My top five tips for financial advisors dipping their toes in the Twitterverse

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Every day more of your clients, prospects, family, and friends get on Twitter. If you’re ready to dip your toe in the Twitterverse, here are the top five tips from my personal experience.

1. Use Twitter Search to check out Twitter before you begin tweeting. Go to http://search.twitter.com and type in your company name or other keywords that interest you. For example, you could type in “Fidelity Investments.” Even if you don’t start tweeting, you can set up ongoing Twitter searches, similar to Google Alerts, and have them delivered to your RSS reader. By the way, if you need motivation to research your company on Twitter, read “Commonwealth Bank all a-Twitter over mortgage approval tweet.”

2. Find interesting people to follow after you set up your Twitter account. Reading their tweets will help you understand how people use Twitter. If you’re a financial advisor, here are some folks who may interest you
* Bill Winterberg, technology specialist for financial planners and the writer of “Yes, Financial Planners Can Benefit from Twitter,” which helped put me on Twitter
* Russ Thornton, financial planner and investment advisor
* Kristen Luke, marketing consultant to independent financial advisors
* Lawain McNeil, the Advisor Blogger
* Marion Asnes, editor in chief of Financial Planning magazine
* Cathy Curtis, owner of financial planning firm focusing on women and money

Also, look to see who’s followed by people you respect. For example, I believe I discovered Kristen Luke when Bill Winterberg directed a tweet at her. By the way, Kristen has written “Twitter Your Way to New Clients, Part One” and “Part Two.”

3. Learn the nitty-gritty of how to tweet. I like “Getting Started on Twitter” on the Tech for Luddites blog written by Elizabeth Kricfalusi. There are lots of social media gurus out there. Many of them are good, but few are as consistently helpful as Elizabeth with my technical questions. She gives great step-by-step instructions for non-technical people like me. 

4. Interact with people on Twitter. The people who get the most out of Twitter interact with others on Twitter. They answer questions posed by other folks on Twitter or get a conversation going in some other way. The few times I’ve posted questions on Twitter, I was surprised by how quickly I got answers. 

5. Figure out why you’re on Twitter, so you can plan your time–and tweets–accordingly. But be prepared to adjust your expectations. I got on Twitter to promote my blog. But I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how much I’ve learned from people on Twitter. I hope I can give back as much as I’ve gotten.

If you dip your toes in the Twitterverse, let me know how it goes. Also, feel free to leave your Twitter tips–or questions–in the comments. I’m still a Twitter novice, so I can learn from you.


December 2010 update about AdvisorTweets:

Thanks, Pat Allen, for the following reminder.

Great advice then and now but may we add one source to your list? On AdvisorTweets.com, which launched in September 2009, we’re aggregating the tweets of U.S. based financial advisors. We encourage advisors new to Twitter to let us know via email or start following our Twitter account @AdvisorTweets–we’ll add those who are using their accounts for business purposes to our database, which should help build their following.

Related posts:
* What the heck is Twitter?
* Should stock analysts use Twitter?
* Compliance makes social networking tougher for registered reps than for RIAs

A financial advisor’s "Cure for Money Madness"

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People are too obsessed with money and need to get over their irrational beliefs about it, so they can focus on living their lives. That seemed to be the main point of Spencer Sherman’s March 19 talk to the Wharton Club of Boston. Sherman is the author of The Cure for Money Madness.

Sometimes it takes a life-threatening experience to make your aware of your money madness. Take the case of Sherman’s friend Billy, who went swimming by himself off a Hawaiian beach. He panicked when he got caught in a riptide. Instead of swimming parallel to the shore, as experts recommend, he headed straight for the beach. Billy thought his life was over. His last thought before he was rescued? “At least I don’t have to worry about my finances any more.” Finally, Billy put his money into perspective.

Your irrational feelings about money, which are rooted in your childhood, spur you to make mistakes, said Sherman. For example, you may feel that your self-worth depends on your net worth. So you may “buy high and sell low” instead of the more desirable “buy low, sell high.” 

Sherman mentioned some techniques for developing a more rational approach. For starters, think about how you’d advise a friend who’s in your situation because it’s easier to be rational about someone else’s money. Would you advise her or him to buy this stock, build this addition to the house, or take this job? Sherman’s book has a section devoted to exercises and he offers presentations and free conference calls on money madness. 

One of Sherman’s suggestions surprised me. He’d like us to ask ourselves “How can we make our current financial situation the goal?” I’m so accustomed to financial advisors focused on growing their clients’ wealth instead of finding satisfaction now. Ironically, he said, when we stop striving for more, we see the possibilities in what we’ve got. The idea of making the most of what we’ve got seems very appropriate today. 

I liked Sherman’s exercise for adjusting to less wealth.
1. Together with your spouse or significant other, write down your spending intentions for 2009.
2. Figure out how to create a great life within the limitations of those spending intentions.
3. Cut your 2009 spending intentions by 25% or even 50%. Get creative about working within those limits. For example, instead of eating out, you could organize potluck dinners and spend more time with family and friends.

If you’re intrigued by Sherman’s approach, check out his website or one of his YouTube videos.


How can I come up with ideas for a weekly newspaper column on personal finance?

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That’s the question a newly independent advisor asked me.

Before I offer some ideas, I’m going to challenge the idea that a newspaper column must be weekly. As newspapers decline, this advisor would be lucky to get into print once a month. But let’s assume the paper DOES need a weekly column. How about offering to rotate authorship with three advisors who have different niches?  You’ll reduce your burden and increase the range of topics covered by the column. That sounds like a win-win situation to me. If you know of anyone who’s tried column-sharing, please leave a comment below. 

Once you’ve landed your column, here are some sources for ideas.
1. Questions your clients ask you
2. LinkedIn and other social networking sites–See what questions appear on relevant LinkedIn’s groups. Pose a question in a social networking forum. For example, “What’s your most pressing personal finance question?” or “What questions do you have about managing your 401(k)?”
3. Professional publications–Have you read an interesting article in Financial Planning, Advisor Perspectives. Financial Analysts Journal or some other trade publication? Talk about the topic in plain terms that regular folks can understand.
4. Newspapers, TV, and other media–It’s especially good to pick a controversial topic.
5. Personal finance blogs–There are lots of good blogs out there. For a list of financial and economic blogs read by financial advisors, check out the list on page 3 of my article, “Investment Strategy Blogs Slow to Influence Financial Advisors.” For a more recent list, see “RIA blogs recommended by my Twitter friends.”

Can you suggest more sources? Please leave a comment.

Note: This post was updated on May 18, 2015 to remove a broken link and to add more recent information.

Madoff whistleblower Harry Markopolos speaks

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You can see Harry Markopolos speak in the video excerpts that make up part of “One-On-One With Harry Markopolos: Validated, But Not Satisfied” on WBUR’s website.

According to an editor’s note, “More interview excerpts will be posted March 30 in conjunction with a special profile of Markopolos slated to air on Morning Edition.”

Also, you can view the “60 Minutes” interview with Harry, including some clips from the BSAS Market Outlook dinner.

Funds using alternative investment strategies gain steam

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Alternative investments that are less correlated to major market indexes are gathering momentum in the advisor community. Two trends are fueling the movement. First, the sharp market declines since September 2008 have boosted the attraction of strategies that don’t dive along with stock market. “This year, people are looking to dial down risk in their portfolios,” says Bill Harding, director of research at Morningstar Investment Services in Chicago. Second, these strategies are increasingly available to those who don’t qualify as accredited investors (with investable assets of $1 million or more).

Continue reading “Against the Grain,” my article in the March 2009 issue of Financial Planning magazine (free registration may be required for access).

Also, here’s some information that didn’t make it into the article. It’s the list of funds used by the advisors whom I interviewed.

Absolute Opportunities
Absolute Strategies
Arbitrage
Diamond Hill Long-Short
Direxion Commodity Trends
Gateway
Highbridge Statistical Market Neutral
Hussman Strategic Growth
Merger
Nakoma Absolute Return
PIMCO CommodityRealReturn Strategy
Robeco Boston Partners Long/Short Equity
Rydex Managed Futures Strategy

What you’re missing if you don’t blog

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Financial planners who don’t blog are missing out on a great opportunity to connect with prospective clients, according to “Social media in financial planning — the sweet spot and the sweet gap.” Why? Because many of your most desirable prospects read blogs.



On the other hand, if you do blog, you’re in a minority. Apparently fewer than 1% of financial planners blog, according to research from Kahuna Content.


Thanks to Bill Winterberg for bringing this information to my attention.


Would you "robo call" your financial planning clients?

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I wouldn’t.

I winced when I saw “robo calls” among the crisis communications tools recommended by a marketer who shall remain anonymous. This person suggested using robo calls to invite financial planning clients to a quickly organized meeting or conference call at a time of crisis.

Robo calls. Those automated, pre-recorded phone messages that jam up my phone line even after I hang up. I don’t care what their topic is. I do not want to be robo-called.

But is there a good alternative for speedy communication with many people? If you’ve got 300 clients, like some investment advisors I’ve known, it isn’t practical to call each one individually. Letters aren’t fast enough. Email blasts require that you have email addresses for all of your clients–and that they pay attention to email. 

Maybe robo calls would be okay if you get your clients’ permission in advance to use this method only in times of crisis.

What do YOU think?

"50 Things Your Customers Wish You Knew"

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“50 Things Your Customers Wish You Knew” by Sonia Simone  on the Remarkable Communication blog gives you some great insights into your clients.

Client opinion #10 is: “I don’t understand a lot of the messages you send me. Can you make them clearer?” That resonates with me.

I wonder about #16, “The wealthier I get, the more I like free stuff.” Is that true of your clients?

How about #34? “I have the attention span of a goldfish. Go too long without contacting me and I’ll simply forget you exist.“

Most important of all, at #50: “It really is all about me.” 

Can you add something to this list that’s specific to clients of financial advisors? 

I found “50 Things” thanks to “Top 10 Blog Posts for Writers (The Best From The Best in 2008!)”  by Michael Stelzner.


Financial planning firm benefits from Twitter

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Are you struggling to figure out how Twitter micro-blogging can help you as a financial advisor?

In “Yes, Twitter Can Help Financial Planners,” Bill Winterberg blogs about how using Twitter helped his firm do a better job of ensuring their tax loss harvesting is executed without errors.

Twitter brought him a solution to a pesky challenge in an Excel spreadsheet. It was a problem he’d unsuccessfully tried to resolve by Googling. Then he sent out an appeal for help via Twitter–and got his solution within a day.

Related posts:

Build your team–and your client base–with book clubs

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You can train your staff using a book club, suggests Kirk Hulett of Securities America Inc. in “Move Over Oprah,” published in Practice Management Solutions (Nov./Dec. 2008).

Hulett got me thinking. How about running a financial book club for your clients or prospects? It could deepen your relationship with them as you learn more about what makes them tick.