This past weekend marked
the 5th annual FinCon gathering, the leading conference for personal finance bloggers, with over 900 (!) attendees including
a new adviser track dedicated to blogging and social media sponsored by
the XY Planning Network that numbered nearly 100 adviser participants!
With
a recent Putnam social adviser survey finding that 81% of advisers are now using social media for business, and 79% gained new clients from their efforts, social media and blogging is finally(!) on the rise among advisers.
Accordingly, advisers who are seeking best practices on social media and blogging may want to check out the following 10 speakers, presenters and other notables from FinCon15!
@JJeffRose — Jeff Rose has one of the most popular adviser blogs targeted directly to consumers. His session at FinCon discussed how he's been able to attract a whopping 9 million visitors to his site,
Good Financial Cents, over the past several years. Advisers who are interested in his presentation can
check out the details here.
@MoneyGuyPodcast — Brian Preston and Bo Hanson run a podcast for consumers called
The Money-Guy Show that has brought in more than $40M of AUM in recent years.
@Ritholtz — Barry Ritholtz is No. 1 when it comes to
the most widely read blog written by any financial adviser, and his blog
The Big Picture pulls in a whopping 1,000,000+ pageviews every month.
@SophiaBera — Sophia Bera of
Gen Y Planning is a millennial financial adviser serving millennials who recently noted that
thanks to her focused niche and her social media and blogging presence, is on track to generate $100,000 in revenue in her second year of business!
@BrittneyCastro — With her blog and social media presence, Brittney Castro of
Financially Wise Women has not only quickly grown a niche practice in working with young professional women in her hometown area of Los Angeles, but highlighted at FinCon15 how she launched a self-directed online course called
The Money Class that has generated nearly $30,000 of revenue in just over a year (in addition to providing her advisory clients!).
@BehaviorGap — Carl Richards of
The Behavior Gap (and
director of investor education for Buckingham) delivered a powerful keynote session focusing on
The Impostor Syndrome — that feeling of inadequacy many of us eventually face as clients pay us for our services.
@GrantBaldwin — FinCon15
keynote speaker Grant Baldwin closed out the conference with a powerful message that's relevant for all advisers: we're so addicted in today's environment to
always be doing something that we don't know how to spend healthy time doing nothing. So schedule some time on your calendar to take a break and do nothing.
@NoahKagan — The founder of
SumoMe, a series of “apps” that can be used on a blog to help engage readers and get people signed up for your mailing list, Noah Kagan shares a wealth of knowledge and tips about how to excel in the world of online marketing (for financial advisers and everyone else!)
@FinancialMentor — Winner of the Plutus Award for “Best Designed Blog”, Todd Tresidder writes
FinancialMentor, a blog on the latest retirement research that happens to be targeted primarily for consumers, yet contains a wealth of information relevant for advisers, too!
@NatalieBacon_ — A relative newcomer to the world of financial advisers and blogging, Natalie Bacon is a former lawyer (or a “recovering” lawyer as she puts it!) who has started a career in financial planning, and launched an accompanying blog called
The Finance Girl, which won a Plutus Award for the Best New Personal Finance Blog!
And of course, you're welcome to follow me,
@MichaelKitces, as well, as I blog at Nerd's Eye View and write about all things technical and practice management for financial advisers!
In the meantime, you may want to
check out the #FinCon15 hashtag as well, for all the conference buzz and activity over the past week! And if you still haven't gotten started on Twitter yet as a financial adviser,
there's no time like now to get started!
Michael Kitces is a partner and the director of research at Pinnacle Advisory Group, co-founder of the XY Planning Network and publisher of the financial planning industry blog Nerd's Eye View.