By John C. Drachman

Will money managers soon be showing their customers more love?

According to D. Bruce Johnston, due to pressures from outside the industry, most notably from banks, the answer is a resounding “yes.”

Loud and clear: customers want attention

“As the customer service benchmark is being raised outside of the industry, money managers too will find themselves held to a higher standard by investors and advisors,” added the president of DBJ Associates.

Banks have raised customer service bar

Johnston sees part of the pressure coming from the rise of mobile technology, especially  iPads, which “are conditioning people to expect instant access to information 24/7.”

According to Johnston, such initiatives are not unknown in investment distribution. “It’s something asset managers have been trying to teach through value-add programs — to be more sensitive to the clients’ needs,” he said in a recent Hannah Glover article for Ignites. “It’s time for asset managers to apply the same standards to both advisors and investors,” he added.

Johnston, co-author of Introduction to Social Media with R. Jeffrey Young of Huntington Asset Services, added that “As firms study and adapt to the new world of enhanced customer service, they should not overlook creative and cost-efficient solutions that are close at hand.”

Johnston concluded that social media blogs and networks offer financial marketers a convenient and inexpensive way to provide more service-oriented communications to customers.

By John C. Drachman

From Sugar Land, Texas to Atlanta, Georgia, financial advisors like Curtis A. Smith and Russ Thornton are finding that attracting new business in cyberspace can be as carefree and neighborly as Facebooking friends about the local sports team.

FAs Are Making a Bigger Splash with Social Media

Advisolocity President and CEO, D. Bruce Johnston interviewed the two professionals recently for a BrightTalk webinar on “Linking Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to Maximize Business Growth.”

The two said they have attracted new business to their firms by successfully building out their local presence with social media over the past two years.

For Curtis, the stated goal in the beginning was to achieve a #1 Google page presence for his products and services in the Sugar Land Texas region. “I found that Facebook friending in my community was very important,” he said. By knowing more about a prospect’s background, interests and hobbies, he has been able to achieve more relationship depth faster, he added.

Russ Thornton said, “Social media helps you better identify the people you should be talking to. It also provides you with more information about them to better prepare for a meeting.”

“However,” he added, “It’s important to remember you can’t just stay online. I believe strongly in getting out in the community and meeting people.”

Making client contacts outside of a community is possible, Russ noted, “as long as your client has some flexibility as to how much of their business can be conducted over the phone and online.”

To Bruce’s question about how important maintaining a structured marketing plan was to their efforts, Curtis said, “I don’t need a big, elaborate marketing plan. Social media levels the playing field and creates your presence just by you using it.”

Russ added, “It’s hard to know where to spend your time and money. Social media is proving to be the low cost dynamic way to put yourself out there and raise your profile.”

What about industry colleagues who are not ready to try social media? “They are making a big mistake,” Curtis said.

By John Drachman

“I don’t understand  about contact capture — I just need client acquisition.” (Overheard from a discussion between two financial advisors.)

An important part of any growth strategy is having the capability to reach out and attract new interest.

To promote products and services through traditional marketing venues, marketers face a task that can be time-consuming, expensive and perhaps annoying for recipients of a message. Think of paper-based direct mail.

Client acquisition's new best friend: Social media

On the other hand, social networking, participation in blogs and discussions groups are easy for prospects to engage in without having to make a commitment — until they are ready. Meanwhile, the link between a prospect and a product has a chance to strengthen over time. The decision to receive a message is elective; the prospect has a choice to engage in the communications — or opt out.

Simply put, low cost social media efforts act like a 24/7 business development machine for financial advisors and money managers on a budget.

If you are thinking about setting the stage for undertaking your own social media initiative, Advisolocity’s latest webinar, “Where Social Media Meets Client Acquisition,” can help. It aims to answer questions like these:

• What’s the minimum effort required to undertake a social media effort?
• What is the single best social media thing  you can do to improve client acquisition?
• What are the steps that lead from capturing contacts to actually acquiring clients?

To see  how easy-to-use, low-cost social media programs are helping asset managers and advisors stand out in a crowded market, view “Where Social Media Meets Client Acquisition.”

There is a new research forum in town that is dedicated to investigating a method for predicting mutual fund performance.

According to Neil Anderson, of MutualFundWire.com, “Fundsters may repeat the required-by-law ‘past performance does not guarantee future results’ mantra, but a pair of Fidelity alumni are taking a stab at anticipating outperformance.”

Quadrant power: Can FundReveal make performance predictable?

The two ‘fundsters’ are Ani Chitaley and Anthony DuBon, co-developers of Fund Reveal, a  fund performance system.

The purpose of their blog, Mutual Fund Performance Forum, according to Mr. Chitaley, is to engage advisors and investors in a conversation about  mutual fund measurement best practices.

The Power of the Quadrant

At the heart of the duo’s research efforts is a quadrant analysis that employs risk, return and persistence measures to offer a predictive approach to mutual fund performance.

When investors enter fund names or symbols, FundReveal charts each fund in comparison with the S&P 500.

“We aren’t looking for the funds that hit home runs last quarter or last year.  We’re looking for those that provide solid best quadrant performance quarter after quarter and year after year.”  Mr. DuBon concluded.

To develop their new blog and integrate it with their web site, Mr. Chitaley and Mr. Dubon turned to Advisolocity’s John Drachman and Zach Hedges to implement their digital content strategy.

There is a new research forum in town that is dedicated to investigating a method for predicting mutual fund performance.

According to Neil Anderson, of MutualFundWire.com, “Fundsters may repeat the required-by-law ‘past performance does not guarantee future results’ mantra, but a pair of Fidelity alumni are taking a stab at anticipating outperformance.”

Quadrant power: Can FundReveal make performance predictable?

The two ‘fundsters’ are Ani Chitaley and Anthony DuBon, co-developers of Fund Reveal, a  fund performance system.

The purpose of their blog, Mutual Fund Performance Forum, according to Mr. Chitaley, is to engage advisors and investors in a conversation about  mutual fund measurement best practices.

The Power of the Quadrant

At the heart of the duo’s research efforts is a quadrant analysis that employs risk, return and persistence measures to offer a predictive approach to mutual fund performance.

When investors enter fund names or symbols, FundReveal charts each fund in comparison with the S&P 500.

“We aren’t looking for the funds that hit home runs last quarter or last year.  We’re looking for those that provide solid best quadrant performance quarter after quarter and year after year.”  Mr. DuBon concluded.

To develop their new blog and integrate it with their web site, Mr. Chitaley and Mr. Dubon turned to Advisolocity’s John Drachman and Zach Hedges to implement their digital content strategy.