D. Bruce Johnston, Fund Marketer turns to Social Media

According to MutualFundWire this week,  D. Bruce Johnston “has launched a new venture” called Advisōlocity.

Named Fund Marketer of the Year by Institutional Investor (2000),  Mr. Johnston developed the new firm with financial marketer John Drachman and web developer Zach Hedges. Advisōlocity will provide financial social media marketing communications to investment managers, independent advisors, and service providers, he said.

The timing for Advisōlocity’s launch may be advantageous for financial advisors. According to Financial Planning last week, while only “half of advisors have yet to dip their toes in the water, 62%  think social media outreach will have a lasting impact on their businesses.”

John Drachman: Early Advisor Success with Social Media Starter Kit

Mr. Drachman  said, “No one can afford to ignore all of the free marketing bandwidth that financial social media  provides.”

Following FINRA’s common sense guidance on social media in January, Mr. Drachman continued, “Distributors and advisors are shopping for ways to apply these tools to their own situation.”

A good place for financial marketers to dip their toes, then, may be “Advisōlocity’s Financial Social Media Starter Kit,” he suggested. ”A campaign in-a-box, the Kit is designed to help create a firm’s peer network, capture contacts, engage and convert prospects – and raise assets under management,” he added.

Zach Hedges: Smaller Advisors Have Social Media High Ground

Not all firms are contemplating social media strategies. Mr. Hedges pointed out that a number of larger firms, “like Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch have put a hold on advisor social media initiatives, essentially leaving the high ground to smaller firms looking for a competitive advantage.”

Mr. Hedges invited advisors, money managers and service providers to visit www.advisolocity.com to download a complimentary copy of Advisōlocity’s white paper, “One-2-One: How to Conduct 1000 Client Discussions at Once.”