Focusing only on Google could deny IFAs and Financial Planners extra website traffic

Thu, 2 Sep 2010 09:57:43 GMT

Scientists at Cornell University have a lot to answer for. Back in 2006 they studied the click through rates according to the position of a website in the Google Search results page after you have typed in a keyword. Their research showed that pretty much no-one was interested in your website if it was listed below the fifth position on Google. Subsequent, more recent studies, have largely confirmed these findings by Cornell, though the precise figures vary. Overall, the evidence points to the fact that unless your website is in the Top 5 on Google, you are nowhere.

So, up has sprung a massive industry for Search Engine Optimization, helping you get your website into that elusive Top 5 position. Indeed, if you search for the term "SEO" on Google you will find over 130m pages on the topic, which rather dwarfs the mere 90m you will find for "CEO". Almost half as many pages again - yet the subject is considerably younger than the topic of Chief Executives. Has the world gone SEO mad? It seems so - after all, any business owner you ask these days will say they are trying hard to get a better Google ranking.

But an intriguing couple of graphs from Hitwise suggest we may all be barking up the wrong tree altogether. What Hitwise noticed was a sudden and almost exponential increase in traffic for The Physio Room. It transpires that almost all of this extra traffic was coming from one source - the Telegraph Fantasy Football site. It seems that The Physio Room was publishing a list of Premiership players who are out because of injury. That is useful content to any Fantasy Football participant and hence the increase in traffic.

All fair enough. But the two graphs from Hitwise tell another story. As the proportion of page hits from Google went down the readership went up. In other words, the site achieved significantly MORE readers when it had LESS referrals from Google. Even though you might expect the Telegraph traffic to raise the readership of The Physio Room, the increase was massive - overcoming the reduction in traffic inevitably brought about by almost a 50% decline in Google derived visitors. Even if the Google traffic remained the same (possible as the graphs are about proportions, not actual numbers) then the massive rise in visitors from The Telegraph is still significant.

Simply by providing useful content, The Physio Room has demonstrated that it does not really need Google that much. Neither do you - if you provide content that people really want. Sure they have got to find it, which is why people spend so much time trying to get Google to rank them highly. But The Physio Room story tells us something else too. Rather than having to spend weeks trying to improve their Google ranking, they allowed their Google traffic proportion to fall and saw an exponential rise in readership immediately they started to provide their content on another site.

In other words, if you provide useful content and make it available in places where people already visit, you will get much more traffic - and you won't have needed to bother with all that SEO stuff.

True, SEO is potentially valuable and you should not ignore the people it will bring you. But focusing on Google may be bringing you fewer extra visitors than you could achieve than if you provided good content in other places around the web. That is much more likely to bring you the return you need. What The Physio Room example demonstrates is that considerably more readers arrive on your website if you provide content, than if you work at SEO. Being top of Google does not equate to having the traffic you want.

It all points to the fact that SEO should be much lower in your website priority than you might have it at the moment.

Graham Jones
Internet Psychologist

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IFAs need a kick up the RSS!

Wed, 1 Sep 2010 09:51:20 GMT

There is a load of great content available online that your clients would find interesting, the question is how do you get it to them in a way that helps you to build your client relationships? RSS might just be the answer!

Lets start with an explanation of what RSS is. The most commonly used definition is 'Really Simple Syndication’ and this quite neatly sums up what it does. It provides people who generate web content, such as news articles and blogs, with a simple tool by which that content can be distributed. The content is created in a standardized way which means that it will always be displayed correctly, no matter what mechanism is used to deliver it to the end reader.

The benefits of RSS are that it gives:

Content creators a way by which they can greatly increase the audience for their articles, such as publishing them on other people’s websites or social network pages.
People who are interested in such content an easy way of staying in touch with current news, so that instead of them having to visit the site of the content creator to check for updates, the latest content is automatically delivered direct to their PC.

Similarly, there are two ways in which financial advisers can benefit from RSS:

Content Aggregation.

As I have mentioned previously, the web is full of financial information that your current or potential clients might find useful. They can of course go off and search for this information themselves, or you can aggregate it together for them on your website. This will not only make things easier for them, it will also enhance your service in their eyes and give them a reason to keep coming back to your site.

Aggregating content requires three things:

Content definition – This means deciding what type of content your site visitors might find of interest, including general financial articles (e.g. market trends), articles on specific areas (e.g. pensions, investment) or associated articles (e.g. financial considerations of living abroad). Remember, think about what your visitors will want to read as oppose to just what you want to read.
Sources of content – The next step is to find sources of such articles and this will require a little leg work by you to search around the web for suitable content. You will need to consider the quality of the articles produced by a source, the regularity with which they are produced and whether the authors put any copyright restrictions on the content’s use. Just because they produce an RSS feed does not mean you have the right to publish their content on your site.
Aggregation tool – Having found the right content you will need to incorporate an aggregation tool on to your website as this will allow you to control how the content is displayed and how often it is updated. Adding an RSS feed is usually just a matter of cutting and pasting its URL in to the aggregation tool, and then defining a name for it. An example of such a tool in operation can be found on the right hand side of our ‘Knowledge Base’ page where we display feeds for the latest ‘Social Media’ and ‘Financial News’.

Content Distribution
The other way that financial advisers can use RSS is as a means to increase the audience for their articles by:

publishing them direct to their social networking pages (e.g. LinkedIn, Facebook)
integrating them in to a regular email newsletter using tools such as Mailchimp
making them available for regular clients to incorporate directly in to their existing RSS readers.

In addition to giving you more opportunities for you to demonstrate your financial expertise to a wider audience, such distribution is also a great way of driving further traffic back to your site.

To use RSS to distribute your content you will need to:

Decide what content you want to distribute – You could distribute all of the new content that you publish to your site, such as announcements of the recruitment of new staff or of a new service you have launched. Alternatively you may decide to limit it to specific types of content such as blog articles. The two golden rules are ‘less is more’ and ‘think what your readers want to know, not what you want to tell them’.
Decide what elements of content you want to distribute – You may decide to send the whole of an article via the feed which means the client can read it without having to click a link. However, the downside is this is it will stop them having to visit your site and they may be swamped with information if you publish 5 or 6 articles at once. It may therefore be better to just send the heading and some ‘teaser’ text which tells them a little about the article while tempting them to click to find out more. The key to getting the balance right is testing.
Create an RSS feed – The final step is to build the mechanism by which the content from your site can be generated in to an appropriate RSS format. A well designed website with a modern content management system should include this functionality as standard, but if you site does not you will probably need to talk to your current web developer.

In conclusion, RSS is a great way of creating a rich experience for visitors to your site while also generating more site traffic. If you would like to know more about how to set it up or how to use it for your business, please feel free to contact me.

About Bob Bevan
Bob is the Principal of Aptus Consultants and runs ‘IFA Line’, a free online service which provides financial advisers and planners with insight on how to use social media, mobile technology and other digital tools to grow their businesses. ifaline.com/insight

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Size doesn't matter online. There's something else IFAs and Financial Planners need to consider

Wed, 1 Sep 2010 09:13:02 GMT

Intel is on a bit of a spending spree at the moment. Last week the company announced it was buying computer security giants, McAfee. Today they have confirmed they are buying the wireless part of the German chip maker, Infineon. It seems that the company is continuing its trend of getting bigger and bigger and bigger. But does that really work? Ten years ago the Intel share price was almost $73 now it is just $21. Getting bigger does not seem to be getting better.

In the past it was always thought that bigger was better. Google assumes that to be true today - bigger websites generally get higher ranking than smaller websites. And we will pay more for bigger things than smaller things. Consider a pot of face cream. You can buy 50ml of the stuff in a giant pot and pay some ludicrous price to get rid of your wrinkles. Or you can get the same kind of cream in a small tube and pay much less. The only difference is the size of the container - you still get 50ml of face cream. Similarly we pay more for a thicker book than we do for a small, thin one. Yet, with careful use of layout the bigger book only has the same number of words as the smaller one; we end up paying more for the same thing simply because it is bigger. We value bigger things than smaller things.

So it is no surprise that it has always been thought that big cities are better than small towns. Indeed, economists have pointed to the fact that financial power is linked to the size of a city. But, perhaps those economists have been blinded by the bigger is better argument. New research shows it is not size that matters, so much as interconnectivity - networks. This study found that small towns and cities have emerged as powerful economic forces because of the connections they have made - both physical and electronic. The more connected a city, the more economically powerful it becomes. The research suggests that in the past it was not the size of a town that really mattered. What was happening was that the population size enabled greater networking. Size only mattered in that it afforded more connections between people which then generated more financial power.

These days, of course, cities do not need the population in one place to be able to network. Thanks to the internet, those economic networks can be established even if your town is only small. Big is not best, it seems. Rather, connected is best.

So, what does this imply for your blog. Too many people appear to be chasing traffic, subscribers - sheer size. Indeed, blog popularity lists are based on numbers of subscribers or readers; you can even get badges to show off your size. Whoopee...!

But remember Intel and their share price. Perhaps size is not better. Perhaps your blog would do better if you simply had it more connected. Establishing connections between your blog and other blogs would be more beneficial than chasing numbers. Perhaps working together with other influential bloggers would do you more good than trying to get another 50 readers today. Perhaps the size of your blog doesn't matter as much as WHO reads it.

Focusing on size may be taking your blogging journey in the wrong direction. Concentrating on networking your blog - enter social media - is much more likely to produce success.

Graham Jones
Internet Psychologist

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Five Steps to Choosing the Right Marketing Firm

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 04:18:05 GMT

As a financial advisory firm, you have an expertise in providing advice to your clients. Unless you have a former career in marketing, you most likely don’t have an expertise in this area of the business. If you don’t have a marketing professional on staff, at some point you will want to hire an outside firm to help you market your business. With so many options available, finding a firm can be a daunting task and hiring the wrong firm can prove to be an expensive mistake. It is essential that you spend time doing your due diligence to find the right company who will partner in your growth. Five steps will help you with this process: Identifying your needs; identifying requirements and qualifications; indentifying candidates; interviewing candidates; and making a decision.

Step 1: Identify Needs

Before you start shopping around for a marketing agency, begin by identifying your needs. You will find that many marketing firms specialize in just a few areas, so you want to confirm that you are hiring a firm with expertise in the areas you need. Sometimes, hiring a firm with one specialization makes sense. For example, if you only need help in creating a new website, hiring a web designing company would make sense. Conversely, hiring a specialist doesn’t make sense if you need help with multiple aspects of your marketing. The list below provides different areas of marketing you may identify as needs for your company.

• Branding (e.g. logo development, stationery)

• Marketing collateral development

• Messaging platform (e.g. elevator pitch, unique value proposition)

• Website development

• Copy writing (e.g. articles, white papers, books)

• Online/digital marketing

• Social media marketing

• Email Marketing

• Public relations

• Marketing plan development

• Events/workshops

• Coaching

• Direct marketing

• Referral marketing

• Advertising

Step 2: Identify Requirements & Qualifications

Once you have identified your needs, the next step is to list your requirements for a firm in order to narrow down the selection. While there are many excellent firms out there, not everyone is going to be appropriate for your specific business. Before interviewing firms, understand what you are looking for in a company. Below are some questions to ask yourself so that you have a strong understanding of the type of firm you want.

• Do I want a freelancer, boutique firm, or large agency?

• Should the firm specialize in the financial services industry, have some experience in the industry but not focused on it, or no experience in the industry? (Note: There are pros and cons to each. A firm outside of the industry will have fresh ideas and perspectives, but will require more guidance as far as compliance and general best practices. Conversely, a firm within the industry will be able to share best practices and understands the regulatory environment, but is at risk of lacking new and creative ideas.)

• Does the firm need to be local or can it be in another city or state?

• What is my budget for hiring a firm?

• What fee structure am I comfortable with? (Note: If you only plan on a few small, but clearly defined projects, you will want to work on a per project basis. If you need some short-term help on a variety of nebulous projects, an hourly arrangement is probably appropriate. If you want ongoing support over a longer period of time, a retainer arrangement is most appropriate.

• Does the firm need to be able to manage all of the projects, or will I allow the use of multiple firms and/or freelancers?

Step 3: Identify Candidates

Once you have your list of requirements, you can begin your search for the right firm. Ask people in your professional network for recommendations or conduct an internet search to gather names. If you are looking for a company specializing in the financial services industry, ask your Custodian or Broker Dealer who they would recommend. You can also search the trade publications to gather names of experts, who most likely own their own firm. Spend some time on the websites for each of the candidates to screen out mismatches. A quick review of the website should be able to tell you if the firm offers what you need.

Step 4: Interview Candidates

After you have identified three to five candidates, interview each one to see if there is a good fit. At a minimum, you should ask these five questions:

• Ask to see samples of work

• Ask for references

• What is the process?

• Who will be your account manager? (The person you are interviewing isn’t necessarily your main point of contact after you sign the contract)

• What is the fee structure and contract commitment?

Step 5: Make a Decision

If you are still interested in learning more about the candidate after the interview, ask for a proposal so you can review what was said in writing. At this point, you have to rely on your instincts to make your final decision. Which firm shares the same marketing philosophy you do? Which firm offers the most value for the money? Which people will you be able to work with best? All of these questions will be a factor in your decision. Finding the right marketing partner for your business is not an easy process. You will have to trust your instincts that the firm you hire will have your best interest at heart. But once you find the right one, you will have the much needed help required to grow your business to the next level.

About Kristen Luke

Kristen Luke is the Principal of Wealth Management Marketing, a firm dedicated to providing marketing strategies and support for Registered Investment Advisory firms. Kristen works with individual advisors and firms to develop effective marketing plans and provides the back office support required to implement the strategies. For more information, visit www.wealthmanagementmarketing.net.

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A Digital Mindset. Do IFAs, Financial Planners and Financial Brands have it?

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 16:55:53 GMT

I'm rapidly reaching the conclusion that it takes 10 years to develop a digital mindset and it could be longer. Much longer.

I've been online since 1994. 16 years. I've built a network, a club, a gang, a fan club, a following. This has taken me 16 years of relentless activity. Fortunately I love it. Not everyone does.

I've learned how to blog, post, tweet, share YouTube videos, respond to debates, criticisms, write books, make speeches and deal with endless technological challenges of Nokias, BlackBerrys, iPhones, servers, switches and open source software. I moved from Unix, to Windows, to Mac and back again to Windows. I've studied hard. I've read 1000 books. I've met 12,000 people in the last 12 years. I've been to 50 countries. I've joined 600 social networks and tested them to destruction. As I say I love my work. This has not been hard for me.

I have a digital mindet.

I think digital.

Every problem I am faced with I think how can I solve that problem electronically online. How can I solve that issue digitally.

This is digital thinking. I have digital thinking.

I think such a digital mindset is rare. I think learning it is a lot like learning a new language. I would imagine Mandarin or Cantonese would also take me 10 years to master and probably longer.

Corporations do not have a digital mindset.

Governments do not have a digital mindset.

Institutions do not have a digital mindset.

Thus a digital mindset is clearly a generational change say from 1989-2019 or 1994-2024. It requires its 30 year cycle to be absorbed into society. Can you see the world in 2019 or 2024? Almost impossible to imagine. Different it will be obi-wan.

This realization has made more me sensitive to the slow movement who have the same connectedness goal as the fast movement if I can use that term to describe what I belong to.

Corporations I meet are terrified of Twitter, blogging and placing videos on YouTube. Terrified. Terrified for their company, their brand and themselves. And yes that word is terrified.

These companies wish to embrace the internet, embrace a digital mindset, but they don't know the language. The verbs, the nouns, the rules. Fear encircles them. Facebook kids scare the living daylights out of them. Social Media most consider a new horror movie.

What is to be done?

Wait. Teach. Do nothing.

Your thoughts welcomed.

Thomas Power
Chairman of Ecademy

Meet Thomas Power and hear him speak at Social Media in Financial Services in November 2010. IFAs, Financial Planners, Product Providers and Financial Brands are signing up now at this link.

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We all need to belong, even IFAs

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 14:18:12 GMT

Before you think this is going to be some form of virtual group hug, let me explain the background to this article. As you probably know, IFA Life has grown to over 5,000 members in a very short period of time, and is probably the most useful, thriving online community for professional advisers and planners. But what are the roots behind our need to belong to such groups?

When Charles Darwin wrote ‘Origin of Species’, little did he know that he was not only writing one of the most controversial books in history but also one of the most misunderstood. There has been a tendency for people to think that survival of the fittest primarily relates to the individual, supporting an ‘every man for himself’ philosophy where only the strongest survive. In reality, Darwin was suggesting that it is the fittest ‘species’ that will survive, and such success is often dependent on how well that species works together for the common benefit.

This is good news for humans given that we are not the strongest, fastest or fiercest of creatures as individuals. Despite these handicaps we have thrived, reaching the top of the food chain in a very short period relative to the geological timescale. The reason for this success is a trait that we share with other highly successful social species likes bees and ants, we have an incredible ability to work together in groups or communities.

This has been true since the time of the earliest hunter gatherers, and has bred a need in us to be part of a community which is hard wired in to our DNA. Indeed, according to Maslow’s hierarchy of need, our strong desire to be part of a social group is the third most important need that we exhibit, subservient only to physiological requirements like food and heat, and security needs such as shelter and safety. One of the reasons for the importance which is attached to social belonging is derived from our ancient ancestors where it was membership of the group which often meant that Maslow’s first two needs were successfully met.

Over time the nature of the communities to which we belonged has changed. In the early days of humanity they tended to be defined in terms of physical characteristics such as age, gender or location. The upheaval of the industrial revolution led to new, activity based communities such as the trade union movement or merchants forming business groups. The insurance industry and the mutual movement both have their origins in this communal pooling of resources against adverse events.

However, during the second half of the 20th century, many of these traditional community structures came under pressure from a diverse set of factors including:

An increase in geographical mobility leading to the decline in the importance of the extended family as it was replaced by the nuclear family.
The state provision of welfare which reduced the dependency of individuals on others.
Changing political attitudes placing greater emphasis on individual rights. Anyone remember the ‘There is no such thing as society’ quote?
Legislative changes, such as those which reduced the effectiveness of the unions and hence the benefits of membership.

Despite this, the underlying human desire to be part of a community has remained as strong as ever. So when Web 2.0 came along, with its plethora of social media and community building tools, it was really no surprise to see social networks multiplying and thriving. Look a little deeper at what makes a successful online community and you will rapidly see that they are the same things that make any community a success:

Some form of common requirement or ‘hook’ around which the community can form, be it business networking on LinkedIn, sharing travel tips on WAYN or the profession in which we operate for IFA Life.
Some means by which an individual can become recognised within the group, from being given a name at birth in a traditional community to creating a full IFA Life profile.
A means by which members of the community can meet each other, from the village fete to an online facility to search for other network members with similar interests and profile. In the IFA Life context, our profiles tend to include contact details.
A mechanism for communication, from traditional face to face speech to online tools such as the IFA Life forums.
Some form of reciprocal, communal sharing, from the traditional sharing of food, shelter and protection, to online sharing of knowledge through the IFA Life forums and articles.

So the forces that shape and motivate the growth of social networks are the same as those which have always built communities, all that has changed are the mechanisms of interaction. The success of Phil and his team is in understanding these forces within the context of financial services professionals, then creating the environment, tools and content that make participation in IFA Life so beneficial for its members.

Even the gurus of online communities such as A J Kim have recognised these historic drivers, indeed as she says “All communities are based on timeless social dynamics that transcend the medium of connection. People are people, even in cyberspace”.

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Dealing with your holiday email backlog. Some great tips for IFAs and Financial Planners

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 12:55:35 GMT

It's that time of year when you probably dread coming back from holiday to an Inbox filled with hundreds of emails.

The thought of spending the first few days dealing with them all and feeling that you’re having to catch up all the time while getting back into work mode.

Here are a few quick steps to help you deal with the backlog that will get you back on track in a couple of hours.

First, make sure you’ve planned the important things you need to get done on your first day back, then set aside an hour to go through your inbox. Yes, I know it’s probably going to take much longer but it’s just the start.

Important: Don’t respond to any new emails until you’ve completed at least the first two scans.

First scan – Go through quickly and eliminate the spam and any email you know you don’t need to read. Use the sort function to sort your email by sender or subject, which makes it easier to delete the junk. DON’T READ OR RESPOND TO ANY EMAILS ON THIS SCAN.

You won’t have time to read everything that’s come in while you’re away, so delete anything that doesn’t require your attention or have information you absolutely MUST have. Don’t save it ‘just in case’.

Second scan – pick out all the priority emails you need to respond to first and place them in a separate ‘Action’ folder or flag them. You should be able to complete these two scans pretty quickly.

Set aside time in your schedule to respond to your ‘Action’ emails. You should still have time left within the first hour - respond to any Urgent emails now.

Set aside more time later in the day if needed.

If you still have time, do the third scan, otherwise leave that until the next time you’re scheduled to work on your email.

Allow yourself a few minutes to take a quick look at any new emails – in case there is anything really important that needs attention, but I mean a ‘few minutes’. Don’t get distracted!

Get on with the important work of the day and come back to your email later.

Third scan – if your filters haven’t already sorted out reading emails, now is the time to place all of these in the appropriate folder(s).

Fourth scan – deal with what’s left. Less urgent action emails can now be dealt with. What’s left? If it’s not action or reading – it’s probably not urgent so can be deleted.

Once you’ve safely dealt with the backlog that came in while you were away – you can apply the same process to new emails as they come in, particularly if you have a large amount of email to deal with each day.

I use a number of accounts to sort my email before it even gets to the Inbox and folders.

Non-essential newsletters and recent Internet account sign-ups.
Postings from discussion groups.
Work related emails and the newsletters.
I then use filters to sort these into folders.

Tip: Before you go away - switch any email groups to special notices or admin only. You can do this for all Yahoo groups and most online discussion/networking groups. This will reduce the volume coming through in the first place so you have less to deal with.

More essential time tips on www.clareevans.co.uk

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IFA and Financial Planning businesses fail to change their website often enough

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 08:26:51 GMT

It's not just IFAs and Financial Planners, but business owners of all descriptions are failing to update their websites with anything like the frequency that is required. Indeed, many of them aren't even seeing web updating as an important part of their day, instead relegating it to a moment or two spare in the evenings.

Those are the findings of a survey from Streamline, the web hosting company which discovered that only one in every ten websites are being updated on a daily basis. This backs up similar studies which show that most websites rarely get updated and less than 2% of business websites are updated more than once a day. Websites which do get regular content added appear to do so on average around only three times a month.

But a study by HubSpot shows that this is not enough. Companies which add content frequently are much more likely to generate sales leads than those which only do so occasionally. Indeed, of those businesses in their study which update their websites more than once a day 100% of them get new business leads as a result of their website. But for companies that only update their website monthly, that falls to a mere 38%. Only slightly more than half of companies who add fresh content to their website weekly generate business from their sites according to the research.

The Streamline study added another twist to this issue. They found that what people actually call an update is nothing more than a technical tweak or two. In other words, people are "updating" their website but NOT actually adding any fresh content. And that means it is as good as useless in terms of business generation - because the HubSpot data reflects only fresh content. Even adding fresh content once a week is much less likely to generate business than adding new content several times a day.

The issue for many business owners appears to be time. According to Streamline almost a quarter of companies relegate website updating to "late evenings", which means it is clearly not seen as a priority. Another aspect of their survey confirms the low priority with which business owners view the internet - one in three are not even checking any kind of statistics, so they have no idea about visitor numbers or what kind of content is working.

The research from Streamline and the data from HubSpot both say the same thing - the vast majority of business owners fail to understand the central importance of the internet in generating new business. It seems that most people consider all they need to do is build a site and then, er, wait...and wait...and wait...! Guess what? Nothing happens, they get no business and they say "but you have to have a website don't you?".

Here is a simple rule which applies to all successful businesses online:

Update your website with fresh content every day.

That's it. That's all you need to do to ensure you generate new business. In other words, business owners need to make website activity central to their business, rather than as a late evening afterthought.

Graham Jones
Internet Psychologist

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True online engagement is not the same as action. Are IFAs really engaging people online?

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 08:19:54 GMT

The problem of the 33 miners trapped 700m below ground in Chile is both dreadful and fascinating. Many of us are fully engaged with this story because it taps into several emotions. Yet those of us who are engaged with the story have not commented on it, we have taken no action on it. We haven't tweeted about it, nor recommended it to a friend. We haven't listed it on Digg, written about it in Facebook or bookmarked a page in our browser. So how come we are engaged?

When you look online for information about increasing the engagement with your website or your blog you will find loads of advice which talks about measures of engagement which are nothing of the sort. Your readers do NOT have to take any kind of action to be engaged. After all, you may come out of the cinema elated or crying depending on the film. During the two hours you were there you were fully engaged, transported away by the movie from your world to their world. But were you tweeting, commenting, writing about it? Or were you actually engaged? Did you need to take any action to be engaged? Or did you just have to connect your mind to the movie?

Taking action is not the same as engagement. You can get people to take action on your website by being controversial, stupid, or by making errors. The pedants, for instance, will comment to "correct you". But are they actually engaged? Probably not. You can also get people to tweet you, to link to you and to put a recommendation on Digg, but will they remember your business for more than a few moments? Probably not. They took action - which many people say is a measure of engagement - but is it?

In other words, much of what we say is online engagement is nothing of the sort. True engagement comes when you trigger an emotional connection between your website or blog and your readers. You engage people when you make them think, when they laugh, when they cry. But getting them to push a button, make a comment or forward to a friend is not actual engagement; instead it is action.

Of course, you want people to take action too - but far too often we appear to confuse these two issues. Measuring actions taken with your website does not tell you if you are truly engaging your audience. Measuring the emotional content of your website will.

Graham Jones
Internet Psychologist

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Family Protection

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 21:40:27 GMT

As a father of two young boys and an independent financial adviser with over 11 years experience, I feel I am well placed to advise on the main areas of financial planning that new families need to consider. There is nothing more compelling than the natural instinct of a parent to protect and provide for their family. The first step to ensure your family is financially secure is to become aware of the risks both you and your family are potentially exposed to. One of the greatest risks you may face is losing your ability to provide a secure and comfortable lifestyle and future for your family.

It is often simpler to consider your needs for today, but with a family you should also consider your needs for tomorrow. A family’s needs evolve over time, in the future you may want to provide a larger family home, family holidays, save for your children’s university fees and also ensure you have a steady flow of income. It’s worth taking a moment to consider what you would do if an accident, illness or even unthinkably, a death, stopped your ability to work and provide an income. This could have a devastating impact on your family’s financial security and long-term lifestyle choices. I have found, in order to survive financially and to eliminate increased financial pressures (or, at least, to keep them to a minimum), it’s important that you make some financial plans for both now and the future.

For example, life assurance policies are crucial to ensure that your family will be provided for financially and will still have a roof over their head in the event that the main, or even sole breadwinner were to die suddenly. It’s an unpalatable thought but it’s best to protect your family against it. Also, if both of you are currently working, have you considered the cost of child and/or nursery care? People can often forget to provide against the loss of a non-earning spouse, who may be looking after children full-time – that situation has financial implications too because you may have to pay someone to provide care that had previously been the preserve of the family member.

What about your children’s education? You may wish to send your children to private school and may have aspirations that one day they will go on to university. If so, you’re going to have to make some kind of medium to long-term provision to cover the cost of both of these, putting money away each month in a tax-free Stocks & Shares Individual Savings Account (ISA) could be ideal for this and with annual limits recently increasing to £10,200 per person you will have plenty of scope to save.

Planning for the future makes perfect sense but on an even more fundamental level, you also need to budget for the present. It is crucial to have a savings cushion or emergency fund in place that is the equivalent of around 6 months worth of household income. Again this should ideally be held in a tax free Cash ISA which can be accessed immediately if any emergencies occur. One thing I find people forget is to make sure you apply for any child tax credits you may be entitled to. Additionally, child care vouchers, available via your employer, are offered to working parents as an effective way to cover the cost of childcare.

Your bambino is also entitled to a £250 child trust fund voucher, which can be invested for long-term growth. You can also start a Stakeholder Pension for your new child and pay up to £3,600 pa.

Of course, you must remember that the value of investments and pensions can fall as well as rise and you can get back less than you invested.

If you would like more information about anything I’ve mentioned and would like to take advantage of a free, impartial and independent initial review of your finances then please contact me, Matthew Burman on 0117 968 8687, email: matthewburman@thinkpositive.co.uk or visit my website: www.ifa247.co.uk

Positive Solutions (Financial Services) Ltd. is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. Registered as a Limited Company In England And Wales No. 3276760.

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Life Planning is the Way Forward for this Profession

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 17:15:31 GMT

With the arrival in London of George Kinder, there has not surprisingly been renewed interest in Life Planning. And as many followers of this website are aware, many column inches have been dedicated to the topic.

But what comes through time and time again is that once sceptics of Life Planning have actually met George Kinder and attended one of his courses (in particular the 5 day EVOKE Advanced Life Planning training) they are invariably absolutely hooked. In fact, many have told me privately that they wish they had paid attention many months, if not years earlier.

George Kinder is hosting both his 2 day and 5 day workshops in September (click the links), but we thought you might like to read two articles which appeared on IFA Life some time ago as to just how IFAs can benefit by introducing Life Planning methodologies into their businesses.

We have also included a video of George in action which include some comments from IFAs who have attended his workshops.

Enjoy!

Philip Calvert

Last week I attended the 5 day Kinder Institute EVOKE course.

The course was held at Gaunts House in Dorset. An old country mansion set in 2000 acres and steeped in character and history - even if the amenities (or lack of) left a lot to be desired. I can see now that there would not have been a more appropriate place to hold a course like this. It was perfect.

There were 14 of us in the group and a very international and varied group it was too. Our ages ranged from 29 to early 60's. There were representatives from Northern Ireland, Holland, Australia, South Africa and England.

I met some wonderful people all of whom had something different and interesting to bring to the mix. Working with George Kinder was a great privilege for me – I have never before met anyone with such insight and perception. Louis Vollebregt was also great to work with and he and George complimented each others teaching perfectly.

The course itself was very well structured and although we worked to a strict agenda, it was such great material that it didn't feel like work at all. We worked through each stage of the EVOKE process focusing especially on the E (exploration), V (vision) and O (obstacles). The interesting thing for me was that there was actually a formula to follow for each step. Amazingly, if the formula is followed, the results come.

Each person received individual attention as well as working in groups and working with our life planning partner. There were plenty of practical sessions were we all received feedback from each other and also from George and Louis. We were constantly taught and coached so that we became confident in our own life planning skills and our ability to implement those skills effectively and profitably into our own businesses.

For me, becoming Kinder accredited was about growing the business. I knew that if I learned skills that would enable me to form deep and relevant relationships with my clients then they would become clients for life. I learned enough on this course to feel confident that I can deliver this and I will be changing my business model to incorporate life planning.

So yes, the 5 day course, from a business point of view delivered all I wanted and so much more.

For me however, there was an added bonus. The self development factor was not one I expected. I feel like a totally different woman - I really do. I always thought I was a good listener, that I could empathise easily with people (especially clients) and that I was in tune with my own feelings. I climbed a pretty steep mountain over the course of the week and became very good friends with the little voice inside my head telling me constantly to listen and not speak! I really saw the power that pauses, showing interest, positive affirmation and just being listened to had on each person. I know now that everyone has a story to tell, including all our clients. They just need to be given permission to tell it. If you know their story you know their dreams and if you know their dreams you can coach them to make their dreams happen.

In addition, as part of the learning process, we were all life planned. For me this really was a wonderful experience. My partner Jaime was great and the fact that we got on very well meant we could really carry out the exercise with sincerity. I now have so much clarity in my plan that it is almost tangible.

Like many people I had my doubts about Life Planning. These doubts were mainly down to the fact that I didn’t understand what life planning was and didn’t know the difference between life planning and life coaching. I also thought that in running my own business I already have to wear many hats – I didn’t want to add one more hat to the list. I’m studying for my Diploma and want to be Chartered and Certified and I didn’t want to get into something else that would take up precious time. I also thought that what I did was numbers and facts and there was no room in my business for wishy washy psychology stuff.

I felt the skill sets for Life Planning and Financial Planning were so different that I couldn’t possibly do justice to both – therefore I’ll stick to what I know! But I had already seen the benefit of spending time with clients and finding out as much as possible about them before putting together a financial plan. I could see that if a client opened up to me the long term relationship was so much richer. I didn’t realise that what I was doing, through methods of enquiry, was linked to life planning and I didn’t always manage to get the client to open up. I now know that learning the skills required to do this properly and systematically yields immense results for me, my business and more importantly, my clients.

I am not sure how easy it will be to implement into my business but I am totally convinced that Life Planning is the way forward for our profession. For my business, Life planning will not be a separate service that we offer clients. What we DO is Financial Planning. Life planning simply gives me the tools to do it better, to make each plan relevant to each client in a most profound way. Something I feel Financial planning on it's own simply cannot deliver.

For me it is STILL about the money! I will still be working with my clients on budgeting and cashflow. I will still be insuring my clients and their families, I will still be helping them save for retirement, I will still be advising on their investments. But now I feel the client with see the meaning behind every recommendation and see the true context of each piece of advice that is given. When a client partners with you in this way taking ownership of their own Financial Planning with coaching from you, how could they possibly ever go anywhere else?

With the new UK life planning group that is being formed, I am very excited and confident that we can all work together to share best practise and really make this work for everyone.

Tina Weeks
Financial Weeks

The most significant opportunity the financial planning industry has ever seen

At a time when the financial services industry is under the microscope, and with many advisers reviewing their business models, life and financial planning pioneer George Kinder CFP brings a long-awaited breath of fresh air to the UK.

It is much needed oxygen that’s giving life, energy, enthusiasm and optimism to a forward-thinking group of IFAs and financial planners; planners who have discovered a process which is invigorating their careers and the lives of their clients.

There are many other IFAs who have heard of ‘Life Planning’, but who wonder if it’s a bit ‘American’ or too close to ‘life coaching’ to sit comfortably with them and their clients. But after observing George Kinder demonstrating a client interview this week at the 2009 Life Planning Conference in London, where he utilised his EVOKE® questioning system, it was immediately apparent that financial planning as we know it is undeniably incomplete without a ‘life plan’. In fact, my lasting impression is that Kinder’s questioning methodology uncovers a depth of detail about a client which cannot fail to profoundly influence financial planners’ recommendations.

Harvard-educated George Kinder is gracious, gentle and devastatingly professional. According to his website, in January 2005 based on a poll of their readership, Financial Planning magazine named Kinder one of the 6 “most influential” financial planners in America; the other 5 planners named had all studied with him.

He is the living embodiment of what he teaches - integrity, reputation and total trust; the critical ingredients in helping clients to not only achieve their financial goals, but their life goals. One is not possible without the other and financial goals cannot possibly be understood without a detailed analysis of what fundamentally drives a client. He is the author of three books, including the acclaimed Seven Stages of Money Maturity and Lighting the Torch: the Kinder Method of Life Planning. To my delight, I also discovered that George is an accomplished photographer and poet in his beautiful work A Song for Hãna.

With dire predictions of the demise of thousands of IFA businesses, right now is the time to be looking at business models in minute detail. And the good news for many is that George Kinder delivers a structured, proven methodology and process which offers the potential to transform the fortunes of IFAs’ businesses and the lives of their clients, with a process of investigation that creates a deep, insightful and long-lasting relationship between client and adviser.

How else do financial advisers benefit?

A more efficient way to do financial planning
A far greater understanding of clients’ goals and aspirations
Clients who really buy into the process, plus far greater trust
Clients who stay for life
Immediate, high quality referrals
Higher conversion rates
A learnable and trainable methodology
3-5 times the sale value of commission-based firms
The potential for much cheaper PI cover
Excited, energised, motivated clients, advisers and staff

Not only that, but Life Planners report:

Significantly reduced workload
Increased income (Life Planners are in the top 2% of earners in the profession)
Greater profitability per client
More time for their family
More time for hobbies, thinking and focus
More time to develop new income streams from their expertise

For over 30 years, I’ve worked closely with IFAs and financial planners at every level. I’ve seen a multitude of different business models, but I’m left in no doubt that Life Planners are now leading the profession forward to meet the needs of consumers in today’s world. And with his far-reaching approach to financial planning, George Kinder brings an unmissable opportunity for the profession to finally be taken very seriously indeed. A profession that has the highest possible levels of integrity and trust, an image and branding which epitomises professionalism and a service which is accessible to everyone. I even foresee a time when consumers might even queue up and ask to be ‘life planned’ - and I suspect there will be waiting lists.

Forget ‘too American’ and forget ‘life coaching’. Kinder’s methodology is about getting closer to your clients through structured questioning which not only uncovers clients’ deepest desires, hopes and fears, but which simultaneously enhances and builds their relationship with the adviser. Everyone wins.

IFAs who attend my own workshops know of my passion for IFAs to differentiate their businesses. And all too often, the key differentiator is themselves (people buy people), and can be promoted to prospects, clients and professional connections through a structured marketing plan. But now, George Kinder offers financial advisers the opportunity to prove their differentiation by establishing relationships with clients through a mix of professional and advanced relationship and financial skills that are akin to that of a close, unfailing, dependable good friend – someone to whom who you comfortably reveal your innermost passions and life goals.

This all great, but the icing on the cake for me is that every Life Planner I meet strikes me as confident, secure, enthusiastic about their business, energised, stress-free and clearly enjoying new found freedom in their own lives.

And with their passion for this process comes...fun. Yes – they’re having fun too.

Go and breathe in that fresh air.

http://www.ifalife.com/lifeplanning

Philip Calvert

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Out of the office? What is your 'on holiday' email saying about you and your IFA practice?

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 09:59:07 GMT

Every day IFA Life sends out a Daily Update email to members. It's really popular, with 99% of new joiners to the site opting to receive it.

And every day about a hundred are returned because the email address isn't working - very often because the IFA concerned typed it incorrectly into their profile page in the first place. We also get 'undelivered' messages because inboxes are 'over quota' or because the address has changed and the IFA concerned hasn't updated their profile on IFA Life.

If you send out bulk emails, you learn to expect a few bounce backs and eventually we correct the email address when the right details are provided.

But have you looked at this from the perspective of your clients and people who are using IFA Life to find an IFA in their area?

Quite simply, if your email address isn't working for whatever reason, you are going to miss out. It also gives people who are trying to contact you the slight impression that you're perhaps not as professional as you could be. It's a bit like going down to a local shop at 09.10am in the morning only to find it still closed - even though the opening hours are clearly stated as 09.00am.

And yes, we still find IFAs using email domains from Hotmail, Virgin, Onetel, BTinternet etc., again creating the wrong impression to people who want to make contact with you.

When we send out our Daily Update email to members, we also receive a number of 'Out of Office' replies, and this time of year there are always a few more than usual.

Yesterday we received 45 'Out of Office' replies. Firstly, congratulations for taking the trouble to write one - again it's a small but professional touch which makes a difference - but don't forget to switch it off again after you come back from holiday. We often receive 'Out of Office' emails from people who we know to have been back at work for at least a week.

Looking more closely at yesterday's 'Out of Office' replies, we noticed another thing - not one single one of them gave their website address as an alternative place for people to try and find the information they are looking for.

For some reason, we still get the impression that many IFAs are not yet taking the Internet seriously as a place for people, clients and professional connections to interact with you. Trust me when I say that not everyone wants to phone their IFA when the information they want could just as easily be provided on their website.

And believe it or not, there are people who want access to an IFA's expertise, but they don't want to actually come and visit that IFA.

We all know the expression 'people buy people', and people buy people online just as much as they do face-to-face. And if the image you are projecting online (even through something as apparently simple as email) isn't up to scratch, it's only a matter of time until they'll go and buy someone else.

Philip Calvert

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Most advisors have no marketing strategy

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 08:57:35 GMT

Only a third of advisors have a marketing plan and only a third of that group actively implements it, according to Quantuvis, a Redlands, Calif.-based practice-management consulting firm owned by Genworth.

Advisors tend to fall into one of two categories, according to Natalie Doss, research manager at Quantuvis: The majority does too little; a proactive minority does too much. In fact, half of advisors say they’re solely—and passively— reliant on their firms referring business, while a further 25% say they’re highly dependent.

At the other end of the spectrum, some advisors bite off more than they can chew, engaging so actively in marketing efforts that they can’t keep up.

Read the full article by Hoawrd J Stock at Financial-Planning.com here.

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A Message from George Kinder to Financial Advisers

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 08:11:10 GMT

During 30 years as a financial adviser I discovered a simple but powerful truth about people and their money. People don’t actually have financial goals; they have life goals that require financial resources to accomplish. And it is in learning about these life goals that we discover a client’s dream of freedom; their most exciting vision for the life they want to lead.

Financial advisers are in a unique position in this regard. Clients want to discuss their most sensitive personal matters with us, and if we have the right skills, we can lead clients to share their most deeply-felt aspirations. Then we as advisers have the financial acumen to help turn those dreams into reality. That’s the goal of the Financial Life Planning movement: to deliver to clients that fullest measure of freedom and happiness, rather than blindly accommodating an empty and ultimately unsatisfying pursuit for “more”—more wealth, more possessions, more meaningless consumption. For me, the result was a vastly more satisfying and profitable advisory business, and I’m certain this can be true for you too.

I have wanted to make two contributions to the Life Planning movement. The first was to create a framework for the human encounter with money: The Seven Stages of Money Maturity®, detailed in my book of the same name. The second was to create a methodology for financial planners so they could actually do Life Planning in the context of that framework. This is the EVOKE® model, described in a second book, Lighting the Torch: The Kinder Method of Life Planning.

If anything, EVOKE® is more subtle than The Seven Stages, in that it articulates both the relationship structure and the purpose of each phase of a Life Planning engagement for financial advisers and clients. What are the phases of this process? What is happening inside the client at each phase? Inside the planner at each phase? And what are the actions that the planner must take at each phase? In this training we examine in detail each of these questions as we learn a structured process for guiding clients on the most efficient path to their dreams. Following this approach allows advisers to develop astonishing new levels of intimacy and trust, even with long-time clients that may have been coming in for years.

The EVOKE training is a workshop in "relationship skills", but it is profoundly practical. We cover everything from the initial client interview to the final execution of the plan. And we do this in an entirely experiential way. There's no play acting here. Workshop participants pair up and do the entire 5-step life-planning process on each other, learning to listen, empathize, coach, and inspire their partner toward the accomplishment of their financial life plan. By working with a real client, and being life-planned ourselves, participants learn how the process feels inside them, how it works for them as clients, and how to steward it for others. It’s my belief that only by going through our own life planning journey can we become the compassionate and able guides that our clients need if they are to pursue their dreams with confidence.

Perhaps you can begin to see how relating to clients in this new way could be more fun and rewarding. In my experience, it is also more profitable financially. Once I had fully developed my ideas and Life Planning methodology, I found that it was far easier to build my business. Once a client relationship was forged it was less time-consuming to maintain it, because I had such a clear picture of the client’s real goals. That’s why I say that Life Planning is the most efficient way of doing financial advisory work by far. You will have deeper, longer-lasting relationships; you will get stronger, warmer referrals; you will be in a position to offer more comprehensive financial products and solutions; and you will lose fewer clients. I firmly believe that this is the surest path to a healthy, growing business.

Our industry has been through something on the order of a near-death experience in the last 24 months, mostly due to a reckless pursuit of fees and income by large firms regardless of the merits of the financial products involved. The Life Planning movement rests on an entirely different premise—that clients come first and moreover that the financial industry can be a force for good in the world, by helping to unleash the latent creativity and vigor of people everywhere. Every human being strives to live a life of meaning and purpose. I have a dream that Life Planning can take the industry into a new golden age of prosperity and integrity. I see humane financial advisers becoming the most respected professionals in society, because it will be they who assist people in giving voice to this striving and achieving their most cherished goals.

George Kinder

For details of George Kinder's forthcoming 2 day and 5 day workshops in the UK please click the links.

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Put your Website to Work! IFAs are Missing Out

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 18:02:46 GMT

The good news is that the majority of IFAs now have a website, the bad news is that very few of those sites will ever produce a real business benefit. Why? Because they are based on outdated, ‘Web 1.0’ principles and designs.

Ten years ago, the 15% of the public who had home web access had to rely on dial up connections to access the internet. These were slow and expensive, and this put certain constraints on web designers when building their sites, such as keeping their content to a bare minimum and only deploying small numbers of low resolution images. As a result most Web 1.0 business sites were pretty dull by modern standards, restricting themselves to broadcasting information about who the company was, what products they offered and how to contact them.

We recently undertook a review of the websites of 200 smaller financial adviser firms. Unfortunately, 76% of them were clearly built based on this ‘Web 1.0’ mentality, providing nothing more that a static online presence for the company, while doing little to drive visitors to the site, less to keep them there and nothing to tempt them back in the future. Money had undoubtedly been spent on developing such sites, and was probably still going in to their provision, but I am pretty sure that it will have provided a poor return on the investment. Little wonder then that so many advisers doubt the value of the web!

So how can a financial adviser put their website to work? To answer this really requires an understanding of how your site should sit at the centre of your online marketing activity. The linked diagram helps to illustrate this by showing how you can use your site to:

A) Display rich, varied and current content that interests your clients and keeps them coming back. This includes:
1) Showing the latest financial news & articles from third party providers on your site via an RSS news aggregation tool
2) Illustrating your knowledge and insight by blogging or commenting on your site about current financial issues
3) Displaying the latest company news such as the appointment of a new adviser to your practice or the addition of a new service
4) Providing links to related third party sites which may be of use to your clients
5) Using your site to display rich media from third parties such as finance related videos from YouTube or relevant presentations from SlideShare

B) Engage with your clients by moving from a broadcast approach to a dialogue. This includes:
6) Actively encouraging them to express their opinions on current events by offering polls and surveys on your site.
7) Allowing users to share their views on the rich content you have provided by giving access to comment and feedback forms.
8) We all know the power of online peer recommendations, so use your site to actively encourage existing clients to provide testimonials on your service.
9) Giving users the opportunity to sign up for a regular email newsletter via your site.

C) Generate traffic by distributing ‘teasers’ about your content, accompanied by ‘links’ to access the full article on your site. This includes:
10) Generating an RSS feed and using it to distribute the content you have created to your profile page on Facebook, your groups in LinkedIn etc
11) Offering site visitors RSS feed subscription so that the teasers and links will be sent direct to their PC as you publish the associated content
12) Producing a regular newsletter which aggregates teasers from the content you’ve produced, presents them in an attractive format and sends it direct to your email subscribers
13) When you create a new piece of content then tweet it. This will distribute it direct to your Twitter followers who can then link back to the article on your site

Of course there is much more that your website can do such as including links to online quote providers, integrating with your admin systems and offering clients product calculators. But hopefully the above has shown that websites can do much more for financial advisers than simply broadcast dull, un-engaging information. With a little thought and the deployment of the right technology, your website should become the heart of your online marketing activity and a powerful tool in helping you to grow your business.

If you would like to know more about building a modern financial adviser site or putting your site to work, please feel free to contact me.

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My Sources for Marketing Information

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 09:48:36 GMT

As a marketing professional specializing in the financial services industry, I would like to think I know everything there is to know about marketing in this field. But like any profession, there is always more to learn. I make an effort to read everything I can about financial services marketing. I read, purchase and download any information I can find from industry thought leaders for my own professional development. There are hundreds of wonderful resources available, but I thought I would share with you a few of the resources I’ve used for my own professional development so far this year. I hope you find them as valuable as I do.

Books/Programs I’ve Purchased:

• Secrets of Successful Client Events, Horsesmouth

• Surprise & Delight Mini-Guide, Oechsli Institute

• Intimate Client Events, Oechsli Institute

• Social Media Prospecting Mini-Guide, Oechsli Institute

White Papers I’ve Downloaded:

• The Future of the Financial Advisory Business, Inside Information by Bob Veres

• A Guide to Twitter Social Networking Compliance, Socialware

• A Guide to Facebook Social Networking Compliance, Socialware

• A Guide to LinkedIn Social Networking Compliance, Socialware

Videos I’ve Watched:

• Niche Marketing for Financial Planners, Next 10 Clients

Blogs/Newsletters/Articles I’ve Read:

• Plain Speak eNewsletter, Wendy J. Cook Communications

• Investment Writing Blog, Susan B. Weiner Investment Writing

• E-Marketing Blog, Wired Advisor

• Make it a Great Day Blog, MIAGD

• The 100 Best Marketing Ideas, Senior Market Advisor

About Kristen Luke

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Apathy or Flow?

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 13:07:44 GMT

Apathy, as quoted by Wikipedia, is a state of indifference, or the suppression of emotions such as concern, excitement, motivation and passion. An apathetic individual has an absence of interest or concern to emotional, social, or physical life. They may also exhibit an insensibility or sluggishness.

As we all know Banks feed off apathy. In fact they love apathy. Our inaction encourages them (and other organisations) to sit back and not deliver. http://thelongtailofbanking.com/2010/01/06/apathy-the-traditional-banks-biggest-threat/

Our apathetic attitudes encourage a second rate service and that is often what we experience. It's not just the domain of banks of course. In our own sector of Independent Financial Advice I suspect many clients are not happy with the service they get but they do nothing about it. You only have to look at some of the funds clients invest in and you know they are there because their Advisor is apathetic or perhaps just ignorant (why?) of how poorly the fund manager has performed compared to the competition. Independent Financial Advisers who invest their clients money into such funds are indefensible. I would also suggest that any indifference or lack of caring encourages exploitation which in turn allows others to take advantage.

The opposite of apathy is Flow. Flow is the mental state of operation in which a person in an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity.

The beauty of Socially Responsible or Ethical Investment is that the investor is taking an interest and making a decision to be involved in the investment process. This "flow mentality" will help build a better world. Yes, I hear you saying "here we go again" but it IS true. The more people are "In-The Flow" the quicker we will make this world a better place. If you want to be apathetic then you will invest in mainstream funds (whatever the performance) with profit, and even greed, as your focus.

And we all know where greed has taken us.

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Social Media and Letting off Steam

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 09:54:09 GMT

We do so love our social media as a pressure relief valve.

It’s given us the ability to pop off about whatever annoys us, and I’ve been guilty too. Get crappy customer service? Tweet it. Have a frustrating day? Let that Facebook status update have it.

But as David Thomas pointed out (sagely, I might add) not too long ago, sometimes that too much “TGIF” can be construed in a way that makes it look like you dislike your job. And the concentration of “this sucks and that’s annoying” over time can paint kind of a one-dimensional picture of us. Laughing at yourself too much can have a similar effect.

Most of us aren’t that way in reality. We’re far more nuanced and complex creatures. We have our good moments, our moments of excitement, or just quiet contentment. But we’re rarely as verbal about those, perhaps because they’re not as exciting. Perhaps the big ones can feel too braggadocious. Perhaps because it we don’t need the pressure release valve for the good stuff, or even the okay stuff, as much as we do for the things that irritate or confound us.

What’s interesting, too, is how people will react to you if your balance is in one direction or the other.

Read the full article by Amber Naslund at Social Media Today here.

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Web professionals hold small businesses to ransom. How many IFAs are in control of their own online image?

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 09:17:54 GMT

Alex Polizzi, aka The Hotel Inspector, was stunned in a recent episode of the Channel 5 television program. The hotel she had been sent to improve was finding it difficult to get people to book their rooms. When Alex checked the rooms, they were fine. Indeed, there was little wrong with them - a first for the popular TV series. So, Alex decided to look at the internet to see if there were bad reviews on things like Trip Advisor or if their website was off-putting. But that's where the problems all began. The hotel was nowhere. Online it did not exist - no reviews, no website, nothing...! Alex sat looking at her gleaming Apple Macbook incredulous at the hotel's lack of web presence.

However, perhaps she should not be so surprised. A 2008 survey by BT found that 48% of British small and medium sized businesses had no website - indeed almost a quarter of UK businesses did no marketing at all....! As The Hotel Inspector found, zero internet marketing means a distinct lack of profits, even for an offline business like a hotel and restaurant.

But the problems for small businesses do not end with getting a web presence. A new study by web hosting company Fasthosts reveals a worrying trend which is bad news for many companies. It seems that "web professionals" such as designers and developers are holding small businesses to ransom, preventing them from making changes to their websites - even locking them out of their own pages.

The study found that 56% of the 410 companies surveyed are unable to publish changes to their own website. Worse, some seven out of ten firms do not even own the domain names they are using, since they have been registered in the names of the "professionals" they are using. As if that were not bad enough, the companies who cannot make changes to their own website, who don't even own the domain name and who suffer website downtime (25% of companies) actually like their professional advisers...! Some 92% of firms in the study said their web professionals were good. Yet, only 38% of the people in the study said they were a good return on investment.

So, let's think about this for a second. Most companies do not think they have had a good return on the money they have paid web professionals yet they rate them highly...! Errr...? And most of the companies in the study have had problems of one kind of another, but are unable to resolve them because they mostly have no direct access to their own website. Another errrr....?

What this means is that for the vast majority of small businesses, someone else is in charge of their online presence and reputation. The companies appear to have handed over the keys to the kingdom and, amazingly, are quite happy about it.

Stephen Holford, the Marketing Director of Fasthosts said: “Too many small companies are failing to ensure that their valuable domains and their web hosting are registered in their names and are accessible to them. As external parties can come and go, it is vital that businesses protect themselves from potential disruption, losses and reputation damage that an off-line or out-of-date website can cause”.

So, here are five tips on what to do to ensure you are not held to ransom by your web design company:

1. Ensure all domains are registered in the name of the business owner – seek transfer of ownership if necessary

2. Keep contact details and passwords for the provider that hosts your website and registers your domains

3. Retain an up-to-date back-up copy of your website design on CD or server

4. Request a means to make basic amends or additions to your Homepage from in-house

5. Negotiate an uptime guarantee to protect against delays and losses

At the minimum you want your web professionals to give you legal ownership of your domains and also to provide you with content management access. If they won't do either of those, you need to get your lawyer involved. Or send them Alez Polizzi - she'll sort them out...!

Graham Jones
Internet Psychologist

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LinkedIn - The Basics.

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 14:18:53 GMT

IFA Line recently feature an excellent article about how few financial planners were active on LinkedIn. I therefore felt it might be useful to just post a short article about what it is and its basic concepts.

The online world offers a huge variety of dedicated social networks that cater for many types of community such as holiday makers (WAYN), ethnic groups (NetNoir), scientists (SciSpace), photo sharers (Flickr) and even lovers (Flirtomatic). While each of these networks offer services and features which have specific appeal to its target community, they all share certain common attributes such as:

Profile Creation – The facility for a user to create and maintain a discreet identity within the group.
Contact & Communication – The facility for users to identify other members within the group and to communicate with them directly.
Content Sharing – The facility for users to exchange information which is useful, interesting and \ or entertaining.

All social networks also feature a ‘hook’ which is the factor around which the community will form, be it support of a particular football team (e.g. Liverpool FC and anfield-online), love of a particular brand (e.g. Smart Car and DestinationSmart) or interest in a specific topic (e.g. HiFi and hifiwigwam).

LinkedIn is a free social network for business professionals that in just 7 years has grown to over 75 million members in over 200 countries. It is an excellent tool to help you expand your business network, stay abreast of industry issues, and exchange mutually beneficial ideas with your peers. Like any other social network, LinkedIn's 'hook' is that it provides a community for business professionals who are interested in networking. Just like other networks, LinkedIn offers:

1) Profile Creation: This allows you to create a comprehensive personal background including your career history, contact details and skill sets. People who know you can add personal recommendations about you, and you can even create a profile for your company to aid its promotion.

2) Contact & Communication: This is at the heart of LinkedIn, and lets you not only search for and link to existing business contacts, but also search for potential new contacts based on shared interests, location, industry or whether you have a contact in common. As with other social networks, you must first ask a potential new contact if they want to link to you, but once linked you can message them directly.

3) Content Sharing: LinkedIn allows you to join ‘Groups’ which are sub-communities that are designed to allow the exchange of ideas on specific topics (e.g. RDR, Intermediary Distribution, marketing technology etc). In the context of LinkedIn, content sharing primarily involves participation in the various discussions which go on within the individual groups. Such participation is essential in that it provides the opportunity for you to demonstrate your knowledge and hence ‘build’ your profile within the network. Monitoring of groups also allows you to see what other people think, thus helping you ensure your knowledge is current.

If you would like to know a more about LinkedIn, here is a link to a short video, while clicking here will take you to the LinkedIn home page.

About Bob Bevan
Bob is the Principal of Aptus Consultants and runs ‘IFA Line’, a free online service which provides financial advisers and planners with insight on how to use social media, mobile technology and other digital tools to grow their businesses. ifaline.com/insight

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Wake Up Call to Financial Services Brands: 92 Million Unique Global Users Visited Twitter in June

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 11:52:29 GMT

Twitter is not a fad, and it is certainly not just a US or a teen thing! Yesterday, I came across another excellent piece of news on the comScore website, "Indonesia, Brazil and Venezuela Lead Global Surge in Twitter Usage".

In June 2010, a staggering 92 million internet users (over 15 years old) visited twitter.com from home or the office. And apparently, this excludes usage of twitter-based applications such as TweetDeck, seesmic or Hootsuite.

Read the full story by Christophe Langlois at Visible Banking here.

Meet and hear Christophe speak at Social Media in Financial Services 2 on 4th November 2010. Click here for details.

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