Research Reveals Break-Out Thinking By Content Consumers

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I had three minor experiences last weekend that primed me for some research I came across Monday and want to share with you.

Nothing in the research is specific to the investment management industry. (For that, see the Rock The Boat Marketing post from earlier this month.) But I’m hoping that you’re having a slow pre-holiday week and that you may have the time for some conceptual thinking about the future of content development and what it means for your cross-platform (Web, apps, social media, tablets, smartphones and TV) narrative work in the future.
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Want People To Care? Tell Them A Story

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Note: The Wall Street Journal published a blog post earlier this week (“Are We All Braggarts Now?”) that I fear might apply to me vis-à-vis the bragging I do about the next generation of my family. If you indulge just one more post referring to the accomplishments of my nieces and nephews, I pledge to reform. 

Members of my family, me included, have been beating a path to our nation’s capital this summer for a once-in-a-life opportunity: To get a tour of the U.S. Capitol from none other than my nephew the congressional intern.

Those 2.5 hours were among the most fascinating I’ve ever spent, and not just because we were given VIP treatment. But because even when you’re learning and re-learning about the home of the legislative branch of the U.S. government—whose history ought to be riveting enough—the stories to be told trump the facts and figures every time.
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What I Don’t Know (A Partial List)

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The risk that I or any blogger runs is that we come across as a know-it-all. But, it’s just natural that we veer toward issues where we can add value. Today and probably for today only, I'm sharing a few items from my random running list of what I just don’t know.

What is Yahoo! Finance's Mojo?

Since Yahoo! is in the news this week, let’s start with it. I don’t know why or how Yahoo! Finance continues to trounce all finance sites, including its monster competitor in search, Google.

The screenshot below of the top five finance sites is from Compete. Note that Google Finance (weighing in with fewer than 2 million visitors in March, according to Comscore) isn’t even on the list.

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Asset Managers Start To Say It With Pictures

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“Hey, I read your ____.”

That would be the highest compliment that a family member could ever give me. After years of writing for various publications and companies, I’m still waiting to hear that a relative other than my sainted mother (she’d suffer through anything) read something that I wrote.

And yet the other day, I happened to mention something that I saw on an asset manager site to my recent college graduate niece. “Oh, I’d like to see that,” said Katy. And, the knife turned when she texted me later to remind me to send her the link.

Huh.

If you’re in the words business, as many asset management firms are, change is in the air. Signs are that the rest of the world, my family included, wants to see more than they want to read.
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Lurking Made Easy By Twitter

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It’s been a hot week so I thought I’d keep this post light and non-taxing.

By now, some if not most asset managers are finding a way to monitor social sites for mentions of their subject domains, their people, their products and their competitors. More than a few are all-in, having made serious investments in industrial strength tools.

Here’s an easy, no-cost way to keep an eye on what other mutual fund and exchange-traded fund (ETF) firms are doing on just one site, Twitter.
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