photo: ljcybergal

Accountability works. You’re probably familiar with the benefits of the accountability imposed by a financial plan or investment policy statement. So, here are suggestions for how to make a blogging buddy work for you – and for your buddy, too. This is an idea I’ve discussed in “Blogging buddies: Financial bloggers’ secret weapons.” I see three potential areas of focus for blogging buddies:

1. Deadlines
2. Brainstorming
3. Feedback

Deadlines

Sometimes simply telling someone else that you’ll post to your blog at regular intervals–for example, every other Tuesday–can make a difference. Scheduling a celebratory email saying “I did it!” can reinforce positive behavior. On the other hand, your buddy’s friendly “Where is it?” may stop you from getting too far behind.

Brainstorming

Every blogger feels stuck sometimes. Perhaps you can’t think of a topic for next week’s post. Or maybe you’re struggling with how to explain a complex topic.

Having a friendly person to act as your sounding board can help you break through. I suggest you identify your biggest challenge and talk it through with your buddy. That may inspire you with new ideas. Plus, your buddy can add her or his thoughts.

Feedback

It’s hard for writers to look objectively at their own drafts. Third-party feedback is valuable.

Here are some questions to help you give and solicit good feedback:

1. What did you like about this blog post?
2. What’s your sense of the audience this will appeal to and why it will appeal?
3. Is there anything confusing or difficult in this draft?
4. Is the vocabulary appropriate for my audience?
5. Did you notice any typos or other mistakes?
6. Does this make you think of other topics for future blog posts?

You can customize your question list based on your needs.

Has a blogging buddy worked for you?

If you’ve experimented with a blogging buddy, I’m curious to hear about your experience. Please share.

I have a goals buddy instead of a blogging buddy. Her perspective and support have helped me conquer many challenges. She is a writer in a noncompeting field. I hope you also find a great buddy.

<a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/ljcybergal/64849768/” title=”Inseparable by ljcybergal, on Flickr”><img src=”http://farm1.staticflickr.com/27/64849768_4c23730cde.jpg” width=”500″ height=”375″ alt=”Inseparable”></a>

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Need to write better? Register for my next class on “How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read: A 5-Week Writing Class for Financial Advisors” starting May 16. You won’t get another chance to take this class until 2013.

Receive a free 32-page e-book with client communications tips when you sign up for my free monthly newsletter.

photo: herdeirodocaos33

The cook’s question caught my ear as she spoke loudly across the small hotel’s quiet breakfast room.

“Where did you get that pink newspaper in your hotel room trash? We were talking about it,” said the cook, who also served as waitress.

Whoa! Who knew that the maid and the cook talk? Or maybe the cook did double-duty as a maid. In any event, it’s unusual for most of us to be asked about our trash, even if we discard exotic newspapers, such as the salmon-pink Financial Times.

This question made me think about how often we’re unaware of people watching us. Being curious about others is human nature. But the scale of observation has increased dramatically with the Internet.

The pink trash conversation was overheard only by my husband and me. But the audience could have been much larger if the waitress had asked her question on Twitter, automatically pushing it into her LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google+ feeds.

I am a big fan and beneficiary of social media. But every once in a while it’s important for me –and you– to remember that others may be silently watching us.

_______________________________________________________________
Need to write better? Register for my next class on “How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read: A 5-Week Writing Class for Financial Advisors” starting May 16. You won’t get another chance to take this class until 2013.

Receive a free 32-page e-book with client communications tips when you sign up for my free monthly newsletter.

_______________________________________________________________
Need to write better? Register for my next class on “How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read: A 5-Week Writing Class for Financial Advisors” starting May 16. You won’t get another chance to take this class until 2013.

Receive a free 32-page e-book with client communications tips when you sign up for my free monthly newsletter.

Meaningful content

“Clarity,” “insight,” and “candor” were the most popular answers to the question, “What’s the ONE WORD that best describes what investment managers should strive for in their quarterly letters to clients?” I think these popular answers can be summed up by the term “meaningful content.”

The image below gives a visual overview of the responses. Type size is proportional to the number of respondents choosing a word as their answer.

Here are examples of how respondents explained their word choices.

• “Clarity” suggests that you have done the reading, research, analysis and due diligence on what you’ve taken in. You have synthesized it. Rather than repeating a litany of what you’ve read, you provide a simple summary of what key points you commend to their attention and why.
• Clarity. Clients appreciate honesty, and the best way to demonstrate honesty is to be clear in what you are saying. Always consider the client’s perspective. Put yourself in their shoes and ask yourself what is important / relevant, and how you would want it shown. And be honest with your answers.
• Candid. Warren Buffet discusses both types of investment – the ones that made money and ones where he lost – candidly.
• Clarity – The world and financial markets are very dynamic, intertwined, and complex. The ability of an investment manager to take seemingly disparate and complex topics and distill them down to an explainable relationship, etc is rare but very value-added.
• Needs to reflect the voice of the investment team not marketing fluff.
• Relevance – As a customer, it’s about my money, my future, my family, it’s not about your strategy, your brilliance, your research department. I need to know: Can I count on you?

Content specific to the manager

The survey asked respondents to specify whether various letter components were very important, important, somewhat important, unimportant, or not applicable. Respondents placed the highest importance on the manager’s investment strategy and review of the past quarter’s portfolio performance. Here’s the rank order:

1. Manager’s investment strategy
2. Review of the past quarter’s portfolio performance
3. Manager’s market outlook
4. Graphs, tables, or other illustrations
5. Client-specific portfolio returns
6. Stock-specific or security-specific comments
7. Sector-level strategy
8. Review of the past quarter’s market and economy
9. Something not listed above

These results say to me that readers want content they couldn’t read elsewhere.

Here are some relevant responses:

• The investments are a commodity…the client bought the firm and that brand should be consistently presented in all interactions.
• What is missing in the vast majority of reports from managers is any genuine clue as to how and why they made/lost money. Market or asset class reviews or forecasts and returns summaries are ultimately meaningless if the manager doesn’t understand the drivers of his return. I like to see a thorough and genuinely insightful “attributions analysis” that makes it plain to the reader that the manager knows precisely why/how/where the money was made.
• Needs to be something more than what I get from Bloomberg or WSJ commentary. I want to understand their outlook, and how that shapes their strategy.
• Manager should include “what went right, what went wrong” during the quarter relative to investment performance. In other words, performance attribution at a high level.

Keep it short

More than 40% of respondents thought a quarterly investment letter should run two pages or less. A length of five pages or more was the least popular response, as you can see in the graph below.

Respondents favor shorter letters that are reader-friendly, as the comments below show.

• Investors want you to tell them what THEY need to know, not everything YOU know!
• I read a lot of quarterly letters, and I selfishly would like to be able to pull out the important nugget(s) quickly. More importantly, as an investment advisor I know that my clients will not put a lot of time into reading these letters. If they look long and boring, they simply won’t bother.
• As an investment manager researcher, I read numerous quarterly commentaries from our sub advisors. The managers that are able to deliver the highlights clearly and in a concise manner stand out because they are better able to communicate their message to me and our clients.
• In my experience in investment communications, I’ve learned that less can be more. Get to the point quickly! Most financial advisor (and investors) don’t have much time to read and are in a state of information overload. Many receiving a 3-page commentary will put it in their “read later” pile (meaning it may never be read). However, if they received a shorter commentary (1-page would be ideal), they might read it upon receipt, getting information in a much more timely manner.
• People are busy and finance isn’t always the easiest or most scintillating topic; keep it short and sweet so you can keep your clients engaged and informed, Value their time.
• After three pages, most people get bored

Making it personal

It’s not easy to make quarterly letters feel personal and customized without spending lots of time on them. Some of the techniques that respondents suggested for achieving this included:

• Using “you”
• Integrating data from portfolio accounting
• Know the type of client that is attracted to your investment strategy and speak to that client’s biases and need for information.
• Answer the question, what is in it for them? Comfort them? Encourage them?
• Add a personal note within the body of the letter. “I took my son shopping for school supplies and Walmart…” and if there is an investment tie-in, so much the better.
• There should be a personal touch regardless of time. These clients give us their hard earned money to manage and we should take time to report to them.

Well-written

A number of comments supported my belief that letters should be well written.

• I’m busy and I read a lot of investment letters, I don’t have time to reread investment letters in an effort to understand what the manager is really trying to tell me. I want a straightforward letter that I only have to read once to understand.
• You must write to the level of the average individual, not at a level that will impress your peers. Your clients would not be working with you if they did not believe you are intelligent…you don’t have to show them how intelligent you are by spewing out words that fly over their heads. If you want personalized and relevant letters, you must bring yourself to their level.
• I try to speak in my natural voice, rather than a “writing” voice. I also find that humor and self-deprecation (on non-professional issues) resonate with clients.

Thank you, CFA Institute LinkedIn Group members and other respondents!

I am very grateful to all of the people who responded. Your comments made this topic come alive. I wish I could have included more of them.

I believe most of the survey respondents are financial or marketing professionals, but I didn’t collect their demographics. However, I suspect that members of two of my LinkedIn Groups–CFA Institute Members and Financial Writing/Marketing Communications–were particularly generous with their contributions.

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Need to write better? Register for my next class on “How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read: A 5-Week Writing Class for Financial Advisors” starting May 16. You won’t get another chance to take this class until 2013.

Receive a free 32-page e-book with client communications tips when you sign up for my free monthly newsletter.

My blog was singled out for its “mission to bring clarity to the sometimes arcane and confusing world of financial writing, especially when done by financial advisors, investment advisors and wealth managers.”

More financial blogs that rock

I’m honored to be in the company of outstanding bloggers named by this ClientWise post. They include

• The Wall Street Journal’s Financial Adviser
• Bill Winterberg’s FP Pad
• Jude Boudreaux’s Upperline Financial
• Michael Kitces’ Nerd’s Eye View
• David Armstrong’s Monument Wealth Management
• Cathy Curtis’ Of Independent Means

What YOU can share with another winning blogger

One of the seven bloggers who rock has taken my blogging class tailored to financial advisors. You can, too. But you’d better act soon. The class starts May 16. I don’t plan to offer it again until 2013. Plus, I plan to raise the price significantly next time.

Register now for “How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read: A 5-Lesson Writing Class for Financial Advisors.“

_______________________________________________________________
Need to write better? Register for my next class on “How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read: A 5-Week Writing Class for Financial Advisors” starting May 16. You won’t get another chance to take this class until 2013.

Receive a free 32-page e-book with client communications tips when you sign up for my free monthly newsletter.

1. E-newsletter offers three options including Weekly Tip

My monthly e-newsletter provides links to my most recent blog posts. It also includes an exclusive report on the results of my monthly poll. Sign up for the “General” list to receive it. When you subscribe, you’ll receive a free copy of Investment Writing Top Tips, an annual compilation of my best tips for marketing, writing, and more.

Each Weekly Tip contains one article to help with your writing or marketing. It’s a quick read.

The Events newsletter will alert you to my upcoming classes, including “How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read,” and speaking engagements.

2. Delivery of individual blog posts via email or RSS feed

You can sign up to receive individual blog posts by email. You’ll find the sign-up box in my blog’s right-hand column below the list of recent posts and above the current poll.

This is what the "subscribe by email" to individual posts looks like

You can also receive my individual posts via an RSS feed. If you know what an RSS feed is, you probably don’t need my help in how to subscribe.

3. Follow me on Twitter for blogs, finance, writing, and more

All of my blog posts appear in my Twitter stream, but they’re mixed in with tweets on investments, financial planning, marketing, writing, and non-business topics.

4. Investment Writing on Facebook

The Investment Writing Facebook page also features my blog posts. This page has a narrower focus and less activity than my Twitter account. Some days I post no links. Other days I post one or two links. My links focus on writing, blogging, and marketing.

Check out my Facebook page if you’d like links to practical content that will help you communicate better.

5. Google+

I hesitate to mention my Google+ account because I rarely use it. But that could change.

_______________________________________________________________
Need to write better? Register for my next class on “How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read: A 5-Week Writing Class for Financial Advisors” starting May 16. You won’t get another chance to take this class until 2013.

Receive a free 32-page e-book with client communications tips when you sign up for my free monthly newsletter.

_______________________________________________________________
Need to write better? Register for my next class on “How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read: A 5-Week Writing Class for Financial Advisors” starting May 16. You won’t get another chance to take this class until 2013.

Receive a free 32-page e-book with client communications tips when you sign up for my free monthly newsletter.

If you’re having problems running this audio slideshow…

One reader said she couldn’t hear the audio when she tried downloading and then playing this audio slideshow. If you run into this problem, I suggest you try clicking the play button embedded in this blog post. The play button looks like this:

_______________________________________________________________
Need to write better? Register for my next class on “How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read: A 5-Week Writing Class for Financial Advisors” starting May 16. You won’t get another chance to take this class until 2013.

Receive a free 32-page e-book with client communications tips when you sign up for my free monthly newsletter.

In other words, is “social media” singular or plural? Please vote on the poll in the right-hand column of this blog.

For a sense of the arguments, please read the Facebook postings copied below, which I’ve posted with the authors’ permission. By the way, this month’s poll was suggested by my friend Susan Becker of Becker Consulting Services. Thanks, Susan and Facebook friends who contributed to the discussion!

_______________________________________________________________
Need to write better? Register for my next class on “How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read: A 5-Week Writing Class for Financial Advisors” starting May 16. You won’t get another chance to take this class until 2013.

Receive a free 32-page e-book with client communications tips when you sign up for my free monthly newsletter.

By the way, Adobe Acrobat Pro is not the free Adobe Acrobat Reader for downloading documents in .PDF format. You must pay for the Pro product.

The Pro software’s key feature is its ability to read documents out loud in deadpan voice that makes mistakes and weak writing glaringly obvious, at least to me.

You may be thinking, “But I don’t compose articles in .PDF format!” Neither do I. However, I can quickly convert a Microsoft Word Document into a .PDF format, so Pro can read it out loud.

After opening my newly created .PDF document, I follow these steps:

1. Click on the Read out Loud from the View Tab and choose Activate Read Out Loud. NOTE: The steps may vary if you have a different version of the software.
2. Click on the text I’d like the software to read out loud. Usually I highlight one paragraph at a time for reading out loud as I follow along on a printed page. I am ready to click Shift + Control + C to pause the reading so I can type a correction or scribble an improvement on my hard copy.
3. Input edits into the document.
4. Repeat the Read out Loud process if I’ve made many edits.

I know I could read the document out loud myself. However, I’m impatient, so I usually give up after a few sentences.

What do you think? Could this technique help you?

For more ideas about proofreading, see “6 ways to stop sending emails with errors,” “What professional writers know,” and “Your spell-checker doesn’t work, so you must proofread.”

_______________________________________________________________
Need to write better? Register for my next class on “How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read: A 5-Week Writing Class for Financial Advisors” starting May 16. You won’t get another chance to take this class until 2013.

Receive a free 32-page e-book with client communications tips when you sign up for my free monthly newsletter.