Top 12 financial advisors using social media

by Zack Miller on January 22, 2009

from searchenginewatch.com

Few in number but influential, financial advisors are using social media

As global investment assets shrink in a terrible market and huge brokerages like Smith Barney and Merrill Lynch have been sold off just to say afloat, asset managers of all sizes are turning to social media for a variety of reasons.  Social media helps target an asset manager’s brand message to a specific, accessible prospect base providing a sales funnel made up of extremely qualified leads.  Social media also helps market any revenue-based products a financial advisor may be selling, like subscription newsletters.

Below, I list the top 12 financial advisors adopting, using, and in some cases, absolutely blowing out social media.  Couple of points about how I compiled this list.

By the way, if you’re in financial services and want to understand how to use social media to grow your business, I recommend to  download HubSpot’s free eBook, “99 Tools to Help You Generate Leads with Social Media”.

I used the term financial advisor loosely.  The entries below are not all actual, licensed financial advisors but they are all in the business of giving financial advice.  I looked at whether the firms were using blogs as part of a content strategy and whether they were syndicating this content out to large investment content aggregators (SeekingAlpha).  I then looked at whether these firms were publishing an audited portfolio for performance tracking onto expert communities (Covestor).  I looked at whether these firms were using microblog site, Twitter, video upload site, YouTube, Facebook and lastly, whether they were marketing a pureplay content product (financial newsletters).

  1. Timothy Sykes: Blogging, top annualized performer on Covestor, twitter-ing, Facebook, YouTube, Subscription Products
  2. Jim Cramer, TheStreet.com: Blogging, Video, Twitter, Subscription Newsletter
  3. John Reese, Validea: Blogging, SeekingAlpha, Twitter, Subscription Newsletter
  4. Todd Sullivan: Blogging, SeekingAlpha, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Subscription Newsletter
  5. Mebane Faber: Blogging, SeekingAlpha, Subscription Research site
  6. David Merkel: Blogging, SeekingAlpha
  7. Richard Shaw, QVM Group: Blogging, SeekingAlpha
  8. Roger Nusbaum: Blogging, SeekingAlpha
  9. Sean Hannon, EPIC Advisors: Blogging, SeekingAlpha, Covestor
  10. Chris Fernandez, PeakStocks.com: Blogging, Covestor, Subscription Newsletter
  11. Trader Mark: Blogging, SeekingAlpha, Twitter
  12. Zachary Scheidt: Blogging, SeekingAlpha, Subscription Newsletter

Couple of points to note:

  • Ken Fisher, of Fisher Investments, is notably missing.  From my vantage point, Fisher was a pioneer in direct marketing offline and is still working these channels, though a lot of those advertising dollars have moved online.  No social media outlets from what I’ve seen.
  • I’ve written about Timothy Sykes before, our number 1 advisor who’s adopted social media.  He, in his own flamboyant way, just gets it.
  • It appears younger, hungrier firms are turning to social media to help build their brands and land new customers.  They are doing this by publishing their portfolios and providing actual audited results.
  • Many advisors are combining a multi-prong strategy of combining a research product for sale combines with an asset management practice.  It seems that these two businesses are mutually reinforcing.
  • Fidelity?  Vanguard?  Who?

What do you think?  Someone I totally missed and should have included?

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  • http://www.erollover.com/ Corbett Gilliam

    I do think social media is important in this market. It offers a more modern way of networking on a larger scale.

  • http://www.erollover.com Corbett Gilliam

    I do think social media is important in this market. It offers a more modern way of networking on a larger scale.

  • http://www.tradestreaming.com Tradestreaming

    yes, it does address networking but it’s also really beginning to drive the sales process. Social media allows investment advisors to cast a very large mouth sales funnel and then quickly push prospects through the conversion process.

  • http://www.newrulesforinvesting.com Zack Miller

    yes, it does address networking but it’s also really beginning to drive the sales process. Social media allows investment advisors to cast a very large mouth sales funnel and then quickly push prospects through the conversion process.

  • Anonymous

    Zack, I read this with great interest. How can financial advisors (or financial products providers) avoid social media indefinitely? I don’t think they can.

  • http://rocktheboatmarketing.com Pat Allen

    Zack, I read this with great interest. How can financial advisors (or financial products providers) avoid social media indefinitely? I don’t think they can.

  • http://www.tradestreaming.com Tradestreaming

    I agree, Pat. I think it’s inevitable that financial advisors adopt social media.

  • http://www.newrulesforinvesting.com Zack Miller

    I agree, Pat. I think it’s inevitable that financial advisors adopt social media.

  • http://twitter.com/garth_williams Garth Williams

    Zach, great article, I fully agree. My gf is a Financial Advisor and I have been pushing her for a while to get familiar with this medium of marketing to expand her business. Any advice about where she should start in trying to develop a network?

  • http://twitter.com/garth_williams Garth Williams

    Zach, great article, I fully agree. My gf is a Financial Advisor and I have been pushing her for a while to get familiar with this medium of marketing to expand her business. Any advice about where she should start in trying to develop a network?

  • http://www.tradestreaming.com Tradestreaming

    Hi Garth,
    Thanks for the nice comments. For sure, the first place to start connecting and building a network is LinkedIn. LinkedIn will provide you the ability to cement your online presence, create your social media ID, and then begin connecting with like-minded professionals and potential prospects.

  • http://www.newrulesforinvesting.com Zack Miller

    Hi Garth,
    Thanks for the nice comments. For sure, the first place to start connecting and building a network is LinkedIn. LinkedIn will provide you the ability to cement your online presence, create your social media ID, and then begin connecting with like-minded professionals and potential prospects.

  • http://newrulesofinvesting.com/2009/02/23/4-things-financial-advisors-can-do-right-now-to-boost-their-businesses/ 4 things financial advisors can do right now to boost their businesses « New Rules of Investing

    [...] of brokers.  He’s done it through expert use of the media.  Cramer chose TV and the web.  There is a whole class of financial advisors using social media to bring in new business and build their network and expertise. Combined with the previous 3 [...]

  • http://www.gravitythinking.com/ Andy

    I completely agree that social media is a hugely worthwhile pursui but I am cynical about the online behaviour of asset managers – do they surf and read and act upon it ???
    does anyone have any studies to back this up ?

  • http://www.gravitythinking.com Andy

    I completely agree that social media is a hugely worthwhile pursui but I am cynical about the online behaviour of asset managers – do they surf and read and act upon it ???
    does anyone have any studies to back this up ?

  • http://www.tradestreaming.com Tradestreaming

    Hi Andy,
    Great question and we’re definitely early in the game. In my post about a report on financial services firms using web 2.0, there is some activity. Corporate Insight, a firm mentioned in that article, is the only research firm addressing this that I know of. I’d be interested to see if anyone knows of others.

  • http://www.newrulesforinvesting.com Zack Miller

    Hi Andy,
    Great question and we’re definitely early in the game. In my post about a report on financial services firms using web 2.0, there is some activity. Corporate Insight, a firm mentioned in that article, is the only research firm addressing this that I know of. I’d be interested to see if anyone knows of others.

  • http://www.gravitythinking.com/ Andy

    Thanks Zack – for $12k I agree it would have to be very good !
    I agree with the summary points though

  • http://www.gravitythinking.com Andy

    Thanks Zack – for $12k I agree it would have to be very good !
    I agree with the summary points though

  • http://intertainmentmedia.com/blog/?p=42 Intertainment Media Inc. Official Corporate Blog » Can financial firms cope with social media?

    [...] Top 12 financial advisors using social media – “The New Rules of Investing” blog compiled its list of top 12 investors taking advantage of social media plus links to all their social media sites (e.g. Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs, etc.) [...]

  • http://www.sparkminute.com/?p=798 Spark Minute

    [...] Top 12 financial advisors using social media – “The New Rules of Investing” blog compiled its list of top 12 investors taking advantage of social media plus links to all their social media sites (e.g. Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs, etc.) [...]

  • fisheroutreach

    Great article about social media. I'm with Fisher Investments and familiar with the firm's social media efforts. Not only does Fisher maintain a presence on LinkedIn, but Ken Fisher also has a profile on Mashable.com (my.mashable.com/kenfisher) if you're interested in checking that out.

  • newrulesofinvesting

    thanks for the comment. Fisher did great things offline and were pioneers in their marketing efforts. Looking forward to seeing something similar online.

  • http://twitter.com/fabeetle fabeetle

    Check out http://tweet.fabeetle.com. We have a great list of tweeting FAs. You can also rate their tweets.

  • http://www.stephaniesammons.com Stephanie Sammons

    Hi Zack I have a feeling this list has grown and will continue to get bigger and bigger as more financial advisors understand the power of blogging and social media! It's great that you were one of the first to write about this topic.
    Stephanie Sammons
    http://www.blog.wiredadvisor.com

  • Zack Miller

    Hi Stephanie, this list has definitely grown and I look forward to updating it. Any suggestions? Have any of your clients become power users yet?

  • http://twitter.com/KalengoInvest kalengo

    Social media is penetrating the financial services industry.

  • http://twitter.com/KalengoInvest kalengo

    Corporations built around social networks such as Facebook and Twitter are among the
    hottest technology companies in the world and the ability to keep up with these new Web
    2.0 technologies may determine whether a company can remain competitive in today’s
    market.

    Financial services industry may adopt a more cautious attitude when comes to social media. But things are changing. We can see that from some successful examples, like Mint and Wikinvest. This is true to financial services firms and financial advisors.

  • A Frey

    There’s a new book out from Fisher Investments CEO, Ken Fisher: “Debunkery: Learn It, Do It, and Profit From It”. In the book, Ken Fisher debunks common investing fallacies. I’m a Fisher Investments employee and for more on Debunkery use the following links:
    Ken Fisher’s Debunkery official website: http://www.ken-fisher-debunkery.com
    Ken Fisher’s Debunkery Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ken-Fishers-Debunkery/159215550768209

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