Being a thought leader may be easier than you think when you identify your unique characteristics and articulate them to your constituency.

In preparing an investment policy statement or proposal, how much would it be worth to you to have access to a reliable record of a prospective client’s likes, dislikes and goals?

It only takes minutes to sign up for social networking

In a similar vein, when an advisor knows a prospective client’s social networking interests, they will likely uncover a rich source of voluntary, accurate and timely information at their fingertips — market intelligence that may well have a place in a closing presentation.

Advisors who wish to untap the market intelligence in their prospect’s social networking habits should consider trying four steps to testing the social media marketing waters for themselves.

1. Engaging your audience It takes only a few minutes to sign up and gain access to most social networking sites. Whether you are preparing for a family office meeting or an institutional presentation, knowing more about the influencers and decision-makers in your proposal approval process can prove invaluable.

2. Identify and articulate your areas of thought leadership What are the particular challenges your prospect is confronting that can be met by your professional expertise? Establishing thought leadership expands an advisor’s presence, while accelerating client qualification. After drafting an article about the refundable AMT credit that was mostly overlooked in last year’s stimulus bill, one advisor we know posted the article through a number of blogs dedicated to financial social media marketing. The effort resulted in many repeat visits to his web site, requests for more information and increased business.”

3. Expand your presence Many financial advisors are turning to public domain blogging tools like WordPress.com and BlogSpot.com to establish their own thought leadership networks. Here, an advisor can post articles, as well as third-party information feeds. We’re also hearing from advisors who are keeping their thought leadership expertise separate from their product and services. This facilitates the compliance review process as well.

4. Distinguish yourself By taking the time to learn more about your clients through their social media preferences, you show them a new type of earned respect for their interests, challenges and communications preferences.

While many of your competitors rush to catch up with the promise of financial social media marketing, you can solidify your advantages now with the occasional tweet that suggests ‘FYI, I thought you would like to see this recent article… I would welcome a comment from you on my blog.’

John Drachman is a creative social media professional, who specializes in investment marketing, social media, writing, web design and development.

According to AdvisorTweets, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. (FINRA) says the delay is needed to reconcile comments from their membership.

As reported in DBJ Associates, the industry is taking a closer look at social media as sales literature because advisors and investors want to have a hand choosing the communications forms they prefer. “The cost of not communicating to advisors and clients through their preferred vehicles (social media) does not make a lot of long-term business sense.” Mr. Johnston said recently.

You can download your copies of Proposed New FINRA rules and Comment on Notice here.

Mutual fund marketers want to use social media

FINRA has no intention of addressing  the social media question directly.  In fact, the term “social media” appears nowhere in both the text of the new rule, nor Regulatory Notice 09-55, the comment notice.

The notice invites interested readers to call Joseph P. Savage, Vice President and Counsel, Investment Companies Regulation, at (240) 386-4534; or Thomas A. Pappas, Vice President and Director, Advertising Regulation, at (240) 386-4553 and state opinions.

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Social media marketing is still fairly untested in the financial services world. A recent FRC Monitor noted, for example, that “… the asset management industry has been slow to use the technology effectively.”

That’s why we were very pleased when a Registered Investment Advisor asked us to write the copy, then develop and conduct a social media effort for his business. The project offered a compact example to marketing writers and managers for how advisors and money managers can raise assets by engaging their clients in the more informal, conversational ways provided by social media.

Social media marketing uses social networks, online communities or blogs for marketing, sales and public relations purposes. Our client, Charles “Chuck” Steege, CFP,^® asked us to build a three-part webinar program, Uncovering The Fortune That Lies Hidden In Executive Compensation, and conduct the program through the summers dog days.

“The program was very successful for us,” Chuck said. Using three webcasts, a press release, an email campaign and targeted third-party blogging, we were able to drive up the RIA’s page 1 Google presence, which served to create fresh momentum, interest and business.

The firm’s abundant appearances in financial blogs were used for marketing purposes. Sending a blog posting via e-mail to client is similar to sending a photocopy of a press clip. It establishes an advisor’s thought leadership. This project convinced us that applying social media’s free, readily available public domain tools to an outreach campaign is the short-cut to sales success.

See the whole case study on SlideShare here

For under $10,000, Chuck attracted four times that amount in new fees on some $4 million in assets. More importantly, he created a prospecting base of 21 high net worth individuals who wanted to know more about Chuck’s services in the next 60 days.

The experience showed us how low cost social media marketing strategies can contribute to increased assets under management.