 Interactive content (eg Twitter posts, interactive blogs) do not need
pre-approval. Post-use review methods including sampling or word-
based search may be used (2)
2 Pre-approve static content (3)
3 Do not link to sites you know contains false or misleading content (3)
rd
4 3 -party posts are not treated as firm’s communications with public
unless firm endorses or approves post (3)
5 You may respond to business-related questions on a personal site,
subject to your firm’s policy (4)
6 Retain business content records (5)
(1) Jan 2010 & Aug 2011 respectively (2) NASD 3010
InvestmentPal 33 & 2210, FINRA 07-59 (3) NASD 2210 (4) FINRA 11-39
(5) SEC 17a-3, 17a-4, NASD 3110

34. 10 Who can help?
InvestmentPal 34 March 2013

35. Marketing consultants
Financial Advisory Insurance Accounting Real Estate
Amy McIlwain April Rudin Catherine Sherwood
Gerri Leder Glen Gilmore Jay Campbell
Jay Palter Kristen Luke Michelle Golden
Michael Byrnes Monika McGillicuddy Naomi Trower
Pat Allen Philip Calvert Robyn Sharp
Sarah Johnson Scott Peterson Stephanie Sammons
InvestmentPal 35 March 2013

36. Writing consultants & editors
Financial Advisory Insurance Accounting Real Estate
Amy Buttell Amy Lynn Smith Anne Brennan
Carol Tice Dave Pelland Deborah Plouffe
Jaime Lackey James F Carberry Lisa MacColl
Lori Widmer Lynn Sherman Patrick Watson
Richard Koreto Stephanie AuWerter Susan Weiner, CFA
Todd Larson Tracey Franks Vanessa Richardson
InvestmentPal 36 March 2013

37. Thank you
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Social Media Marketing for Financial Services Ecosystem Group
InvestmentPal March 2013