Five phrases to avoid are:

1. Let me be totally honest with you.
2. I hate to tell you this.
3. That is a no-brainer.
4. We’ll see.
5. Don’t hold your breath.

Focus on acknowledging and validating your clients. So for our example you could say, “I can see your cousin has done his homework. Let me walk you through what I’m thinking in terms of a stock that may have a higher growth potential and suit your portfolio a bit better.”

It will be a learning curve for some to stop using these catch phrases entirely. It will also produce new ways for you to express your ideas.

Start by doing a check on how the new phrases work in the flow of conversation with your client. See which phrases they respond to and begin to incorporate those into your client conversations.

Imagine you’re at a business after-hours event.  At this event, hundreds of professionals from various industries are mingling, making connections, and passing out business cards. You know this is a golden opportunity to connect and build your network, but how do you filter through the fray of people to find strategic, mutually beneficial connections and leads?

Although LinkedIn is a virtual networking platform, the principles are no different than face-to-face networking. Here are a few tricks you can use to acquire valuable connections that benefit multiple realms of your business.

The 75% – 25% Rule: Generally, when connecting with people on LinkedIn, aim to populate 75% of your connections with your target market and 25% with industry connections. For example, if you are a financial professional that specializes primarily in retirement and 401(k)’s, aim to connect with individuals on the cusp of retirement or groups that fit your target market 75% of the time. The other 25% of connections should consist of fellow advisors and industry leaders.

Why take this approach?

“LinkedIn is the perfect platform to not only connect with potential leads and clients, but to also learn, generate ideas, and stay informed on industry trends. We work with several clients who build their networks, acquire leads and stay on
top of cutting-edge of industry trends through LinkedIn,” says Ben Hodges, Social Media Marketing Accounts Manager at Financial Social Media.

Find your connection style: There are many ways to approach connecting on LinkedIn. While we strongly suggest you connect with anyone and everyone, there are multiple approaches you can take. Social Media Sonar has 4 encompassing connection strategies:

• The Lion: Lions are completely open connectors. They seek to increase their connections through actively sending out and accepting connection invitations. While I’m sure there are a few who take pride in touting the specific number, the majority believe that large networks lead to more opportunity.
• The Turtle: Turtles are the opposite of lions. Turtles primarily connect with those they know well. They see value in having a tight network made up of individuals they completely trust. Their networks tend to be highly selective and can be counted on to pass on introductions, much like a private networking group.
• The Hound Dog: A Hound Dog is someone who uses LinkedIn to connect to those they know and those they would like to know. They also accept invitations from those that would be beneficial to be connected to.
• The Alley Cat: Alley cats only send invitations to people they know or people they have a specific reason for connecting to, but they accept invitations from just about anyone. They believe there is value in knowing your connections, but there are also unexpected opportunities that develop from establishing new connections— known and unknown.

There is value in utilizing all of these strategies and we suggest you use your best judgement. Regardless, you need to be connecting.

Upon signing up for LinkedIn, you automatically have a cap of 3,000 connections. Once you reach your limit, you can request more. How many you’re given is based on the acceptance rate of the first 3,000 connections. In other words, there is a world of opportunity to expose yourself and your brand on LinkedIn.

Connect to groups: Groups are gold mines in the LinkedIn world. Whether you’re seeking to find valuable connections, increase brand exposure, or simply be aware of industry trends—groups will help you achieve all of those objectives. When connecting with groups, apply the same 75% potential client and 25% industry connection rule. Also seek out local and personal interest groups—such as St. Louis Business Exchange or Golf and Business Networking.

Think: What groups are my potential clients connected to?

How else can you use groups?

• To post blogs, surveys, discussions, and articles—some groups have an upwards of 10,000 members. That’s a ton of potential exposure for you and your brand.
• To start and engage in conversations about pertinent industry topics
• To seek potential clients, leads, and/or business connections
• To observe and learn from industry leaders

Personalization:  Have you ever talked to an automated voice recorder on the phone or received automated messages online? If you haven’t, it’s very frustrating. We are not automatons, we’re humans with an innate desire to feel important and have genuine human connection. LinkedIn prompts you to send messages to connections on numerous occasions—i.e. requesting connections, accepting connection requests, or sending recommendation requests. Instead of using the generic, automated message LinkedIn provides you, create personalized message templates.

What are other ways you can personalize and enrich your relationship with connections?

• When you accept connection requests, immediately follow up with a personalized message. Thank the individual for the request and begin a conversation with them.
• Remember, there is no sound sweeter than the sound of your own name—frequently address people by their first name. Also remind them of how you know them or met them.
• Whenever possible, help people. If you’re aware of a job opening, a lead, or opportunity that could benefit a connection—let them know.
• Don’t be an overt salesman or self-promoter. On LinkedIn, people don’t want a sales pitch, they want valuable relationships and connections.

LinkedIn is king when it comes to business networking. Whether you’re researching new marketing ideas, seeking prospective clients, or attempting to stay up-to-date on industry trends, LinkedIn is the first place you should go. Have any more questions or ideas regarding connections on LinkedIn? Leave a comment and let us know.

Financial News & Market Commentary

• 5 Messy Money Mistakes It happens to the best of us: mysteriously falling short on cash when we could’ve sworn we’d just hit the ATM. Where did all that money go? On any given day, there are a number of ways we leak money – knowingly or not. Here’s a look at how to reclaim some of that money. read more
• Wall Street Sues for Pre-Crisis Rules, CFTC’s Chilton Says Wall Street’s court challenges to the Dodd-Frank Act are an effort to return regulations to their state before the 2008 financial crisis, said Bart Chilton, a member of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. read more
• Volcker Says Prop Trading Poses Bank Conflicts of Interest Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, commenting in support of the Dodd-Frank Act rule that bears his name, said it is impossible for banks to handle the potential customer conflicts presented by trading activities. read more
• S&P 500 flirts with two-month low before rebound U.S. stocks fell for the fifth day in six on Wednesday as investors kept their focus on the turmoil in Europe, but news that Greece will receive its latest debt bailout payment helped cut losses late in the session. read more

Marketing News & Selling Tips

• 20 Simple Ways to Boost Blog Subscribers It’s not an uncommon scenario: Business bloggers get so caught up in the grind of churning out quality content on a regular basis, they tend to forget about some of the other fundamental factors that contribute to a successful blog. read more
• 13 Sloppy Mistakes You’re Making With Your Calls-to-Action We talk a lot about how critical landing pages are to the effectiveness of your inbound marketing. But no matter how many landing pages you have and how well-optimized they are, no one will get to see them if you haven’t mastered the art and science of creating killer calls-to-action. read more
• Facebook’s Ad Creation Tool Redesigned To Add Simplicity Facebook has redesigned the Ad Creation tool adding a more streamlined, intuitive approach to creating ads.  The biggest changes are layout based and give users a simpler path to creating their ads. read more
• What The Highest Converting Websites Do Differently Did you know that companies that take on a structured approach towards conversion optimization are twice as likely to see a large increase in sales? read more

Social Media & SEO

• The Noob Guide to Link Building The Noob Guide to Online Marketing is arguably the greatest single post of all time. If you don’t agree, well, it’s at least my favorite. read more
• Why You Shouldn’t Set Pageviews and Time on Site as Goals in Google Analytics Nearly every site out there has a pageview and time on site goal enabled. They’re easy to set up and they make us feel great. We can say that our site has a 55% goal conversion rate just by enabling these two goals. read more

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What seemed like ordinary correspondence from a client quickly became a compliance nightmare for one Dallas-based wealth management firm.

I recently spoke with an executive from the Dallas-based firm who asked to remain anonymous due to ongoing investigations about the incident. This person described how the firm received a wire request from a client via email, so the firm replied by sending the appropriate form for a client signature. A few hours later the form was returned and the signature was compared with another from a prior wire request already on file. Everything looked to be in good order.

But unfortunately for all parties involved, the wire request was not from the actual client, but from someone who had broken in to the client’s email account.

Client Spoofing 

It turns out this scenario is not unique, as over a half-dozen cases involving Dallas/Ft. Worth-based RIAs have been reported since the beginning of the year.

In the latest scheme to defraud individuals, hackers are using “spoofing” techniques to impersonate others who have relationships with professional financial advisers. Spoofing is commonly accomplished by obtaining a client’s email account password through keylogging software or by substituting indistinguishable characters in valid email address (e.g. lower-case “l” and a capital “I”). In either case, the hacker attempts to exploit the existing trusted relationship with the adviser who has no reason to be suspicious of a request to transfer funds.

In addition to client impersonation through email, some hackers are going so far as to activate call forwarding on a client’s personal cell phone account, meaning that confirming a client’s wire instructions via phone may not always guarantee the person on the other end is who they say they are. The boldest of hackers are calling in directly to advisory firms, spoofing Caller ID, and verbally requesting wire transfers.

If a firm’s back office staff has little or no contact with certain clients, employees have little opportunity to properly validate the identity of the individual calling in.

Combating Spoofing

Since you can no longer trust the authenticity of all correspondence received from clients, either by email or phone, what can you do to protect yourself and your clients from spoofing activity?

There’s no clear consensus on best practices to combat client spoofing. Remember that verifying instructions by placing a phone call can be insufficient if the hacker is able to activate call forwarding on a victim’s phone.

One recommendation is to follow the authentication practices of large banks and credit card companies. When you call in as a customer, you’re asked for a secret word or phrase in addition to your account information to proceed with any assistance. While one’s mother’s maiden name is often the typical security word, I would advise against using it for your authentication process.

You may want to update your policies and procedures to ask for clients’ secret phrase before processing fund transfers of any kind. Keep this secret phrase secure and confidential, likely included in your password-protected CRM software next to your client’s contact record.

Also, in the age of camera-equipped mobile devices, a video chat to confirm wire instructions is a better way to verify a client’s identity versus a standard phone call. Still, the employee at the advisory firm must know what the client looks like before contacting him/her to verify instructions!

If You’re Targeted

If you believe your firm is the target of client spoofing, one good place to report the incident is the Internet Crime Complaint Center, or IC3 (http://www.ic3.gov/). IC3 is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C) and aggregates incident reports to allocate investigative resources accordingly. Often, the FBI or the Secret Service will get involved in cases involving spoofing of investment adviser clients.

Educate Clients

Finally, one weak link in most spoofing scenarios is a client’s password credentials to web-based email accounts. A value-add service you can provide to clients is education on how to best protect login and password credentials. Sage advice includes never entering credentials using an unknown computer, such as a public computer in a hotel business center.

Also, an increasing number of web-based email providers allow users to enable multi-factor authentication to the login process. I addressed multi factor authentication in this Morningstar Advisor column, which requires users to authenticate their login activity through a second device, typically via SMS text messages. Even many credit card companies are employing this additional verification process to their systems.

So don’t fall victim to the next spoofing attack your firm encounters. It’s not a question whether if an attack will occur, but rather when.

More resources on spoofing:

• Email spoofing on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mail_spoofing
• IC3: http://www.ic3.gov/
• FBI Internet Fraud: http://www.fbi.gov/scams-safety/fraud/internet_fraud

Our designers have been working hard and the results are a very clean and modern 2012 Theme that makes your website look more attractive to your audience.

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Many firms have policies and procedures within their compliance programs that address the use of social media by the firm and its IAR’s; however, when asked, the staff observed variations and discrepancies in the policies and procedures. Here are four of the key observations:

(1) “Overlapping protocols that apply to advertisements, client communications or electronic communications, which may or may not specifically include social media use.”
(2) “Confusion about which procedures or standards apply to social media.”
(3) Lack of clarity about the types of social networking activity that are permitted or prohibited by the firm.
(4) Lack of addressing the use of social media by solicitors.

Have you ever experienced any of those challenges at your firm?

Given the premature nature of social networking, it’s not surprising that there’s haze around its policies and procedures. Instead of shoving social media to the back burner, the SEC advises firms to create clarity about the standards regarding social media activity. Below are 10 factors to consider:

Usage Guidelines: Clear the fog. Create firm usage guidelines that offer guidance to IAR’s and solicitors about the appropriate and inappropriate use of social media. Also include restrictions and prohibitions regarding social media based on the level of risk to the firm and clients.
Content Standards: Consider the risks of social media content created by the firm, its IARs, or solicitors. Does it violate its fiduciary duty or other regulatory issues? Articulate clear guidelines with respect to such content, and whether to prohibit specific content or impose content restrictions.
Examples of violations: Posting investment recommendations on a Facebook page; commenting on information about investment services; or tweeting about certain investment performances.
Monitoring: Self-explanatory: monitor your social media sites. How will your firm effectively monitor its social networking sites? How will the firm monitor the use of third-party sites? Remember: many third-party sites may not provide complete access to a supervisor or compliance personnel.
Frequency of Monitoring: How much does your firm monitor IAR or solicitor activity on social media sites? If you employ a risk-based approach, your firm may include periodic, daily or real-time monitoring of the postings on sites. The frequency of monitoring may depend on the volume and pace of communications posted on a site or the nature and probability of having misleading subject matter in conversation streams.
Training: Implement training related to social media that seeks to promote compliance and to prevent potential violations of the federal securities laws and the firm’s internal policies.
Certification: Consider requiring a certification by IARs and advisory solicitors confirming that those individuals understand and are complying with the firm’s social media policies and procedures.
Functionality: Social media changes all the time.  It’s important to stay current and informed about all of the nooks and crannies on social media platforms to ensure their optimal business functionality. Consider each social media site approved for use,and address any upgrades or modifications that affect the risk exposure for the firm or its clients.
Personal/Professional Sites: Adopt policies and procedures to address an IAR or solicitor conducting firm business on personal (non-business) or third-party social media sites. Firms must specify what types of firm communications or content are permitted on a site that is not operated, supervised, or sponsored by the firm.
Example: A firm may determine that it is appropriate to permit business card information on a specific personal site or third-party site, but choose to prohibit conducting business on that site.
Information Security: Does IAR access to social media sites pose any security risks? Protecting information and information systems from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, perusal, inspection, recording or destruction is an important risk faced by all firms. Although hacking and other breaches of information can be posed in multiple ways,the  use of social media (especially 3rd party sites) may pose elevated risks. Enforce policies that create appropriate firewalls between sensitive customer information, proprietary information, and any social media site to the extent that the firm permits access to such sites by its IARs.
Enterprise Wide Sites: An RIA belonging to larger financial services or corporate enterprise should determine whether to create usage guidelines reasonably designed to prevent the advertising practices of a firm-wide social media site from violations of the Advisers Act.

Don’t let your confusion and lack of clarity about social media protocols inhibit your business. Employ these simple tips to ensure the safety, functionality, and effectiveness of your firms social media platforms.

Have you applied any of SEC’s considerations to your social media practice?

Financial News & Market Commentary

• Facebook’s IPO: What We Know Now Facebook is set to raise the roof off Wall Street with its upcoming initial public offering, which has a target valuation on the social-media giant as high as $110 billion. read more
• Einhorn Says Fed Rate Stance ‘No Longer Useful,’ Risks Inflation Hedge-fund manager David Einhorn said Federal Reserve policy intended to stimulate the economy and create jobs is “no longer useful” because it risks inflation. read more
• Goldman Sachs Finds More Unwanted Publicity in Gupta Case Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), just months after being assailed by an ex-employee for harboring a “toxic” culture, faces a harsh spotlight this month in Manhattan federal court over how well a senior official guarded its secrets. read more
• UBS Wealth Management Inflows Top Estimates; Shares Rise UBS AG (UBSN), Switzerland’s biggest bank, attracted more funds from wealthy clients in the first quarter than analysts estimated, sending the company’s shares to the biggest advance in two weeks. read more

Marketing News & Selling Tips

• Email Marketers Better Prepare For Mobile Opens, New Study Finds The majority of email messages will be read on mobile devices by the end of 2012, predicts email services firm Return Path. In a newly-released study, the company says email open rates have increased 82.4% between March of 2011 and March of 2012, now accounting for nearly 30% of email opens. read more
• Enough With Google+ification, Says Wil Wheaton — YouTube Doesn’t Need It Enough With Google+ification, Says Wil Wheaton — YouTube Doesn’t Need It. read more
• Twitter Adds More Personalization On The ‘Discover’ Tab To Improve Content Discovery Twitter continues its long-running effort to help users discover content with Tuesday’s announcement that the Discover tab is using more personalization signals. read more
• Yahoo Rolls Out Small Business Marketing Dashboard As part of its suite of tools, the company today rolled out a small business marketing dashboard — meant as a one-stop shop where small businesses can monitor (and tweak) their online presence. read more

Social Media & SEO

• Perfecting On-Page Optimization for Ecommerce Websites The core principles haven’t changed that much, but there are some new additions to an SEO’s toolkit when it comes to on-page optimization. Today I want to focus on what these new additions are in relation to eCommerce websites. read more
• How To Use These 3 Hypnotic “Power Words” To Covertly Increase Your Conversion Rates You probably don’t believe this can actually happen. But I’m going to tell you that it can—because over time we’ve all been subtly hypnotized to accept certain trigger words. The process started before we could even talk. read more

In fact, some of your advertising and marketing will be loud noise that is avoided. Marketing will often not resonate with people because they see it as a sales effort. And, people inherently don’t want to be sold – they want to make up their own mind about the choices they make. On the other hand, when a service issue comes up, your client service staff can literally whisper and be heard. That is power because people are paying attention.

Consider focusing on your clients when they are most paying attention to you. The message that is generated by those servicing clients may be the most powerful thing you can use to enhance your brand. How are you controlling your best marketing?

Regular proactive communication during a service issue will be remembered. Resolution of an issue (even if not a perfect resolution) is remembered. Showing someone you care is remembered. A direct mail piece is not nearly as memorable.

Consider adding your best “marketing” strategy to the mix. Increase the systems and accountability you have around service. Regularly listen in on conversations your staff is having with clients. Implementing new ways to show how much your team cares about clients can quickly cultivate new promoters of your business… and can be the easiest to forget when we are looking to market our business.

The first place advisors look is how the client’s portfolio has been doing.  Unfortunately, this is only a part of the measurement of the client’s satisfaction. The other part is their satisfaction with the relationship, which is trickier to measure.

The top four categories that clients use to determine how you measure up are:

1. Providing attention. This involves how often you contact them, meet them, the time it takes to return their calls, hand written notes etc.
2. Offering solutions. Be able to be the client’s expert on financial matters.
3. Having a connection. This is what you have in common; values, a similar life situation, interests, etc.
4. Meeting the client’s goals. Were they coming to you for investing ideas, to learn more about a topic or to have you save them time and effort?

Check to see how well you performed in each category and then ask your clients for feedback. It is better to be proactive in this area and to get things out in the open, so that you can talk about it.

Since you cannot control the markets, it is nice to know that you do have a lot of control over how your relationships work out and how satisfied your clients will be.

1. Track feedback- A Facebook page can help you understand what your audience likes about your business. View sharing of content and feedback as your target audience is able to provide you with their preferences with just a click. It’s also a great way to see what users are saying about you and your company.
2. New clients- You are provided immediate access to clients you might have never known about, and clients that might not know about you. Since Facebook is established and popular, there is a good chance your target audience is already on using it regularly.

Show your stuff- Use your Facebook page to show pictures and videos about your product or service. This information is most likely to be shared or “liked”, which means it will be repeated in the newsfeeds of friends and contacts, multiplying your opportunities to gain new clients and business.

Financial News & Market Commentary

• Betting Against Fads in the Fund Industry Imitation, the saying goes, is the sincerest form of flattery. In the financial services industry, it’s often flattery that investors could do well without: A crush of similar products in a niche market is often a sign to run in the opposite direction.
  read more
• Hedge Funds Cut Bullish Wagers by the Most in Four Months Hedge funds cut their bets on higher commodity prices by the most in four months on mounting concern that Europe’s debt crisis will derail global growth and curb demand for raw materials. read more
• This May Be as Good as It Gets for Stocks in 2012 Apple’s extraordinary earnings growth is unique. Other corporate profits seem fully discounted. Unique may be the most over-used and misused word in the English language. Something that is unique is just that — the only one. Unique cannot be used with a modifier. read more
• Exxon Mobil hikes dividend by 21% Exxon Mobil Corp. on Wednesday declared a second-quarter cash dividend of 57 cents a share, up 10 cents, or 21%, from 47 cents a share, in the first quarter. read more

Marketing News & Selling Tips

• Mobile Spending on the Rise: There are 32 Billion Apps for That How much do you spend on mobile in a year? Figure in the cost of data plans, apps and app upgrades, downloaded music and videos, maybe you even coughed up a buck for a ring tone? read more
• How to Set the Right Lead Gen Goals for Your Marketing Team As inbound marketers, we all know the value and importance of measuring, tracking, and reporting on key metrics and goals. Let’s take the data you collect around your lead generation efforts, for instance. read more
• Is Your Sales & Marketing Team Ready for a CRM? As a marketer, you’re likely familiar with a CRM system; if not, no worries, you’re about to learn all about it! The frustrating thing about many CRMs is that they come with a range of functionality — from basic to robust — and all too often, businesses find themselves equipped with more than they need (or frankly, can handle). read more
• Leveraging Customer Service for Public Relations The consumer voice is the new form of public relations. This next session will be a Q&A session with some the brightest minds in PR. read more

Social Media & SEO

• How Google Search Works, In a Nutshell Unless you’re an SEO expert, it’s no surprise if you’re mystified by the inner-workings of Google search. How on Earth does Google decide how to rank the pages on your website? read more
• The Missing Metric in Google Analytics v5 Google’s recent update to Google Analytics v5 has been awesome. We have new reports for SEO, social media, and multi-channel funnels. There’s also all sorts of nifty little tricks and bags of goodies that were never available in the old Google Analytics. But there’s still one essential metric missing. read more

At this point We would like to remind you about our exclusive Webinar that AdvisorWebsites.com will be co-hosting with Duncan MacPherson from Pareto Systems:

Advisor of the Future

The Webinar is about How an on-line strategy can help you build your business in 2012 and beyond.

Integrating web, social media and internet into your practice.

With special guest Duncan MacPherson from Pareto Systems bringing in some additional commentary, asking tough questions and providing insights. Join us for a 45 minute interactive session.

This session will be hosted on May 3, Thursday at 1 pm PST (that’s 4pm Eastern)

RSVP Here: Advisor of the Future Registration

Last month, the redesign for Facebook Business Pages was unveiled at the Facebook Marketing Conference (fMC) in New York. The redesign, which launches March 30th, features the new timeline format and cover photo, thus allowing businesses to showcase their stories, be more expressive, and connect with consumers in new, fresh ways. If you have any anxiety or uncertainty about the change, don’t worry. Facebook not only gives you an awesome tutorial, they also provide you with a 30 day grace period to strategize and plan for the new format. Below are some of the fundamental changes that your business needs to know about the new Facebook business timeline.

New Cover Photo: If you have a personal Facebook page, you’re probably already familiar with the timeline cover photo. The business pages are no different. Now, instead of having a strip of photos at the top, you have one large photo to showcase and capture your business (minimum of 399 pixels, maximum of 850 x 315 pixels). Unlike the Facebook landing pages (which no longer exist) your cover photo cannot have any calls to action, promotions, or any contact information. It must simply be eye catching without many words.

I suggest using an image that tells a story or makes a powerful statement about your business. Revisit your company’s mission, values, and areas of expertise and choose an image that encompasses those unique elements.

The New York Times used an image of their team, which captures a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the faces behind the mass publication.

New “About” Section: The “about” section that used to be lost in the “info” tab on your company page is now front and center at the very top. Because you have a limited number of characters on your “about” section, consider rewriting it to make it concise and powerful. I suggest using a tag line or a sentence that captures your brand’s mission and values. Here are some awesome examples of what some bug companies are doing:

• New York Life: “The official page of the New York Life Insurance Company –The Company You Keep® www.NewYorkLife.com“
• Nike: “If you have a body, you are an athlete -Bill Bowerman”
• Mashable: “Latest digital, social media, business, tech, entertainment and mobile news from Mashable.com, the top resource and guide for digital culture.”
• Coca-Cola: “The Coca-Cola Facebook Page is a collection of your stories showing how people from around the world have helped make Coke into what it is today.”
• American Family Insurance: “Your dream is out there. Go get it. We’ll protect it.”

Larger, highlighted posts: Before timeline, all Facebook posts were created equal. Not anymore. Now you have the option to highlight posts and pin relevant posts to the top of your timeline for up to seven days. You can also change post dates, which allows you to bump up posts you want to keep at the top of the page. This is useful if your company is having a special promotion and/or wants to add a degree of importance or emphasis to certain posts. To feature posts, simply click on the star located in the top right hand corner of the post; to change the date, click on the pencil.

Facebook Admin Panel, Icons, and Page Name Change Request Form: Insights are now located in the admin panel at the upper right corner of the page. While the navigation of insights is slightly different, it still features notifications, messages, new likes, insights about your posts, and page tips.

Your pages apps are now located to the right of your “about” section. By clicking the  pencil in the top right corner of your app box, you have the option to change its positioning, remove from favorites, or access the edit feature.

More good news. In the past, businesses were required to completely delete their Facebook page if they wanted to change the title of their page. Now, they can request a name change by accessing this form. This is really convenient for those who have changed their branding, have a misspelling in the name, or want to make other changes without completely starting over.

Messaging and Milestones: The old Facebook business pages used to have restrictions on messaging. Fans could not message brands and brands could not message fans. With the new timeline format, there are no longer barriers between business and fan communication. Brands and fans can now message one another. As a financial professional, remember to archive all communication via messaging.

Another powerful addition to the new Facebook platform is the “milestone” feature. The “milestone” feature is located by the status update box and allows you to add memorable dates and events that occur in your business. This is a great way to feature important occasions and share your business’ unique story to the world.

Take some time to revisit your company’s history and add milestones for important dates, such as when your company was founded, when they brought on a new CEO, or when a new product or service was launched. Be creative and thoughtful during this process. Because we’re social media experts, we added the birth of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Pinterest to our milestones.

Although the new Facebook business timeline is vastly different from the previous layout, it provides a greater opportunity to really capture the spirit of your business. Put some time and thought into this new layout to determine what messages and ideas you want to convey about your business. The sky’s the limit!

What are your thoughts about the new layout?

Ten tips to build resilience are:

1. Look after yourself. Eat healthy, exercise and get plenty of rest.
2. Set clear boundaries. Learn to say “no”.
3. Take tech breaks. Unplug for a while each day and take a break.
4. Change will happen. It is part of life, and being able to adjust and re-evaluate your goals helps to put the ball back in your court.
5. Try something new - something that has nothing to do with work.
6. Go on vacation. You will come back refreshed and relaxed.
7. Take action on your goals. Accomplish one thing each day that moves you closer to your goal.
8. Decide what is important. Is your work meaningful to you?
9. Have a positive attitude. Start visualizing what you want.
10. Take advantage of your resources. There are many tasks you can delegate and people who are willing to help you if you ask them.

Ask yourself: If you could choose one way that you could adjust your life that would make a difference in how you handle stress, what would it be? Once you have picked something, consider how you would measure that it is working and celebrate that change.

Remember that you can change how you interpret highly stressful events but that you can’t change the fact that they occur. Look beyond the present to how future circumstances may be learning opportunities waiting to happen.

“Likes” are the new referrals. If you have 100+ people who “like” your Facebook business page, it adds credibility to your firm. In fact, your “likes” are similar to a testimonial, endorsement, and even a referral. If someone thinks enough of you to connect with you, they are also telling others how they feel – at least on the surface. Conversely, if you have 2 people who “like” you it tells a different story and may have an inverse effect on your credibility.

So, while you are scheduling out your content calendar for all of the valuable posts you will disseminate on social media, determine how you will first get followers to read the posts. There are some simple ways to begin building your audience quickly. Develop a campaign through Facebook‘s Build Audience tab. Send an email out to your connections, clients and alliances telling them about your page and the value they will receive if they connect. In other words… tell people!

Your followers will not only be able to enjoy your posts, they will give you credibility amongst those who are searching for you or your company. It‘s a win-win – “like” it or not!

New Co-Webinar

Advisor of the Future
How an on-line strategy can help you build your business in 2012 and beyond. Integrating web, social media and internet into your practice. With special guest Duncan MacPherson from Pareto Systems bringing in some additional commentary, asking tough questions and providing insights. Join us for a 45 minute interactive session

Register online: Thursday, May 3, 1:00 PM PST / 4:00 PM EST

Past webinars recordings

AdvisorWebsites Advanced Support Webinar
Learn to navigate and use your dashboard like a pro.
Replay online: AdvisorWebsites Support Webinar

AdvisorWebsites Support Webinar
Learn to navigate and use your dashboard like a pro.
Replay online: AdvisorWebsites Support Webinar

Maximize your online presence as a financial advisor
Learn how to maximize your financial website for most return. Webinar includes tour of SEO’ed website, marketings tips, social media resources and best practices.
Replay online: Maximize your online presence

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We would like to invite you to an exclusive webinar that AdvisorWebsites.com will be co-hosting with Duncan MacPherson from Pareto Systems:

Advisor of the Future

The Webinar is about How an on-line strategy can help you build your business in 2012 and beyond.

Integrating web, social media and internet into your practice.

With special guest Duncan MacPherson from Pareto Systems bringing in some additional commentary, asking tough questions and providing insights. Join us for a 45 minute interactive session.

This session will be hosted on May 3, Thursday at 1 pm PST (that’s 4pm Eastern)

RSVP Here: Advisor of the Future Registration

Did you know that 2/3 of our short term memory is lost one hour after our meeting – 90% of client meeting information is lost after 24 hours!

Scientifically Proven by Ebbinghaus’s Forgetting Curve

The ability to document detailed client information is critical to the growth and future success of your business. Information allows you to build deeper more personal relationships with your clients, make more relevant investment recommendations and reduce your compliance risk.

1.  Build deeper, more personal relationships. Top advisors set themselves apart by remembering details. Do you send that congratulations card for an important event because you recorded it immediately after a meeting? Do you have a good understanding of your client’s family dynamics, biggest concerns both financial and personal, passions and pursuits? The ability to document and act on these personal details can assist you with establishing a deeper connection with a client, building their trust and improving their experience with your firm.
2. Make more relevant investment recommendations. Fully understanding and documenting clients’ financial and personal goals is an important aspect of the financial planning process. Over time, it is equally as important to collect information from your clients at all touchpoints to ensure you continue to meet their needs and exceed their expectations. When meeting with prospects, document why they have made past investment decisions, what they are currently hoping to achieve from a financial perspective and future needs.
3. Reduce your compliance risk. Documenting client and prospect interactions can serve you well in the future should you find yourself dealing with a formal complaint from a client or responding to inquiries from regulators.

You may be thinking that creating and implementing comprehensive client meeting notes and documentation retention policies can require significant time and resources. There are many solutions in the marketplace today which can assist you with this in an efficient manner and help to boost your productivity.

Solutions such as CRM systems, mobile dictation and more can help you document and keep up to date the relevant information you need to continue to grow your prospect and client relationships in a flexible and cost efficient manner. Besides the basics, many of the available solutions allow you to capture valuable information including client body language during a meeting, important upcoming life events and personal goals or concerns.

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Many referrals for financial analysts and insurance agents originate by word of mouth. Since a consumer tends to purchase or update insurance policies and plans to prepare for milestone events, it can be beneficial to stay in contact with your audience; social media can provide this tool. By connecting with your audience during these key events in their lives, you have the ability to provide materials or answer any questions they might have about your products or services. Often, your name as an agent is just as recognizable to your clients as your company name. This affords you the unique opportunity to connect with your intended audience on a personal level, providing information and insights based on their current situation. Developing relationships and rapport with your customers shows you are interested in their needs and helps both your presence and reputation grow.

One of the biggest components of social media is listening to your audience; be sure to create your Facebook page or LinkedIn profiles, post updates, and tweet very selectively and utilize these platforms often to connect with your clients. With a page in place, it’s also easier for your existing customers to direct friends and family to your site or to share your information with those on their networks; this can lead to referrals for you business and the opportunity to engage potential clients. In turn, knowing your contacts allows you to facilitate connections, linking together clients in similar industries or helping to build relationships between a business owner and a customer in need if their products or services. To assist your marketing, follow people on LinkedIn or Twitter; this can give you the opportunity to customize your campaign to fit the needs of your potential audience. You’ll also build your online presence by gaining loyalty, which can facilitate long-term relationships with your clients and their families.

Social media is evolving, so use what the tools best suited to your agency. Be sure to be aware of any regulatory and compliance rules in your industry before launching your online presence. The most important rule of thumb is to listen to your audience to see what their needs are and be available to provide applicable information. Suggest products and services that will help your clients reach their goals, which will ultimately help you and your business achieve theirs.

At a business function, when someone asks what you do, how do you answer? Many advisors simply say, “I’m a financial advisor.” Oftentimes, however, when that question is asked, because of misconceived perceptions about the industry, your black and white answer actually causes people to want to talk with you less! And we know this! For the past 12 months I have asked groups of financial advisors how they answer this question and if their answer would have people wanting to talk with them more or less. 95% of the advisors answer with a response of “less!” The perplexing question I then have to ask: If you know what you say will have a negative response, why don’t you say something different?

Every firm needs to have a refined firm story to assist in marketing and client acquisition. But, there is a serious need to have a compelling opening line for your firm story. Without this, you may never get the chance to share your story. Even the classic elevator pitch, typically one to two minutes in length, is too long-winded for an informal initial introduction. In a world of ever-decreasing attention spans, less is definitely more.

A solution for compelling others to want to listen to you is to develop a 15-20 second Simple, Repeatable, Statement of Value (SRSV). An SRSV is a statement that is easy to remember and shares some value directly for the person you are speaking with. Below is the 4-step formula for building your own SRSV. Your SRSV may not include the answer to every question, and it doesn’t have to be compiled in this order.

SRSV Builder Questions:
1. Who are you?
2. What do you do?
3. Who do you work with (niche)?
4. What is unique/memorable about what you do or have done?

Financial News & Market Commentary

• Don’t Fall Into the Growth Trap This Earnings Season If you run a growth fund, then your job just got really easy. That’s because there is practically no growth to be had any more, and what little there is can be found hiding in plain sight. read more
• Justice Dept. Sues Apple and Publishers Over E-book Pricing The Justice Department filed a civil antitrust lawsuit against Apple and major book publishers on Wednesday, charging that the companies colluded to raise the price of e-books in 2010. read more
• U.S. Stocks Halt Five-Day Decline After Alcoa’s Results U.S. stocks advanced, halting a five-day decline for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, after Alcoa (AA) Inc. reported an unexpected first-quarter profit. read more
• Fed Says Economy Grew at ‘Modest to Moderate’ Pace in March The Federal Reserve said the economy maintained its expansion in all 12 of its regions as manufacturing, hiring and retail sales showed signs of strength in the face of higher fuel prices. read more

Marketing News & Selling Tips

• Google+ Updates Navigation and Other Features For clarification, updates to the product are fine and need to be shared as such. Google forcing Google+ on everyone through every service at every chance is the trouble spot. read more
• Getting More Out of Pinterest Pinterest is the social media darling of the moment. Personally, I have been slow on the uptake but it would be pretty foolish to ignore the buzz around the site. read more
• 5 Tips for Taking the “FUD” out of Twitter for Employees Whether you work for a large or small business, in BtoB or BtoC, or are just interested in growing your marketing and sales network, you may have been faced with a common issue:  You’re fully on board with social media, but your employees may not be. read more
• Online Marketing News: Social Media ROI Gets Serious, Know Your Metrics, Facebook Search Engine, Twitter Rumors & What They Mean For You

Social Media & SEO

• Non-Intuitive Search Queries & Resources for Link Building Query lists are handy to help in the manual link building process, but most of what’s out there is designed for very direct, obvious link acquisition methodologies. read more
• Excel and Google Docs: Tools for the Ultimate SEO Dashboard

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