Norb Vonnegut, author extraordinaire of Wall Street crime novels (no surprise given his last name is synonymous with literary largesse) and a fellow who is fluent in the world of financial services wrote a compelling column for the Wall Street Journal this week in which he framed the relevance and import of social media within the world of financial services.
Before offering a synopsis of the column and Norb’s “take-aways”, in the spirit of Wall Street’s emphasis on “full-disclosure”, I’ve broken bread with Norb on more than one occasion, initially in connection with my inviting him to lunch with the goal of enticing him to collaborate on a crime story that I had penned. I think Norb is not just a great fellow, but he’s also a smart and thoughtful guy. I also happen to be a fan of his books, which tend to focus on fictional financial malfeasance; necessarily inspired by the ample supply of real-life stories emanating from the bowels of Wall Street.
Below extract from Norb’s WSJ column starts with “It’s not clear to me how anybody can use social media to build a financial advisory business, especially in the high-net-worth sector. Referrals, targeted cold calls, expert speaking engagements–that’s where the action is.
But I might be wrong.”
Norb then points to the reason why he might be wrong, and along the way, two particularly observations jumped off the page: the import of thought-leadership techniques (“newsjacking” 3rd party content to help emphasize a point..one of this writer’s favorite tactics), and the most important form of communication: listening!
“..Sebastian Dovey, whose firm Scorpio Partnership recently surveyed 3,477 wealthy people about how they use the Internet, says, “The wealthier the individual, the more connected they are digitally.”
Determined to keep an open mind, I recently spoke with Michael Zeuner of WE Family Offices. His firm manages about $2.7 billion in assets for wealthy families. Mr. Zeuner is bullish about social media, though not fanatical.
He regards it as a channel, one of several, to teach people and provide transparency about the markets because “the playing field has not been leveled between advisers and investors”–that is, advisers usually have information most other people don’t. When it comes to building long-term trust with wealthy clients, “caveat emptor” just doesn’t work.
We discussed Twitter TWTR -4.59% and LinkedIn in detail. We skimmed over Facebook, FB -0.83% which Mr. Zeuner sees as more of a “personal” site. And we did not spend any time on Google+ or YouTube.
Twitter: I asked the obvious question. How can you educate investors in 140 characters or less about the Byzantine securities and the assorted biohazards that crawl out of Wall Street’s trading floors?
Mr. Zeuner said he curates thought leadership. Using his personal handle, he primarily tweets third-party content that contributes to capital markets transparency and investor expertise. ….
I get that. It’s the right way to tweet. The strategy focuses on value, not volume. What I didn’t expect was Mr. Zeuner’s follow-up. He emphasized Twitter is a great place “to listen.”
The full WSJ column is available via this link.
Social Media, Meet Financial Services; Blog, Tweet and Link-In To Be a Thought-Leader
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