Social Media Marketing Activity in the Retirement Industry

Emerging Media: What (and Why) You Need To Know About Tweets, Followers & Bloggers “ Your brand isn’t what YOU say it is, it’s what GOOGLE says it is” - Chris Anderson, Wired Magazine

Start Your Engines Photo: Amplified-Photography / Adam Balch http://www.flickr.com/photos/triplemaximus/24173

Agenda Introduction: What is Digital Media & Why Should I Care? Tools of the Trade: Channel Overview Retirement Services: How is the Industry Engaged? Audience: Are You Participating? Making the Most of Digital: Your Personal Brand & LinkedIn

“ The word blog is irrelevant. What's important is that it is now common, and will soon be expected, that every intelligent person (and quite a few unintelligent ones) will have a media platform where they share what they care about with the world.” - Seth Godin, Author

Digital Media… … Allows for direct conversation and relationship-building with partners, customers, potentials … Provides instant feedback … Enables micro-targeting niche groups … Exists in your universe … Creates and enhances thought leaders

A Part of Marketing Direct Mail / email Print Ads Marketing collateral Blogging Social/Digital Media Public Relations Website OUTBOUND MARKETING INBOUND MARKETING Interruption Permission

Did You Know? 46% of financial advisors are interested in learning how to harness social networking platforms for securing new clients 35% of financial advisors are interested in learning how to harness social networking platforms to enhance communication with existing clients 62% of financial advisors agree that social networking is here to stay, saying that social media will have a lasting impact on the financial services industry 42% of financial advisors favor and use LinkedIn Source: Rydex Advisor Benchmarking, 2010)

Social Media is for Leads and Sales Source: State of Inbound Marketing Report - http://bit.ly/aewfHr

Social Media is for B2B and B2C Source: State of Inbound Marketing Report - http://bit.ly/aewfHr

Is your company ranked on the first page of Google? If not, 3,923,869 sets of eyeballs missed your website Source: http://training.seobook.com/google-ranking-value

Search is the most performed action on the internet. Email is a close second. By 2014, mobile and internet technology will help over 3 billion of the world’s adults interact electronically By 2015, online marketing will control more than $250 billion internet spending worldwide Did You Google Today? Google: 34,000 searches per second (2 million per minute; 121 million per hour; 3 billion per day; 88 billion per month, figures rounded) Yahoo: 3,200 searches per second (194,000 per minute; 12 million per hour; 280 million per day; 8.4 billion per month, figures rounded) Bing: 927 searches per second (56,000 per minute; 3 million per hour; 80 million per day; 2.4 billion per month, figures rounded) Sources: Gartner; http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1278413 Search Engine Land http://searchengineland.com/by-the-numbers-twitter-vs-facebook-vs-google-buzz-36709 Photo Credit: http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2010/03/technologys_dark_underbelly.html

More Tools/Channels = Less Control Are you and your company being “found” by the right people? Do you know what search terms are used to reach your website? Do you have a plan to convince the search engines to rank you more highly than a competitor? Your digital footprint is your resume Take Control

RSS (Real Simple Syndication) is a format for delivering regularly changing web content It allows you stay easily informed by retrieving the latest content from the sites you are interested in, without having to go to specific websites RSS feeds allow organizations to keep clients and prospects up-to-date on news, thought leadership, company updates Common RSS aggregators include Google Reader, MyYahoo, BlogLines, Feedburner, Microsoft Outlook Real Simple Syndication (RSS)

Get More For Less (Time) Separate the wheat from the chaff Archive all the information you want to read…but don’t have time to Keep clients, prospects and influencers up-to-date, without clogging inboxes University of Arkansashttp://www.uark.edu/misc/wheat/

Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging tool in which users send and read posts of up to 140-characters called tweets . Tweets are distributed to followers on a “feed” which displays the tweets in real time Twitter now has 105,779,710 registered users New users are signing up at the rate of 300,000 per day 180 million unique visitors come to the site every month Twitter's search engine receives around 600 million search queries per day Source: Huffington Post, 4/21/10

Why Should I Care? Lurk and Learn – Use Twitter as a news aggregator; hear what others in the industry are talking about Connect with Influencers – Establish relationships with industry leaders, news media, etc. @401KPlanInfo @RetirementRsch (Boston College Center for Retirement Research) @FiduciaryNews “ Lurk and Learn” Connect with Influencers Content Distribution Client management and acqusition

Global: LinkedIn has over 65 million members in over 200 countries Fortune 500: Executives from all Fortune 500 companies are LinkedIn members Focused: LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional audience Influential: Users are younger, richer and more powerful than Wall Street Journal, Forbes and Business Week readers Powerful: Your LinkedIn profile automatically shows high up on Google’s first page Needed to Play: Your peers and competitors are already there 66% of LinkedIn users are decision makers or have influence in the purchase decisions at their companies Responses to questions posed can be ranked. Over time, rankings create another community of respected experts based on the helpfulness of their advice.

Retirement Services Social Media Audit Source: http://www.neoformix.com/2008/BushSpeechOnFinancialCrisis.html

Methodology Goal: How, and where are organizations in the retirement services industry engaging? Where are the opportunities for this audience? Audit Overview: Reviewed 5 major asset management firms, plan administrators and registered investment advisors Selection Criteria: Companies were selected based on size and web presence (i.e. search rankings) Website Audit : Social media applications, videos, podcasts, blogs Blog Audit: Who’s blogging, how frequently, comments? Channel Audit: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Slideshare, YouTube, Ning

Asset Management Firms: Snapshot Most are taking a “toe in the water” social media strategy – but could do more Significant amounts of content on website, but currently functions as a brochure 2 firms conduct at least one podcast or webinar a month Regular economic commentary common, and leverage-able 3 of 5 have RSS feeds; 3 of 5 have subscription options Blogs are not a strategy that many asset management firms have embraced…but could easily do so Twitter usage among asset managers is erratic – retail-heavy asset managers more likely to “broadcast” tweet. One manager protects its tweets, while another is “squatting” on all handles related to the company Facebook usage nearly non-existent; most Facebook mentions come from employees Universal adaption of LinkedIn – but content is staid, few engaging

Plan Administrators – Social Media: Snapshot Social media engagement varies significantly from company to company Is website content valuable if you don’t engage someone? Regulatory updates, commentary significant source of content for plan administrators Most common digital strategy is a LinkedIn company profile, but most individual employees not linked-in…yet Two companies have blogs – but no comments No Facebook, Slideshare, YouTube, Ning presence One organization has significant following on Twitter – also the most social “savvy” of Plan Administrators

RIAs – Social Media: Snapshot The least engaged group audited Not surprising, given compliance challenges Digital media is limited to LinkedIn and company website only Employees engage on LinkedIn – one has 300+ employees listed RIA Marketplace Group has 3000+ members Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Slideshare, Ning engagement low Just 62 Twitter profiles contain “Registered Investment Advisor” (363 contain “investment advisor,” and 4,674 contain “financial advisor”) Company websites tend to be content-rich Whitepapers Traditional media placements Bylined articles Online tools, calculators common Significant opportunity to leverage search engine optimization

D eepen connectivity to customers/employees/partners R aise company awareness & strengthen reputation I nvent new uses for existing content e V aluate the impact of a dying media model E mpower your audience by turning customers into fans Opportunity: DRIVE Relationships

Opportunity: 5 Steps to Get Ahead of Competition You’re not behind… Choose your topic parameters and understand why they matter Use significant content libraries to engage clients, prospects, influencers Create RSS Feed that acts as advance-warning system Use Twitter to identify early-adopters and promote content Move from brochure-ware to deployable, link-able thought leadership Search Engine Optimization Strategy Seek out influencers, create a dialogue RIA Marketplace LinkedIn Group – RIA Marketplace Microsite @401(k)planinfo Leverage LinkedIn – your personal brand is a critical part of the sale

First Step: Get yourself off to the right start Establish your profile: Complete 100%, add a picture and leverage the “summary” section Use your own name to create a “vanity profile:” www.linkedin.com/in/ elizabethsosnow Customize your website links: Match search phrases that you know your prospects use Invite your contacts to join the network: Remember bigger is better and you are never “done” Update your status several times a week: Every time you act, it appears on the home page of your 1st degree connections

Second Step: Take advantage of LinkedIn tools and features to deepen connections Shared Connections: Find potential clients/employees — and then see what connections you have in common LinkedIn Answers: Establish authority and expertise by participating in ongoing discussions LinkedIn Groups: Interact with other business professionals on relevant topics, add your own RSS feed Ad campaigns: Identify highly qualified targets by seniority, industry, job function, company size, etc. Events: View at a glance all of your network’s upcoming events Recommendations: Market your business by having your colleagues and clients share your expertise

Third Step Create a Group: Potentially the most powerful way to use LinkedIn – build your own community

Social Media Marketing Activity in the Retirement Industry

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