‘Crank it up’ was the key theme at the AdviserEdge 2014 Conference, held on the Gold Coast this week.
The annual event is the brainchild of Baz Gardner, founder of The Social Adviser, which specialises in providing digital marketing and engagement strategies for advice businesses.
Utilising digital business tools and social media to deliver more quality advice to more Australians was at the centre of the 2014 AdviserEdge conference agenda, where attendees were encouraged to “connect to their purpose”.
To elaborate on this theme, Mr Gardner unveiled what he termed ‘the secret to reinventing the advice profession’, keeping each adviser and their business at the innovative forefront.
“The mood of society, how we interact, make decisions and build relationships has changed forever, and whether we admit it or not, in this time of dramatic evolution, ‘stagnant’ means ‘redundant’”, he said.
“Become the empowerment agent that you should be,” Mr Gardner urged the 300 plus attendees.
This message continued to be reiterated as both Australian and International speakers shared their expertise and discussed how social media platforms are used to build and enhance a Professional business.
Key speakers included:
- Michael Kitces: An international perspective
- Dana Feldman: LinkedIn
- Tony Vidler: Moving online prospective customers into offline customers
- Phil Richards: The Entrepreneurial Adviser Mind
Other event highlights included:
Social Selling
The philosophy of ‘Social Selling’ was explored; bringing ideal clients to the adviser, ready to do business.
The science, process and systems behind client attraction were unveiled in a 13-step process created by The Social Adviser. The process includes measuring the return on investment (ROI) delivered through social selling, calculated as: number of connections X quality of connection X value given X execution of gateway process.
The importance of LinkedIn
Conference delegates were told that LinkedIn has more than 300 million members worldwide, with two new members joining every second. Delegates also learned that 96% of high net worth professionals under 44 years of age and 75% over the age of 44 are using social media.
These statistics were used to highlight to advisers the importance of LinkedIn to growing a professional business. Advisers were provided with five essential steps to engaging on LinkedIn.
Innovative executives panel discussion
A panel including Brad Fox (Association of Financial Advisers), Pina Sciarrone (AIA Australia), Simon Micallef (Netwealth) and Tom Reddacliff (Financial Planning Association) talked to attendees about using digital strategies to engage more effectively with potential clients. The panel sent a clear message to advisers that their key focus should be on gaining the trust of consumers through the empowerment of advisers as a collective.
