Wholesalers, CRM Enhancements And The Risk Of Being Invisible

Maybe you know the old movie scene I’m thinking of. Two men are talking to one another. There’s a woman in the scene but for some reason they can’t see her. She’s agitated. She's trying to get their attention, she has information she thinks the men can use. But she isn’t getting through to them. She’s either invisible or dead.

That’s what was I was flashing back to while listening to a recent Wholesaler Masterminds podcast. Rob Shore was interviewing Sam Richter, author of Take the Cold Out of Cold Calling. The focus was on the intelligence-gathering that Richter recommends wholesalers do prior to calling on an advisor for the first time.

As you’ll hear at the 4:20 mark, Richter makes the point that business-to-business sales have changed since the rise of the Internet. Buyers (advisors) have what Richter calls buyer intelligence—advisors already know about wholesalers’ products and their brands.

“Seventeen years ago, if information is power, who had the power? You the wholesaler had the power because you were the only one who knew about the product. Today, everybody knows about the product,” Richter says.

He goes on to explain how wholesalers can use Google and find other information available on “the impersonal Web” to personalize selling by learning what there is to know about the advisors they’re meeting with. 

"Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care," says Richter, quoting Theodore Roosevelt.

Wholesalers Never Google Advisors?

Who could disagree with Richter’s message? And evidently, it’s needed.

On the Wholesaler Masterminds show notes page, Shore says an advisor once emailed him:“Wholesalers never Google me. Just lazy.”

Wow! Really? I would have thought that the very least a salesperson would do is use Google to search for any mentions of a prospect. Certainly, that’s what advisors themselves are being coached to use social media to do. (For just one example, see this recent SEI post on how advisors should be taking advantage of what they can learn on LinkedIn.)

I tweeted the “Wholesalers never Google me” line and it struck a chord with a few advisors, including this exchange. Financial planning influencer Michael Kitces re-tweeted the tweet, which Jamie Cox commented on. Note that Cox is a Barron’s top advisor whose broker-dealer is LPL. Probably on your wholesalers' top 250 lists.

RT @RockTheBoatMKTG: “Wholesalers never Google me. Just lazy”--why advisor recon is important http://t.co/wp6mTAur8G via @shorespeak

— MichaelKitces (@MichaelKitces) January 15, 2014

@MichaelKitces@RockTheBoatMKTG@shorespeak they're so dialed into leading w/ product, they overlook the obvious-who we serve, who we are..

— Jamie Cox (@jamesacoxiii) January 15, 2014

Hey! What About The CRM? How About Checking The CRM?

But all of that is just prelude to what prompted this post. While listening to the podcast, I kept waiting for a mention of the mutual fund or exchange-traded fund (ETF) wholesaler’s CRM as a font of knowledge about advisors.

Most marketers I talk to are working studiously on building out the intelligence of the CRM. They're equipping wholesalers with information on advisors’ interaction with marketing communications, including email and Website pages, and they're at least piloting lead scoring based on digital language combined with AUM and sales data.

A growing number are integrating social profiles (e.g., LinkedIn and Twitter) for near real-time updates of what advisors are up to. (See this July 2013 post about Putnam's work.) After listening to Richter’s explanation of his YouGotTheNews.com, I’m thinking there should be an integration with Google News to bring in local news. Maybe some firms have that underway.

To listen to the podcast is to get the impression that wholesalers are on their own out there. That there's no awareness of what's being piped into customer databases. It could help. There's data that could warm up a cold call or an attempt to reconnect.

For Sales productivity, for the good of the enterprise and for Marketing (as in, “You spent all that time on that and to what end?”), these enhancements should not go unseen. 

           rob Shore

I reached out to Shore, whose Website claims an email list of 10,000 wholesaler names, as a proxy for wholesalers. What was his sense of the CRM as a go-to source for advisor reconnaissance?

Rob ShoreFirst, Shore expressed surprise that Marketing is contributing added insights to the CRMs (and obviously not all are yet, firms are at various stages of delivering various pieces of information).

"No wholesaler has described to me the breadth of capability you just described," he said.

We talked about the potential value of data being reported on individual advisors' interactions with marketing emails or the traffic to Website pages, and he pushed back some.

“I really don’t care, we don’t know what wild hair took somebody to the Website. I don’t think it’s fair to infer that an advisor is hotly interested just because he looked at a few pages on your Website,” he said.

Several product detail pages in a compressed period of time with accelerated frequency? That might be different, Shore allowed. He said that if the CRM aggregated the kind of information heard in the podcast about advisors’ interests and accomplishments (some of this being made available via the social integrations), then that would be compelling and useful information.

We wound our way around to talking about a higher level issue, though, and that’s wholesalers’ use of the CRM, in general. It continues to be what Shore called “spotty.”

“Wholesalers who use SalesForce, as an example, most effectively are committed to robust documentation of a sequence of sales events…My sense and my observation is that there’s not enough of that, there’s not enough of wholesalers committing to diligent CRM input,” he said.

Marketing Is Going To Have To Sell It

It was fun talking to Shore because it was theoretical. It wasn’t the loaded kind of interaction that can characterize Marketing/wholesaler exchanges, when Marketing wants to talk about partnering on a database roadmap and Sales wants to know where an approved presentation is. At the same time, he represented the wholesaler perspective—and the challenge for marketers if all this CRM integration work is going to become visible and yield results.

The work is far from done when a Marketing-led CRM enhancement is complete. It seems clear that Sales management and wholesalers are themselves going to need to be sold on the value of it.

Let’s give Shore the last word:

“How do you prove the value to a sales guy who ‘just wants to sell’? How are you going to show wholesalers how to use the data efficiently in the course of a day when they’re crushed with information, and without them needing to become a propeller head? The data may be there but in the swirl of everything else that the wholesaler is supposed to be proficient at, how can Marketing make them better at using the data?”

Social Media And The Asset Management Industry: What’s The Plan?

This is a different role for me. I’m not usually the naysayer in the crowd. Nay is not something I ever say. But a piece published by EY in the UK about the urgency of social media to the asset management industry worldwide has me struggling to suspend belief. 

Specifically, the EY EMEIA Asset Management Viewpoint "Asset management and social media," with a November 2013 date but published online December 19, envisions a much more evolved and involved industry in just six years:

"The effective use of social media does not just have the potential to improve asset managers’ revenues. It also offers some unique benefits in the post-purchase evaluation phase, by giving asset managers the chance to gather feedback direct from individual investors. This is not limited to views of fund performance. It includes the opportunity to engage with investors to better understand other drivers of their satisfaction. Asset managers can then use this insight to shape their development of products and services."

So much would have to happen in order for most of this to come true. I just can’t see it. I recommend you read the full report (link opens a PDF). Here's my reaction, I'd love to hear yours below.

More Direct Sales in the UK

Straight up, let’s acknowledge that retail distribution in the UK has a different composition than in the United States.

In the UK, according to the Investment Management Association, more than half of retail sales come from fund platforms, and that rose six percentage points from October 2012 to October 2013. Forty percent of 2013 sales came from Other Intermediaries (includes wealth managers, stock brokers and IFAs). That share fell from 45% just one year earlier. Direct sales are about 7%. 

By contrast, according to the Investment Company Institute in 2012, 82% of funds owned outside of a retirement account by households were purchased through an investment professional. 

If social media—or, increasingly, social business—is going to shape asset manager relationships with investors in the United States, financial advisor intermediaries are going to be a part of the equation. That’s one point of departure from what EY's proposes as a global vision.

U.S. Firms Are The Most Advanced

The report characterizes social media in the asset management industry “as very much in its infancy.” Every once in a while, I’ll talk to someone from a European publication and they say that the U.S. market is easily more advanced than the UK. Just 10% of European asset managers “see social media as a key element of their marketing efforts, compared with almost 50% in the U.S.,” according to Cerulli Associates research quoted in a June 2013 Ignites Europe article.

If our experience is the most advanced, I feel quite certain that EY’s plan for 2020 is off the mark.

As we begin 2014, online interaction with most U.S. asset management firms is limited to non-existent. Few of the relatively few firms that offer blogs allow commenting. The industry's most followed Twitter account, @PIMCO, doesn’t reply, retweet or follow whatsoever. The recent change to Twitter activity has been a pullback—replies from most accounts are confined to customer service responses and retweeting has virtually stopped. Across U.S. firms, some are still fighting the battle to add social sharing icons to their Websites. 

With that as perspective, take a look at what EY expects asset managers worldwide to be doing in six years. 

I’m not saying that this vision wouldn’t 1) be cool (or that most digital marketers wouldn’t be all over it!) and 2) be consistent with how social is changing other businesses. And, indeed, random tweets directed at firms suggest that some people are becoming to expect more of this. It doesn't occur to them that asset management firms should be any different. And by that I mean, pretty much the same as they ever were.

The interactions EY envisions would require wholesale changes. These go beyond considering social media "a key element in marketing." They would revise how everybody within the firm does business. Legal/Compliance would have to greenlight the establishment of forums for asset managers to respond to criticism or negative stories. And the money managers would have to participate, with Customer Service, Sales/Marketing and IT all in the mix as well. Systems would need to be overhauled, if not built.

Most important: These changes would have to be preceded by agreement that the business needs to evolve in this direction, and development of a business-transformative strategy. (For more on this, read Altimeter Group's The State of Social Business 2013.) 

All of this by 2020? No way. I know of few firms working on plans to more broadly include financial advisors in strategic direction, product development and feedback, let alone investors.

As Time Marches On

Much of the EY argument hangs on the emergence of inflows from Generations X and Y and increasingly social investors. In the United States we see plenty of industry random discussion about the implications. Two recent examples: Fidelity believes the advisor’s role will evolve to “validator.” Finect looks for social interactions to drive more transparency—in the selection of advisors and products—in 2014. 

But I see no call to change. It's outside the traditional industry participants where do-it-yourself wealth management sites are working on offering some of what EY proposes.

I was eager to read this EY report. To date, firms have been following their own paths on the social networks, publicly sharing very little about their strategies. There has been no industry articulation of what the promise of social business is for investors or intermediaries, no shared roadmap.

The EY report—unless maybe it’s a straw man?—isn’t it. Is anybody else working on one?

22 Content Highlights To Remember From 2013

“And, the audience sprang to its feet and cheered…”

If you’re in the online content business, such physical signs of positive reinforcement are hard to come by. But, know that what you do is appreciated and often celebrated.

The following list contains 22 pieces of content. I cheered these gems when I learned about them at one point or another in 2013 and they've stood the test of as much as 12 months' time.

As in previous Rock The Boat Marketing annual content highlights (last year’s), this is an idiosyncratic compilation across multiple digital marketing subject domains. Most of these I like for their content, some for their design, their delivery or the evolution they represent. They're presented in no particular order.

Want to play along next year? Come join me on Twitter where the majority of these highlights were surfaced by the awesome information hounds I either follow or am led to. In 2013, I also explored more content on LinkedIn, Google+ and Pinterest—follow me on those networks or just check in once in a while on this site's Resources page.

1. How Google Reads Minds

The results that Google presents to you the searcher are based on how it “understands” the words you type into the search engine. You know what you want but your search query may have literal meanings that you don’t intend.

This excellent Vertical Measures graphic from April details what Google has in place to read your mind, and how that's evolving. The screenshot below is just a slice of the full infographic.

2. No Money Manager Is An Island

Part of being social is taking part in the broader community. Quite a few mutual fund and exchange-traded fund (ETF) firms seemed to acknowledge that this year with how they managed their social accounts. We saw more accounts following others, more sharing of others’ content and an occasional #FF (Follow Friday) recommendation.

No less than PIMCO’s Bill Gross acknowledged that investment and economic insight takes a village—and people showed a lot of interest in who influences this influential money manager. From August, this is one of PIMCO’s all-time most favorited tweets. It would have been too much to expect him to use the Twitter handles.

Gross: Strategists/writers I follow? Dalio, Durden, Bianco, Arnott, Aitken, Santelli, Grant, Grantham, Inker, Marks, Quaintenance & Brodsky

— PIMCO (@PIMCO) August 9, 2013

3. And We Are Doing This Why?

“…The silence around the economics of content is deafening,” says Forrester analyst Ryan Skinner in this July post 16 Ways to Turn Content Marketing into Business Value. Skinner then proceeds to break down what he names as catalysts of content marketing value: brand, next click, relationship, reach, data.

Many firms aspire to be content factories today, which is all well and good. Before you plow ahead into production, read the Skinner post to make sure you’re aligning what you’re doing with what drives value.

4. While You're At It, Throw In Some Sincerity, Too

It’s a good idea to present yourself as authentic and transparent. But, um, as this Tom Fishburne cartoon from June suggests, you may need to bring that in-house.

5. DIY Dashboard Help

Marketers need to be more analytical. That drumbeat got louder and louder as the year progressed. If you’ve ever found yourself looking for Excel training applied for marketers online, you may be happy to learn about this Excel dashboard series. Written by Annie Cushing and augmented by a video or two, it started in June on Search Engine Land and then continued on Marketing Land. 

6. Showing Signs Of Life On Google+

This November update isn’t on the list because the content is break-out. It’s a little more Facebook-y than I like for Google+.

But it’s an example of how the largest mutual fund company is not just experimenting but succeeding (relatively speaking) in engaging people on a social network that most investment companies have decided to ignore.

More than 700,000 people have circled the Vanguard account, 22 people +1ed this post, three shared it and 13 commented. And, what other social network (i.e., somebody else’s platform) provides such open real estate (no ads) for your message and yours alone?

7. A Map Can Show You Where You Need To Go

Infographics were so 2010. Still, I couldn’t resist spending several minutes of my life with this Gartner Digital Marketing Transit Map released in June.

Gartner says, "Organizations should use the map to identify the connection among business functions, applications tracks and providers. Map elements can be used to find additional research or structure questions about strategy and best practices as well as providers, products and selection criteria. It is also a useful device for mediating discussions between marketing and IT."

Show this to the people in your life who think all digital marketers do is email and the Website.

8. Right Time, Right Place

Advertising a financial advisor-only conference call? On Twitter? By Royce Funds? Yes, yes and yes. In October, Royce Funds showed its leading edge lead-generation chops by employing a Twitter card to drive sign-ups.

9. Lovely To Learn From

Design is rarely front and center for digital marketers, and yet it's especially important at a time when so many clients and prospects access information via mobile devices. You’ll take a lot from this Prophets Agency presentation published last January—and follow the account to learn when the 2014 outlook is available.

Trends in interactive design 2013

from

Prophets Agency

10. Where Do I Sign Up?

Few of us have high expectations when we go to a conference Website. Oh sure, the highest-profile events command the resources to deliver a functional, pleasant experience, but the majority of event sites lack luster.

That’s not the case with this vibrant LPL Connect 2013 site. I’d bookmarked it during the August event (which I attended by hashtag only) and hoped it would still be reachable when I returned to it for this list.

Outstanding—not only did it not go dark after the event, it’s been updated. Why would you go to a conference site afterward? Just one reason, probably. LPL lets the presentation archive dominate the home page, while most event sites require attendees to go looking. All that’s missing from my cursory review of the site is a Search capability. 

11. Sharing The Data

TD Ameritrade knew there was value in providing insights on what its investors were thinking. Previously, according to their Website, they'd satisfied media and others’ requests for information with opinion surveys.

That approach was upgraded considerably in January with the release of a quantitative, behavior-based index that reports on what retail investors are actually doing.

The Investor Movement Index, based on a sample of the firm’s 6 million accounts, is a tool that has ongoing marketing and communications utility. It raises the bar for other investment companies whose proprietary data contains insights when aggregated.

Wouldn’t it be cool (and ostensibly instructive) to someday get a full picture of what investors and 401(k) participants are doing, via a single site driven by the sampled and anonymized data from individual brokerage and investment firms?

12. Two Pictures = 1,000 Words

Nowadays, people are relying on mobile devices to share what they see around them and especially the news. We all need to plan accordingly.

Not that you needed the previous two sentences after looking at these photos comparing people anticipating a 2005 papal announcement in St. Peter's Square, Vatican City, and those in March 2013. 

If your client or boss isn't taking mobile strategy seriously, show them this picture of the Vatican crowd: pic.twitter.com/CPlrCbwrnp

— Fike (@MichaelFeldman) March 15, 2013

13. We Were Right There With You

From Google Earth to Reddit to Twitter, the Internet was focused on April’s Boston Marathon-related bombings.

From my perspective, this is the best content that came out of it. The rest of us were worried about Bostonians. In an inevitably schmaltzy way (is there any other when Neil Diamond is involved?), this video demonstrated their resilience. 

14. The Dope On SERPs

Google’s search engine results page (SERP) changed big-time in 2013. In October Moz provided a visual guide to all the variables that could possibly appear in (mostly organic) search results and why. Study the full guide (the screenshot below is just an excerpt) but don’t bother printing it—things may have changed since you started this post.  

15. Starting With Why

Water Investing, Calvert’s iPhone/iPad app launched in November, is different from other investment manager apps in at least four ways:

• It’s about something—the world's water crisis—as opposed to being a container of investment commentary and investment product information. The embedded video is effective at using the medium to communicate more than just words and images could.
• Its Daily Drip is an aggregation of others’ (non-Calvert) views and updates.
• It offers the tweets of not just the firm but three analysts using a #CalvertH20 hashtag.
• It includes a "Play" feature that uses the device's camera to simulate a water effect. Kinda corny but something to build on.

16. A Framework For Your Work

You could land on any blog post on Avinash Kaushik’s Occam’s Razor site and find Web analytics gold. But, make a special effort to read See-Think-Do: A Content, Marketing, Measurement Business Framework. Your entire day every day can be filled in the pursuit of digital marketing tactics. This post is a nudge to be more strategic in how you think about your work and its effectiveness.

BREAKING: Sorry, I can’t let this post fly without also mentioning a December post in which Kaushik lays out a digital marketing “ladder of awesomeness.” Another must-read. You might just want to subscribe to this site.

17. Endorse Me As Father of The Bride

A chuckle is the last thing I expect when I log into LinkedIn but, no kidding, some of the photos being used for profiles are funny. This MarketingProfs 19 More Reasons Your LinkedIn Headshot May Be an Epic Fail presentation is not exaggerating. Too bad it doesn't touch on one of the types of photos I commonly see. Men in tuxedos, really?

19 Reasons Your LinkedIn Photo Is an Epic Fail

from

MarketingProfs

18. Looking Under The Hood

Last week was all about learning an hour of code. I’m guessing most of you sat that one out. But this week, how about learning to just read the source code on your Website?

If your work has anything to do with optimizing your site for search engines, this KISSmetrics post from August provides an excellent foundation for how to confirm what's happening on your site. Bonus: Check other sites' source code to learn what they're up to. This screenshot is just the first example the post provides.

19. Out Of The Ashes

First there was the dramatic reading by James Earl Jones and Malcolm McDowell of Jenna’s Facebook for a Sprint commercial. I loved that. Moving onto the digital realm, on YouTube two actors re-enacted a YouTube comment war between two One Direction fans.

But the investment industry has nothing to do with most memes. We wouldn’t do the Blurred Lines knock-off videos, twerking is out of the question, and the President of the United States took part in a selfie before an asset manager CEO has. 

So, while I suffered along with other financial services marketers when the #AskJPM Twitterchat imploded, I have to say that a subsequent CNBC video published the next day thrilled me. Stacey Keach provides the dramatic reading. 

It didn’t go anywhere (just one tweet!) but let history show that this may have been the first stab at a meme. Thanks to my buddy Todd Donat for first sending me the link to this.

Too soon? I hope not.

20. In Another's Eyes

When one Website sneezes, do the other Websites catch a cold? Nah, the failings of healthcare.gov just inspired Slate in October to show how iconic sites Facebook, Yahoo, Amazon and Windows would have made the site over in their own image and likeness. Pretty genius. 

21. Borrowing From The Journalists

The introduction of data, including visualization, can add to the usefulness of content you’re creating.

But this is yet another competency that people in marketing positions today will have to learn on the job. Most likely, you will not be crunching the numbers, you’ll be managing the data-driven work. To be an effective partner and contributor you may have to dig in.

It was prepared for journalists and not marketers, but the Data Journalism handbook may be just the resource you need. The handbook, a version of which is also available in print, is a project of the European Journalism Centre’s Data Driven Journalism initiative.  

22. Tech To Watch Out For

The Marketing Arm’s Tom Edwards, the author of this contribution to iMedia Connection, sounds like he has one cool job as an evaluator of interactive/new media and emerging tech.

We’re the beneficiaries as he outlines—and provides plenty of examples of—six marketing technology trends. Included: collaborative commerce, curation, second screen and social TV, rich social media, crowdsourcing and social and CRM. The screenshot below shows the user interface of a social TV app.

This post will do it for me for 2013. Happy Holidays to all and see you back here in the first week of 2014! 

The Next Wave: Asset Manager Executives Take To Twitter

When Nuveen joined Twitter last week (@NuveenInv), it became one of a dozen asset management firms that maintain at least one account for an individual executive in addition to a corporate account.

The Demand

If you work for a mutual fund or exchange-traded fund (ETF) company and your job includes social media, this development is no surprise to you. From what I hear, thought leaders are chomping at the bit to “get out on Twitter” and are attempting to enlist the help of any random body in Marketing to get it done. Their gravitas notwithstanding, thought leaders have to wait in the Legal/Compliance/IT queue for social media enablement and archiving.

On Twitter, a few users are even asking for accounts to be created for some of the industry’s bigger names. DoubleLine Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer Jeffrey Gundlach is at the top of that list, based on my unscientific monitoring. Gundlach also has the unique distinction in this space for having inspired a fake Twitter account: @fauxGundlach. Until an official @Gundlach account surfaces, users will have to be content using the #Gundlach hashtag.

A Twitter List

Here’s a list of the mutual fund and ETF executive Twitter accounts that I know of. (If I’ve missed any, please advise below.) All of the names below have been added to a new Rock The Boat Marketing InvestmentMngrs_Execs Twitter list. In addition, I’m including them on the InvestmentManagers Twitter list that I maintain, for the broadest way to follow asset managers’ presence on Twitter. 

By my count, Invesco has the most individual accounts, followed by First Trust (we Illinoisans love us some Twitter!). Even PIMCO, where the industry’s most prominent individuals (Bill Gross and Mohamed El-Erian) post using @PIMCO, has an individual account.

Note that the list includes investment strategists, economists, a product strategist, retirement specialists and just two CEOs. Seventeen names representing a $15 trillion industry? There's a lot of room for growth here, and I believe this is the next wave of what firms will be doing on Twitter—introducing many more voices. (And, recall that Putnam has said that its wholesalers are heading to Twitter next.)

The Advantages

There are quite a few advantages to launching an individual account.

• It's straightforward. While a corporate Twitter account typically precedes the launch of an individual account, it’s not always in that order. A few firms have found it easier to launch an individual account first.

“What would we tweet about?” and “Who would do it?” are two show-stopping questions easily answered when a thought leader account is envisioned.

• Additional followers. People will follow investment strategist accounts who won’t follow a corporate account. Savvy Twitter users, including most financial advisors, know that corporate accounts come with a lot of promotional and/or non-relevant updates. An individual account can elevate brand awareness in its own way. Be aware, though, that Marketing can expect some interesting times as you try to sort it all out.

Here’s a screenshot of the limited (12%) overlap between the First Trust corporate account (with many fewer followers) and the @wesbury account of Chief Economist Brian Wesbury. People who follow Wesbury get an earful of all kinds of stuff, some on-brand and some—I’m guessing here—far afield. (See a related post from May 2012: 3 Ways Asset Manager Tweeting Is Evolving.)

• Specialization. A specialized account has extra appeal for those who focus on Twitter. This is just another instance where total follower counts mean little. Example: If I were a reporter following the retirement business or a financial advisor focused on it, Invesco’s Tom Rowley account would be a must-follow.

• Personality and tone. Some corporate Twitter accounts do a terrific job with brand voice and personality but it can be a struggle. By contrast, an individual account has just one, authentic personality to think about. Personal accounts attract more interest and engagement.

The catch for asset managers: Even more so than for corporate accounts, people are going to talk to individuals and they are going to want to hear back, too. The individual who has authority to post but not re-tweet or reply has his or her hands tied in a way that will limit the success of a Twitter strategy (the non-responsive @PIMCO account being the exception).

The Twitter platform is every bit as able as CNBC to host an exchange between investment or product strategists. Why couldn't this happen?

The unleashing of egos on public platforms without a referee is not for the feint of heart, by the way, as hinted by this exchange yesterday between Virtus' Joe Terranova and someone complaining about a missed forecast.

@Aftermath_2012 think I did better than that w my mea culpa on Gold not pulling back another 20% by the end of the year

— Joe Terranova (@terranovajoe) August 12, 2013

Who’s Doing The Promotion?

I know of other employees of asset management firms who are on Twitter. They’re not in spokesperson or high visibility positions, however. And, their Twitter bios either omit mention of their employer or explicitly state that they speak for themselves only. If you’re on Twitter but want to stay under the radar, rest assured that I will keep it to myself until you change your status.

The bios of the accounts on the list above expressly mention their official roles, and the tweets have to do with their roles. But if they're not supposed to be a secret, I wonder why these have such low visibility. Few of these accounts are mentioned either in the account bios or on the Twitter backgrounds of the corporate page. There's practically no embrace of them (e.g., a display of recent tweets) on the firms' Websites.

An exception: Check out the prominence Oppenheimer gives its three Twitter account feeds at the bottom of the home page of its site. 

Do corporate entity issues prevent the accounts of some of these firms from acknowledging the accounts of an employee affiliated with a different subsidiary? I suppose that could be what it is.

But, if it's an oversight this is easily addressed. Just as a firm can’t afford to have individuals taking to Twitter without jumping through the required hoops, neither will a firm want to see what happens when Twitter account promotion is left to an individual’s devices. Thought leaders can be pretty creative, remember.

My recommendation: Make sure your individual Twitter account implementation plan considers how to give it presence and ongoing marketing attention. 

Which mutual fund or ETF executives would you expect to see soon on Twitter? 

Using Social Media To Get The Marketing Job Done

Wow. I had an interaction at the recent Morningstar conference that was reminiscent of something I used to experience all the time back in the day.

“Um, what’s this?” I innocently asked, picking up an asset manager-branded—well, there’s no sugarcoating it—parasol.

“Oh, you know...Marketing,” said the Sales guy manning the booth and rolling his eyes at the same time.

Right. I remember those days when Marketing Communications' ability to contribute was so limited that we brainstormed giveaways, fretted over the size of the logo on the tchotchkes and then worried about their safe and timely passage from wherever they were manufactured overseas. It was a kind of work, we were doing what we could and yet I think we all knew that the results were lame. That kind of marketing didn’t mean much to Sales or to the business.

Benefit #1: Marketing Plays A Relevant Role

Nowadays my Sales interactions typically involve Sales and account teams eagerly collaborating with Marketing. Digital distribution enables us to communicate quickly, not in real-time but getting there. Far beyond the (still required) quarterly retrospectives, these new communications typically involve shedding light on something that financial advisors care about going forward, and need to understand now.

And, social media is increasingly being employed to amplify. Thanks to the heightened relevance of the content and broader visibility of it, asset managers' perspectives and visuals are making their way into online discussions (here's just one example) like never before.

The powerful combination of content marketing and social media is significantly elevating the return on firms' investment in marketing and its marketers. 

Displaying the generosity that often accompanies a good year, Sales has been super-complimentary to Marketing for “getting the word out.” Ah, it feels good to be pulling your own weight, doesn’t it? It’s something the parasol producer has yet to experience but, I’m optimistic, will.

That's my personal view of how mutual fund and exchange-traded fund (ETF) businesses have benefited by adopting contemporary communication methods. (And, your thoughts are always welcomed!)

But check out the infographic below for a snapshot of the top benefits of social media marketing achieved in 2013, as described by 3,000 marketers from all industries. The infographic was created by Wishpond based on the must-read 2013 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, the fifth annual published by the Social Media Examiner.

More exposure, better marketplace intelligence, higher search engine rankings and Sales’ respect and affection—what’s not to love about how social media can help business?