This is the second half of a two-part feature looking at the benefits and pitfalls of social media for advertising and marketing in wealth management.

This is the second part in a feature on social media. To view the first part, click here.

Aside from improving cms systems, Haefele says the card big firms have to play is the wealth of content they already own.

“Behind larger firms you have to have very comprehensive systems for
compliance,” she says. “Then a lot of the battle is training. Then the
trick, the big trick, the one that everyone is trying to solve is: how
do you take the rich content of the firm and put it in a place where it
can be picked up by advisors and delivered to the right clients?”

This means, for instance, that if you have an advisor focused on
entrepreneurial or tech clients, they are following the right groups on
Twitter and posting interesting content related to the sector, that is
actually going to add value to those clients in the same social space –
so it is canned content, to an extent, but it is relevant and targeted.

The art of listening

It’s not just about content, though. Social media is a two-way
dialogue, which is part of what makes it so distinct from traditional
advertising and marketing activities. This feedback is scary, but it is
also a great opportunity to show a thoughtful and creative response to
criticism.

Especially for large firms, says Moock, “you’re going to have your
detractors” online. “And to the people that deal with that as a problem I
would suggest they make sure they have an open dialogue with their
constituents, that they engage both happy and unhappy clients and ensure
their voices are heard,” he says. “The easiest way to hear what the
investing consumer has to say is by having an ear online.”

“Social media are both for listening and talking,” says Haefele.
“It’s particularly helpful for listening, and you can do that right
now.”

Wealth management: too good for marketing?

With this said, some firms are not willing to take the leap into
building their profile online precisely because they feel wealth
management is not something that should be engaging publicly about its
business. But times are changing, and most clients now want a lot more
transparency about issues like investment products and fees, and the web
can be a great facilitator of that if used correctly.

“I understand the allure of prestige – the white glove service,” says
Moock, “I realize that they want to retain current clients and keep
clients happy but, again, the boomer exodus is happening now and a lot
of investors are no longer in accumulation mode they’re in distribution,
so these folks…how are they attracting new clients?”

He stresses that being a well-known brand does not mean being an
attainable one. “Firms like JP Morgan, how did they grow? They grew by
communicating their story to the industry and communicating their story
to retail investors.”

And indeed, it is this repositioning of marketing and advertising –
from something that is clear-cut and paid for – into something more
fluid and built-in to a firm, that new media is effecting. Whether or
not to “advertise” is no longer a yes or no question.

This has two key consequences: one is organizational, in that
branding, marketing and advertising activities may become
unintentionally disparate within a firm.

“It was once easy for them [firms] to manage everything in one place,
but as these new opportunities have emerged - whether it be Linkedin,
Facebook, Twitter, you name it - what we’re seeing are different
individuals within the organization, maybe based on interest, maybe
based on experience, who have been assigned to work on those channels,”
says Garflund. “But they end up becoming disparate silos.”

To address this, he recommends having about “a converged strategy” that encompasses earned, owned and paid media.

Moock has similar advice, and recommends to clients that they work
with reputable media outlets for “earned media” coverage, especially
targeting local media for small firms that want to break into local
markets, and running owned content such as blogs alongside this to tell
their “full story” - such as giving investment views and perspecctives
on relevant events. For smaller firms paid media may not be an option
yet.

Another consequence of the dominance of the web in most people’s
lives is that an absence on the web may shout louder than a presence.

“Trust is the basis for everything, when it comes to building
relationships, but to only rely on a few forms of building trust is not a
logical strategy, especially when we’re living in a world that is
dramatically, dramatically changing because of the web,” says Graflund.
“And if you really accelerate into the future and think about the next
generation of investors and not only how familiar they are with social
tools, but how dependent they are on social tools to even be social
themselves, wouldn’t it provide a clear argument that firms that aren’t
embracing this are at risk of not being able to even establish trust in
the future, with the next generation?”

A new survey by Accenture found that investors between the ages of 21
and 30, known as “millennial investors,” are more conservative and less
trusting of financial advisors than their older counterparts,
baby-boomers (age 46-70) and generation X (age 31-45). The younger
generation are also more inclined to consult other sources before
accepting financial advice. The survey points to unmet demand for online
investor education and advisor-interaction tools that could increase
millennial investing and help bridge the “trust gap” with financial
advisors.

Building trust

It is here that new media converges with traditional, because trust
can only be built through communication that is genuine. Though new
media may be in snippets, it may appear to die quickly and be so often
fickle and fatuous, for a brand to thrive in this world it must
nevertheless work out what it stands for and communicate that memorably.

“There is so much money in motion right now and a lot of trust has
been lost in recent years,” says Moock. “If a client is truly able to
understand who they are, and describe who they are and who they want to
work with, the opportunities are endless.”