What your kids can teach you about writing

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“My kids learned that in school.” I’ve heard that comment several times after my writing workshops. Schools are teaching mind mapping to help children to organize their thoughts before writing. That’s why I use it, too.

If your child talks to you about mind mapping, consider learning more from them about this technique. Your daughter or son may be able to teach you a useful skill. Based on what my friends tell me, schools typically teach mapping in second or third grade. Instead of mind mapping, they may call it idea mapping, concept mapping, semantic mapping or writer’s workshop.

I never write a long, complex article without mapping my information first. Mapping makes me a more efficient writer. Try it, you may like it.

CFA Magazine on social media and your career

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“Stepping Out: Digital Footprints Can Make Or Break a Career” by Rhea Wessel appears in the Nov./Dec. issue of CFA Magazine, starting on page 34 of the digital edition (page 32 of the print edition). 


It’s a cautionary tale that quotes several CFA charterholders including yours truly. It even refers indirectly to my “Top five tips for financial advisors dipping their toes in the Twitterverse.“


Here’s the bit that quotes me

“Don’t land yourself in hot water by starting to blog before you consult with your compliance officer,” she says. “However, you can get an idea of industry norms by studying bloggers whom you respect and who work in positions similar to yours.”

Guest post: "How to Use LinkedIn When Your Compliance Department Says No"

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Financial advisors–and all kinds of professionals in investment and wealth management–need to be on LinkedIn. I feel strongly about this, so I’m happy to feature a guest post from marketer Kristen Luke. In this post, which originally appeared on Kristen’s Financial Marketing Wire blog, she tells you how to benefit from LinkedIn, even when you must work within compliance constraints.

Recently I have been conducting one-on-one LinkedIn training sessions for advisors on how they can better utilize the professional social networking site. Each advisor has different restrictions on how they can engage with the site depending on the rules set forth by their compliance department. I have found that most compliance departments will allow advisors to have LinkedIn profiles, but will not necessarily allow them to actively participate in groups, install applications, update their status or mass email their connections. For those advisors who are allowed to have a LinkedIn profile but have been restricted in their use of the site, there are still strategies that can be utilized to make LinkedIn a valuable sales and marketing tool. Below are four strategies to implement even if you can’t use LinkedIn to its fullest potential.

Strategy 1: Build Your Network

LinkedIn becomes more powerful as the size of your network increases. This is because you are only able to see profiles of people within your network (i.e. 1st, 2nd or 3rd Connections and Group Members). To make effective use of LinkedIn, you will need to continuously build your network. This will allow you to discover more potential clients and centers of influence. Start expanding your network by importing contacts. You can do this by selecting “Add Connections” in the Contacts menu and uploading a spreadsheet of your contacts’ email addresses. The resulting list will show you who is on LinkedIn and will allow you to send a mass invitation to connect.

Once you have started with your initial network, you’ll want to continue adding all new contacts to your network. Make inviting all new contacts to join your LinkedIn network a part of your weekly routine. This includes people you meet professionally and socially. You never know where the next client or referral will come from, so don’t exclude people from your network.

Another way to build your network is to install an Outlook toolbar which will notify you when an email contact is on LinkedIn. You can download and install either the LinkedIn or Xobni toolbar which will show you LinkedIn profile information about each of your email contacts and provide you with a link to send an “invitation to connect” request. These tool bars eliminate the need to manually look up a contact to see if they are on the site and then send an invitation request. Plus, they constantly remind you to build your network.

Strategy 2: Join Groups

You may have been told by your compliance department that you can’t post a discussion question, answer a discussion question, post a news article, or comment on a news article. That doesn’t mean that joining groups is a waste of time. Even if you never actively participate in a group, joining allows you to expand your network. By joining a group, you are able to view the profiles of everyone in the group. This helps when you are researching prospects since their profiles might not be available to you otherwise. In addition, you are able to send an email directly to fellow group members without being linked in with them through the “send a message” function. Joining groups provides you with direct access to hundreds if not thousands of individuals who would otherwise be outside of your LinkedIn reach. Just be cautious when emailing through LinkedIn since some compliance departments require a screenshot of the message you are sending including the name of the person to whom who you are sending it.

Strategy 3: Research Prospects

LinkedIn provides a wealth of information about a prospective client. By reviewing a prospect’s profile prior to your first meeting, you can discover past employment history, educational background, professional associations and personal interests. This will give you a better understanding of the prospect and may assist in directing the conversation during a first appointment. The only limitation with this strategy is that you are only able to view profiles of people within your network. Having a larger network, as described in strategies one and two, will increase the likelihood of being able to see a prospect’s profile.

Strategy 4: Research your Network for Introductions & Referrals

Do you know which of your clients have relationships with the types of people you would like to meet? If they have a LinkedIn profile you can easily find out. When you connect with your clients, centers of influence or networking contacts on LinkedIn, you can look through their connections to see who they know. By researching your LinkedIn contacts’ network, you can make informed decisions about who has the ability to make quality referrals and introductions and create a marketing strategy around that information. For example, you can ask for referrals and introductions to specific people within your contact’s network when you have a referral conversation. Or, you can plan a private client event and make extra effort to ensure that clients with strong networks attend. Researching your network will allow you to focus your referral efforts.

Conclusion

In my personal experience, the strategies listed above are acceptable by most compliance departments who allow advisors to use LinkedIn. However, you will want to consult with your compliance department before implementing any of these ideas to make sure you are in observance of your firm’s policies.

For information about Kristen’s marketing strategies and support for financial advisors, visit www.wealthmanagementmarketing.net.

Registered reps, it’s time to ‘fess up

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Ghostwriters offer valuable marketing support to financial advisors. But some registered reps–and the marketers who support them–have felt confused since the issuance of “Misleading Communications About Expertise,”  FINRA Regulatory Notice 08-27,  in May 2008. They don’t know how much editorial assistance reps can receive before they must acknowledge the assistance in writing–or even sacrifice their byline.

At least one compliance officer is interpreting the rules relatively strictly. Paul Tolley, chief compliance officer of Commonwealth Financial Network in Waltham, Mass., says that registered reps should disclose the role of any other writers who contribute to text for articles or books that a rep would like to distribute under the rep’s name.  That’s much stricter than the informal advice I received from some financial marketing writers when I drafted “FINRA’s limits on registered reps use of ghostwriters,” an earlier blog post on this topic.

FINRA’s “Misleading Communications About Expertise”  says, “Registered representatives may not suggest (or encourage others to suggest) that they authored investment-related books, articles or similar publications if they did not write them. Such a publication created by a third-party vendor must disclose that it was prepared either by the third party or for the representative’s use.”

Tolley thinks FINRA’s intentions are clear. “Few things in compliance are black and white, but this is one of them” he says. If the rep’s only contribution was to pay for an article, then the rep can’t take credit for the article. However, “Reps who pay for someone else to write an article can still put their name on it, as long as the actual author is credited,” says Tolley. An appropriate byline might be “Submitted by Rachel Registered-Rep and written by Glenda Ghostwriter” or “Written for Rachel Registered-Rep by Glenda Ghostwriter.”

But what if the registered rep contributes content and editorial guidance to a ghostwriter? For example, what if a ghostwriter pens an article based on interviews with a registered rep? Can the registered rep claim authorship?

“What it really comes down to is that you can’t say it if it’s not true,” says Tolley. If reps are 100% responsible for the text of an article or other written communication, they can claim sole authorship.  If not, they should disclose the details of who contributed what, he says. For example, if someone writes an article on the basis of content and editorial review provided by a rep, the article’s byline should include the writer’s name in addition to the rep’s. “The rep can’t claim sole authorship because it’s not true,” he adds. However, a byline such as “By Rachel Registered-Rep with Glenda Ghostwriter” could work, as long as Rachel truly contributed to the writing.

Tolley says that it’s probably okay for a rep to send an ghostwritten article to a newspaper  with a note that it was “submitted by Joe Smith,” when Joe Smith is not the author. However, I doubt that most newspapers would accept this. They’d want to credit the real author.

On a related note, “In accordance with Notice 08-27, if a rep is merely paying for a publication that is designed to look like a magazine, article or interview, the material must be clearly identified as an advertisement (typically by including the word ‘Advertisement’ at the top center of the publication),” says Tolley.

Registered reps, it’s time for you to ‘fess up, if you’re not really the author of your bylined articles or books.

Background of FINRA rules
Tolley says that FINRA’s approach to ghostwriting has its roots in Conduct Rule 2010, which says that all FINRA members, “in the conduct of its business, shall observe high standards of commercial honor and just and equitable principles of trade.”

But ghostwriting first became an issue in 2007. That’s when FINRA became aware of reps who, as part of their marketing to seniors and retirees,  paid to have their names presented as authors of books written by others. “FINRA made it clear they thought that was a violation of conduct rule 2210 and just and equitable principles of trade,” says Tolley. FINRA expressed its views in Regulatory Notice 07-43 “Senior Investors: FINRA Reminds Firms of Their Obligations Relating to Senior Investors and Highlights Industry Practices to Serve These Customers.”  In 2008, as mentioned above, FINRA extended that explicit prohibition beyond communications aimed at seniors, so it applies to any ghostwritten materials.

What about registered investment advisors?
I’m not aware of any rules governing the use of ghostwriters by registered investment advisors (RIAs).  Should there be? I’d like to hear what you think.

Guest post: "Seven steps toward a better webinar"

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More financial advisors are using webinars to market themselves. That’s why I’m featuring this guest post, “Seven steps toward a better webinar” by D. Bruce Johnston and John Drachman. Bruce Johnston is a social media financial distribution consultant with 25 years as a  senior executive for asset management firms. John Drachman is a senior writer and integrated communications expert who has developed the content for financial services marketing communications programs for almost two decades.
Seven steps toward a better webinar

Easy to set up, webinars are a friendly, low-cost way to help you develop your peer network. The webinar tool box provides you with a turnkey way to establish your thought leadership, expand your presence and measure the results.

Here are seven suggestions that can add some luster to your next webinar.

1.    Write down your objectives 

What are the specific actions you want your audience to take? Be as specific as possible. Develop a pathway for your audience to learn more about you. For example, many webinars urge attendees to request a white paper. This action permits a greater degree of contact capture and qualification. The goal is to provide your audience with just enough information to realize they can benefit from your insights and service offering. At the end of the day, know precisely those outcomes that would make your webinar successful for you. We had one client whose goal was to attract 10-15 new clients with investable assets of $1 million-plus. The client signed up 12 new clients and considered the experience to be a grade-A success.

2.    Find a Center of Influence in your region to collaborate with 

Put a financial advisor together with a tax attorney and the possibilities for timely topics are endless. Sharing each other’s e-mail lists is a valuable way to reach out and connect to new audiences in a way that does not detract from each professional’s capabilities.

3.    Use a moderator 

Flying solo in a webinar creates a lot of pressure. You are out there all by yourself. Moderated webinars on the other hand are more engaging and relaxing. The moderator can even serve as a counterpoint to your position, which makes your presentation sound more like a news event and less like a sales presentation. You don’t need to rent a moderator either. Look around your office or circle of friends for a volunteer.

4.    Encourage real-time dialogue 

The webinar is a specific type of web conference, mostly one-way from the speaker to the audience. You can still give your webinar a real-time sense of one-to-one collaboration. Most webinar teleconferencing services make it possible for your audience to respond through on-line polling. You can also solicit questions that can be posted and addressed real-time through the course of the webinar.

5.    Treat your webinar like the news event it is 

The degree of media penetration that an interactive press release from BusinessWire or PRWeb can achieve is remarkable. Thanks to powerful news aggregators that search out keywords from your press release to publicize your webinar news event, you can dramatically expand the reach of your message to attract a bigger audience. Pay services permit a rich degree of hyperlinking opportunities to your web site, blog, Twitter account, social media site – and the list goes on. Also, if you are budget-minded, consider some of the free press release services. The namesake www.free-press-release.com even facilitates feeding your article to social media sites like LinkedIn and FaceBook for free.

6.    Learn from your metrics 

Webinar software generally has easy-to-use contact capture tools, as well as analytics that track attendees, who registered, who are prospects (requested information), who are already existing clients, who viewed replays, forwarded replays to friends and colleagues and more. A quick look at the numbers can tell you a lot about the degree of acceptance your webinar engendered in your audience.

7.    Let your webinar live again as a webcast 

Keep a good thing going. Consider uploading your presentation to SlideShare, adding a voice track and retweeting it to the world as a webcast. You will be surprised how many will download your presentation if your key words lead them to your message.

Thank you, NAPFA MA Study Group, for your great response to my email/letter writing workshop

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The NAPFA MA Study Group asked lots of great questions during my November presentation to them on  “How to write effective emails to your financial planning clients.” Thank you, NAPFA members and guests, for your energetic participation!

Here’s some of their feedback.

  •  “I found this presentation very helpful in the sense that it focused on key elements to being an influential but understandable advisor.” 
  •  “Susan’s presentation brought to life the benefits of better writing.”
  •  “Great tips for jump starting my client communications”
  • “Susan’s presentation made me want to go back to my office and juice up my emails and letters.”
  • “I learned how to make my emails and letters more reader-friendly, how to simplify technical information, and how to entice people to actually read the email.”
  • “I have been making presentations to Fortune 500 companies for 20 years. I wish I had taken Ms. Weiner’s course years ago!”
  • “It was a very good presentation. I found it very useful and helpful….I learned how to simplify sentences, how to emphasize client’s interests, and how to structure emails or newsletters.”
  • “I feel like I now have a variety of tools available to write better emails, letters, and all correspondence.”

Now I can’t wait for my next opportunity to present this workshop to financial advisors!

Financial writers, lead with your message, not your source

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Sometimes you go to a conference or talk with an expert and return to your office with a message you’ve just got to share. That’s great. But in their enthusiasm, financial advisors often make the mistake of starting their article or blog post with the name and credentials of the expert or conference, instead of their message. 

Here’s a made-up example of this common mistake. It’s the kind of problem I often see in advisor-written articles.

Last month, Jane Miller, an estate planning attorney with 30 years experience, gave a great talk at the Anytown Library about estate planning for families including children with special needs. Jane practices in Nexttown with the firm of Miller, Brown, and Lopez. I’m going to share some of her main points with you.

Let’s assume this paragraph went out in a client newsletter. Do any clients care about Jane, where she spoke, and the identity of the partners in her law firm?  Maybe some do. But I’ll bet the families with children who have special needs care a lot more about the details of Jane’s advice.

I suggest rewriting the beginning of the article to focus on the message, rather than the source.

Sometimes your clients’ best-intentioned efforts to help their children with special needs may backfire, as I learned in a presentation by attorney Jane Miller of Miller, Brown, and Lopez. There are three steps you can take to help your child financially, while maintaining their access to means-tested programs.

Do you grasp the difference between the two approaches?

Unless you’re reporting on your one-to-one meeting at the White House with President Obama or your Hollywood meeting with the hottest movie star, start your article with your strongest message.

 

Use a tip sheet to get PR for your financial business

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“Tip Sheets: One of the Most Effective Publicity Tools You’ve Never Heard Of” tells you how to use this PR tool to get exposure for your business. A tip sheet is a list of tips on how to do something.

I like that the author quotes PR maven Sandy Beckwith, who taught me almost everything I know about tip sheets. You can go to Sandy’s website to read more detailed instructions on how to write a tip sheet.

If you’ve got old tip sheets, you can update and reissue them. That’s a tip I got from one of Roger C. Parker’s Published & Profitable teleseminars.

Five great writing tips: They’re not just for ads

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Even if you’ve never looked at Twitter and you’ll never advertise, you should take the time to read “what can Twitter teach us about advertising?” (sorry, this article is no longer available).

The IDTAGS blog’s five tips include

  1. Be brief.
  2. Be impactful.
  3. Less is more.
  4. No one likes to read.
  5. Just give us the headlines.

That almost sums up what I spend 60-180 minutes discussing in my writing workshops.

If you visit theIDTAGS blog, you’ll see the power of brevity combined with visual images.

Thank you, @MarkRaganCEO, for pointing me to this IDTAGS piece.

Thank you, Boston Women in Finance, for your feedback on my writing workshop

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Boston Women in Finance gave me great feedback on my workshop “How to Write What People Will Read About Investments.” Before I share some their feedback with you, I’d like to thank all of the participants. Your energetic participation made it a very enjoyable workshop for me, too.

Here are some participant comments.

  •  “A very practical workshop! You’ll get tips you’ll use as soon as you return to the office.“
  • “I truly learned a lot from this presentation. It was refreshing to have someone break down how to best reach people and to say it’s okay to write in simple short sentences.”
  • “It’s always good to hear these reminders to get you back to the basics of effective writing. This seminar was a great way to refocus.”
  • “The mapping technique was helpful. I will use this for brainstorming and helping with project plans and meetings.”
  • “Susan’s ‘how to’ approach packed dozens of indispensable tips into 1 1/2 hours. Incredible!”
  • “I believe the mapping exercise will help me organize my thoughts and overcome writer’s block and get past the first blank page or screen.”

Some of you said that you would prefer “More time; more opportunity for individual exercises.” I’m interested in creating longer, customized training sessions for corporate clients that would allow more interaction. I’m also for hire to present the one-and-one-half hour version I delivered to Boston Women in Finance.