Why You Can’t Just Jump Into The Conversation

Posted on February 2, 2012 by Pat Allen | Posted in Social Media, Strategy | Leave a comment

“People are talking online about you and the business you’re in. You want to take part in that conversation, you want to be in the mix.”

When mutual fund and exchange-traded fund (ETF) firms are early in their exploration of communicating off their own domains, that kind of exhortation by me or somebody like me is usually met with a blank stare. That’s the best case. The worst case is when they pretend they’re listening but they’re really just planning their broadcast schedule for the social sites.


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“Astonishing” Advisor Research Suggests Necessary Changes To Mutual Fund/ETF Communications

Posted on January 25, 2012 by Pat Allen | Posted in Content, Financial Advisors, Strategy | 4 Comments

I was so eager to get at the recent Advisor Perspectives/Inside Information research that I read the complete 65-page report on my 4-inch phone while sitting out in a cold car waiting for a Realtor to show my house over the weekend.

The conditions notwithstanding, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. “Investment Trends in the Financial Advisory Profession: Key Implications for the Investment Management Industry” lives up to its promotional email.


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C’mon And Check Out Google+ on Friday, #GDay

Posted on January 18, 2012 by Pat Allen | Posted in Financial Advisors, Social Media | 2 Comments

Don’t you just love it when the people mobilize? Lately, we’ve seen the power of the people with the OccupyWallStreet protests, the Verizon customers and supporters forcing Verizon to withdraw plans to charge a $2 fee…and then there was today.

Today was an awesome demonstration of community organization at work. I spent most of the day online, including doing research. Sure, it was an inconvenience landing on sites that were on strike in protest of SOPA (Stop Online Privacy) and PIPA (Protect IP), two provocative bills pending in the Congress. But God love them, they’re supporting what they believe in.


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Taking A Closer Look At How Your Content Is Being Discovered, Consumed

Posted on January 12, 2012 by Pat Allen | Posted in Content, RSS, Social Media, Strategy | 2 Comments

I escorted a loved one onto the World Wide Web over the holidays. It truly was my pleasure and honor, after years of his enduring my stories about Websites, RSS feed-reading, analytics, apps and podcasts. He—a brilliant guy and voracious newsreader who haunts the libraries but was able to spend only limited time on their desktops—finally could be online at home via his own 3G iPad and I was eager to help him.


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Top 5 Most Popular & Least Popular 2011 Posts For Asset Management Marketers

Posted on December 21, 2011 by Pat Allen | Posted in Content | Leave a comment

The very best holiday wishes to you! Here’s to an even better, brighter 2012.

For the last few weeks, I’ve been enjoying the 2011 content consumption insights being shared by an array of Websites. For example, Storify published its list of the top 10 tweets quoted/embedded in 2011. Closer to home, Investment News and By All Accounts are among those sharing their Top 10s.

My once-a-week blogging doesn’t come close to the output of most of the sites doing the sharing but I want to give back, too, by showing you what this blog’s readers have gravitated to. After looking at the year’s worth of data, I thought I might also give my underperformers a second chance.


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25 Content Highlights Of 2011

Posted on December 14, 2011 by Pat Allen | Posted in Analytics, Content, Email, For The Digital Marketer, Mobile, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media, Visualizations, Web Sites | 2 Comments

There are some people who are theatre people. There are some people who are music people. And—getting closer to the point of this post—there are the book-lovers. Me, I’m an online content junkie.

With this post, 12 months in the making, I delight in that special piece of content found swimming out there in a sea of perfectly average content. This is my list of what I found to be the best marketing, digital marketing and/or investment-related content—with a few wildcards—of 2011. It’s an updated edition of a similar list published last year at this time.


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Twitter: An Early Look At What’s Changed

Posted on December 8, 2011 by Pat Allen | Posted in Advertising, Social Media | Leave a comment

Twitter, the asset management industry’s favorite social network, made some sweeping changes today. While you can count on all of the usual suspect sites (and I say that with gratitude) to provide comprehensive coverage and analysis, I’ll weigh in here with a few comments for mutual fund and exchange-traded fund (ETF) marketers.

You could watch the video, too, although I got very little out of it beyond a touch of vertigo.

 


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Some Encouragement To Keep Working On The New Stuff

Posted on November 29, 2011 by Pat Allen | Posted in Advertising, Content, Strategy | Leave a comment

Inside your company, I know there’s lots of discussion about the rationale for the new social stuff. That’s good because outside, the drumbeat continues—for mutual fund and exchange-traded fund (ETF) marketers and for all marketers. The old stuff isn’t as impressive as it used to be.

I submit two pieces of content for your consideration today.

First, specific to the investment industry, is I’m Not A Financial Professional, But I Play One On TV, an I Heart Wall Street blog post published yesterday. The blogger is Scott Bell, a financial advisor who runs a California-based RIA but keeps his blogging and wealth managing separate. In aggregating six YouTube videos of celebrity commercials over time, the point of the post is to challenge the SEC’s position prohibiting the use of clients in testimonials.


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Ameriprise Taps LinkedIn Connections To Make Advisor Referrals

Posted on November 16, 2011 by Pat Allen | Posted in Financial Advisors, Social Media, Strategy, Web Sites | Leave a comment

Six months ago, I wrote a post about companies that are sharing their business data via APIs, and the insights that result when others work with those APIs. In the last few weeks, Ameriprise Financial has unveiled a reverse of that—their financial advisor search engine now uses the LinkedIn API to enable prospective clients to tap their social networks as a means of surfacing an Ameriprise financial advisor.

Ah, here’s where this social data stuff gets interesting.


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Relax, Google+ Isn’t Ready For You Either

Posted on November 10, 2011 by Pat Allen | Posted in Social Media | 1 Comment

Google+ business pages are ready, Google+ business pages are ready!

The urgency of the news Monday reached my mostly offline family, prompting two calls and a text to be sure that I’d heard. They probably recalled my response/anxiety right around our Fourth of July fishing trip when Google launched Google+. (As in, “Wait a minute, wait, Google launched a social network? This week? I need to get to the Internet.”)


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