Financial advisors: upgrade your blog

Blog posts don’t have to be just text -- and might be even better if you include multimedia. “If writing is not your strong suit, consider video blogging or posting audio content instead,” says Marie Swift, founder of Impact Communications. She points to Andy Millard, of North Carolina-based fee-only advisory firm Millard & Co. Millard posts his video clips on the company website and on a stand-alone blog, cross-linking the two and using social media sites to “buzz up” the new content, Swift says. He also uses an e-newsletter to push out the blog posts and videos to his “house email list,” she said. Why is video so important? “Video is the secret weapon for social marketing,” says Craig Faulkner, president of financial services marketing firm, Faulkner Media Group. “1.2 billion videos are viewed online every day, so harness the power of that trend.”