Social media

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How to utilize social sites effectively is on everyone’s mind these days, and most advisors can readily understand how to use a site like LinkedIn for business contacts. But what about Facebook? Does a site that traditionally features family pictures and silly contests really help you promote yourself and your services?

Though advisors are increasingly on social platforms, bringing financial goal setting to the social media sphere probably won’t change the way clients interact with their advisors. Will it instead help those who aren’t working with advisors start thinking about their finances?

Social media is rapidly changing the way financial advisors approach their marketing efforts, but staying current with compliance regulations can be a challenge.

With an eye toward the future and likely also toward steering the Facebook generation toward its own website, Fidelity Investments launched a new app for Facebook, called FutureTimeline, which allows users to set long-term financial goals and track their savings toward shorter-term goals, like vacations or buying a new car.

While beauty is in the eye of the beholder, there just seems to be a lot of noise “out there” as people in general and financial advisors in particular grapple with Twitter etiquette, Facebook do’s, and LinkedIn don’ts. Marketing Maven Marie Swift demystifies the art to using social media to build relationships and to amplify your voice.

Far removed from last year's Occupy-style protests in Chicago, customer experience shortcomings are still a big topic of discussion at 2012's BAI Retail Delivery Conference in Washington. New mobile innovation and social media advancements are two ways for banks to up their game.

Facebook is the world’s largest social network with more than 800 million active users. That is a lot of potential clients. However, Facebook presents some unique challenges to client acquisition, according to Craig Faulkner.

Some people say social media for advisors is a waste of time. Not so for Cathy Curtis, of Curtis Financial Planning, now a division of ClearRock Capital, LLC. Curtis has social media use to thank for the merger.

Learn about boosting skills and improving strategies.

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Who's at the forefront of the shifting dynamic of planning? The 2012 Influencer Award winners.

A survey from the Oechsli Institute reveals that advisors are underusing the personal aspects of social media to build client rapport.

Savvy financial advisors are using social sites to differentiate themselves from the competition and to build trust and credibility. Perhaps the biggest reason for financial advisors to get involved in social marketing can be summed up in four words: Your customers are there.

When we began to redesign Financial-Planning.com earlier this year, we asked ourselves what do planners want most from our website? No surprise, we quickly realized, they want what we want: more vital content, enhanced functionality, better connections with the planning community and speed.

Improve your efforts to attract affluent clients through LinkedIn and Facebook (and not Twitter).

When Irvine, Calif.-based planner Winnie Sun jumped from Smith Barney to LPL Financial about 18 months ago, a major factor driving the move was her new firm's support of social media.

Eighty percent of financial advisors say they're dabbling in social media to drum up new business and one in five has already reeled in new clients as a result of participating.

The days of filling a conference room with prospective clients for a retirement planning seminar at the local Holiday Inn are pretty much over. If advisors really want to grow their assets under management these days, they need to get mobile and social as soon as possible.

First rule of thumb - it will cost you. The days of the service-driven model are over and banks will not be able to capture wallet share by going cheap.