social media

Is Originality Important When it Comes to Content?

Posted by Mike McLaughlin on Oct 18, 2016, in Thoughts , tagged with , ,

Three semi-quick steps to get to my answer…

1. I tweet very infrequently.

2. The reasons I don’t tweet are multiple and common. But one of them is relevant to the question at hand: I don’t want to say something or make an observation that has already been made thousands of times before.

Case in point: my tolerance for spicy food has grown with age. So, as part of a recent Thai food order I upped the spiciness. Before the food arrived I started to wonder how I’d react to it. My thought process quickly went:

spicy-flow-chart

At this point I had a few version of a “spicy / Ark of the Covenant” tweet in my head. Still, as I considered putting it out there one thought popped into my head: has somebody said this before?

3. I assumed the answer to my question was YES, but a quick search showed that instinct to be mostly incorrect. It’s only appeared a handful of times over the years (at least on Twitter). Even so, my hesitation got the best of me and the world was deprived of another tweet.

spicy-tweet

All of this made me wonder about the importance of content originality within asset management. And in a nutshell I came to conclusion that it’s just not very important at all. The most direct illustration I can point to is the defense of active management. Consider that:

  • The current environment has led many, many, many, many firms to communicate a case for actively-managed investments.
  • These cases overlap significantly, making highly-similar points.

Despite the ubiquity and similarity we have been working with a client this month on how to message active management. And I think our client is absolutely right to pursue this effort. Why? First, it boils down to a numbers game:

  • Asset management is fractured, in that there are large numbers of providers and a huge number of clients.
  • This leads to kinetic content consumption. The likelihood of any given client encountering and consuming a single piece of content from an asset manager is low. The likelihood that they will consume content on the same subject from multiple managers is even lower. In other words, content sameness has a limited chance of being noticed.

Second, multiple perspectives are sought out by thoughtful clients. So, even if someone encounters the same ideas from multiple firms, minor nuances can stand out and be memorable.

And finally, going down heavily-traveled content roads is necessary because clients expect a firm to have something to say. For example, what active manager can afford NOT to have a strong case for active management in today’s climate? Ditto meaningful topics like Brexit, the Fed’s plans for rates, and more.

In an era where firms compete not only on product and performance but on the scale and quality of their ideas, covering the most important ideas and topics is crucial while pure originality is simply a nice-to-have.

Twitter by the Numbers

Posted by Anu Heda on Sep 12, 2016, in Thoughts , tagged with , , ,

In 2016, there are very few, nearing zero, asset managers without a Twitter account. We follow over 100 asset managers and similar to most users we scan through their tweets at idle moments and occasionally click-through to interesting topics. Given the prevalence and long-standing presence (7+ years in some cases) of Twitter across the industry, a basic question comes to mind: are firms gaining larger Twitter followings? I’ve studied a small set of firms over the last year and arrived at three takeaways. But first, the data.

Twitter Data

For instance, MFS increased daily tweets by 80% and saw a 66% positive change in followers.

Takeaways from this analysis:

  1. Nobody has fewer followers than last year, supporting the notion that Twitter (and perhaps all social media tools) has become more valuable for asset managers. Even the three firms that tweet less than they did a year ago have increased followership.
  2. The industry has not settled on a “normal” amount of activity. Different firms are experimenting with volume ranging from every other day (Deutsche Asset and Wealth Management at 0.6 tweets per day) to every four hours (PIMCO at 6.3).
  3. In this 13-firm sample, there’s weak correlation between increased activity (via daily tweets) and increased followership. We have no clustering around the trend line.

Note: PIMCO was excluded from the chart for scaling purposes. PIMCO increased Twitter activity by 1,475% and experienced 12% growth in followers.

The Top 3 Videos of 2016 (So Far)

Posted by Mike McLaughlin on Aug 08, 2016, in Thoughts , tagged with , , , , ,

Over the past few weeks I’ve spent A LOT of time looking at asset managers’ video content. I learned many things, but the most fun question to consider is a simple one: which videos are the best?

Below is a wholly subjective Top 3 list based on content posted to the YouTube catalogs of 25 firms since the start of 2016. Before we get there, a few quick thoughts:

  • There is a high-degree of sameness. Lots of talking heads covering lots of the same issues in similar formats. In fairness it’s not all that easy to be truly original with video in this industry.
  • Scripts are limiting. Having non-actors who are required to stick to a tight script is often a detriment in terms of being able to connect with presenters. Looser presentations have a little more snap to them.
  • Nothing is viral. It seems 98% of the video have view counts in the three figures (or less).
  • Production values are universally strong. Firms have mastered incorporating different angles, music, graphics, quick edits, and more.

That said, let’s get to the top 3…

3. Janus: Denver Pride Fest

So many firms have videos that TELL you about their culture. Voiceovers, brief looks at people in the office in various settings, you know the drill. This clip succeeds where those fall short – it SHOWS genuine aspects of the Janus culture. The video is only viewable on YouTube so click here or the image below to watch.

Janus

2. PIMCO: Asset Allocation for Equities in 2016

Over 25 seconds PIMCO uses one question, two statements, and two simple graphics to deliver its fundamental guidance on how the equity markets will go over the course of the year. No long-winded speeches, no multi-page paper… just a direct and clear message.

1. Schroders: Hidden Talent – Muy Thai

I am not sure how many topics would be more unexpected than Muy Thai in a video from an asset manager.

The Rise of Digital Fracture

Posted by Mike McLaughlin on Mar 05, 2013, in Thoughts , tagged with , , , ,

Florida in February, 100+ attendees, and a series of truly interesting sessions – needless to say, we were fortunate to be part of the MFEA’s Distribution Technology Summit last week.

Our opening presentation introduced the concept of Digital Fracture. What is that? We’ll go into more detail in posts over the course of March, but for now we’ll let this quick synopsis we delivered after our session set the table:

DTS – Mike McLaughlin from FundchatS.

For a complete summary of the day’s events and perspectives on everything from predictive analytics to mobile-supported wholesaling, check out the MFEA site.

 

Your CEO is Not Using Social Media? No Problem

Posted by Mike McLaughlin on Sep 06, 2012, in Thoughts , tagged with , ,

Over at Fast Company, HootSuite CEO Ryan Holmes tosses out another in the endless line of arguments about how companies aren’t using social media effectively. The points he makes are generally fine. Two of the central tenets have been, are, and will remain true for a long time:

He didn’t need a college degree. And he doesn’t need Twitter either.

  • Social media is a huge opportunity for corporations and will significantly impact the bottom line
  • We have a long way to go before these benefits are even close to fully-realized

People get it. Even skeptics understand there’s real opportunity. But it all takes time. After all, the same two ideas above still hold true for “old” technologies like e-mail, CRM tools, and (gasp) Web sites. If Mr. Holmes is up for it, he’ll be able to recycle his article a few years from now and probably not have to change much of anything.

Still, I have an issue with the starting point of Mr. Holmes’ argument. If you didn’t click through to the article, it begins with the following:

On June 6, Larry Ellison–CEO of Oracle, one of the largest and most advanced computer technology corporations in the world–tweeted for the very first time. In doing so, he joined a club that remains surprisingly elite. Among CEOs of the world’s Fortune 500 companies, a mere 20 have Twitter accounts. Ellison, by the way, hasn’t tweeted since.

Mr. Holmes is making the point that big-time CEOs don’t get social media because only 20 have Twitter accounts. There are two big problems with this:

  1. A Lack of Usage Does Not Equal a Lack of Understanding. There are thousands of CEOs who know relatively little about finance, or marketing, or operations. This doesn’t mean that they don’t realize they are important to their organizations.
  2. Social Media Needs to be Genuine. There’s no point to a social media presence unless you truly care about it. If Larry Ellison and 480 other Fortune 500 CEOs aren’t huge Twitter fans, they’re better off not having Twitter accounts. And if they give it a shot and it doesn’t take, that’s fine, too.

Corporate executives typically have good reasons for doing or not doing social media at this point. They get it. They just might choose not do it.