Social media, technology, strategy for relationship-based business and overcoming emotional hurdles were the themes for this year’s AdviserEdge conference which concluded at the end of last week.
More than 290 advisers heard from more than 17 speakers during the three-day event, each seeking valuable knowledge on how to benefit from growing their online presence and relationships.
Speakers at AdviserEdge conveyed a diverse range of themes and messages including:
- How to build a personal brand through authenticity
- How to turn connections into relationships
- Automating social media
- Building the ultimate ‘hands off’ client experience
- Creating and nurturing connections through email and video
- Selling through social media relationships
- Bringing innovation to client service models
- Systemising ‘love’ into a business
A key speaker at this year’s event was YouTube personality and Co-Founder of Veeroll.com, Gideon Shalwick, who explained the value of building an authentic personal brand while engaging with the AdviserEdge audience in a livestream telecast through his YouTube channel.
He encouraged advisers to face their fear of failure…
Shalwick explained how his fears of failure were dismissed when his video “How To Make Your Videos Look More Professional – Like Apples Does!” gained more than 828,883 views. He encouraged advisers to face their fear of failure and actively engage with their clients through social media and video while maintaining their authenticity. “You have to forget about yourself to be yourself,” he said.
The importance of social media and marketing sites such as LinkedIn and Infusionsoft were also highlighted by speakers at AdviserEdge, who encouraged advisers to focus on meaningful relationships with their clients while adding their own level of personal input.
Some of the key messages from the conference were echoed in our tweets from the event, including:
- “Your ‘social strategy’ is there to support your ‘giving value’ strategy” – @mickjackback #adviseredge
- “Forget about assuming you can keep doing business the way you’ve been doing it because the world is changing” – Richard Arnold #adviseredge
- “If you’re going to fail, go for it and learn from it” – says @AltasWalthMgmt at #adviseredge
- “Authenticity comes when there’s congruence and alignment between what’s on the inside and the outside” – says Gideon Shalwick #adviseredge
- “You need to start working with systems now in order for them to work in the future” – wise words from @AtlasWealthMgmt at #adviseredge
- “The more clear you are on your purpose and resonance, the more you will push away uninterested people” – @SocialAdviser #adviseredge
- “Don’t be a faceless employer who only communicates through email. Build trust and relationships” – Danielle Cornellissen #adviseredge
Understanding the hastag ‘#’
The hashtag (‘#’), a symbol used by most social media sites for “tagging” appeared to be the source of confusion and anxiety for a number of advisers during the early stages of this year’s conference. Advisers were given a full explanation of the power and purpose of tagging from speakers, while also being taught how to use the hashtag on Twitter by volunteers. Other questions on tagging were explained during Q&A opportunities, as many advisers were able to discover and unravel the world of Twitter.
Finding success in failure
In his presentations at the event, The Social Adviser Founder, Baz Gardner, sent a consistent message to delegates of “fail hard, fail often,” encouraging advisers to take risks and to try new things. This message was also reinforced by other speakers at what was a highly-successful conference.
Riskinfo thanks guest journalist, James Just, for his conference wrap report…
