what went down at the Financial Services Marketing Meetup?

In case you missed it, last Wednesday, Jess Sloss of Giant Ant Media and Naveen Gopal of Pacifica Partners presented at the Financial Services Marketing Meetup Group.

Jess started his presentation with a story on how his innocently "stumbling video" entered him into a new world of social media at Giant Ant, and the lessons he's learned on using social media to build a business.

He began by explaining that Giant Ant was born out of a user generated content revolution:

"Giant Ant was born 11 months ago out of the user generated content revolution, and the spread of digital content to engage with the brands. The user generated content revolution changed the connection between individuals, bringing brands closer to the audience, having conversations that old media were never able to provide."

Jess went on to provide the 6 lessons Giant Ant has learned from their social media experience in the last 11 months, summarized here:

1. Say Yes: allow yourself to start to explore; recognize that the world has changed and benefits, you, the individual.
2. Building an audience is lots of hard work & shortcuts lead to lost value: "honour the email inbox - it's a sacred space reserved for useful email. "
3. Go big or go small, but sometimes a little is a lot: quality over quantity - "it doesn't take a big audience to make big difference."
4. Be authentic & don't take advantage of attention base
5. You dont know what the hell your doing, but that's ok.
6. Take your clothes off

Naveen was up next, and he discussed the benefits of the various social media tools for financial services businesses, including LinkedIn, Facebook, and Meetup.com.

Describing LinkedIn as a "web tool for the networking financial professional," Naveen noted that "besides being good for networking with professionals, [you can] post your blog on your LinkedIn profile."

On the subject of FaceBook, Naveen made the point that "[FaceBook] is not just for friends anymore, [you] can set up Facebook groups, and [FaceBook] is becoming increasingly accepted amongst the older generations."

Meetup.com, he continued, "is another useful social networking site, that has the potential of providing mutual benefits":

"Canadian expats attending investment Meetups in Seattle for example, can see that Pacifica Partners offers a unique service to those who require dual-jurisdiction investment advice, for which Pacifica is registered."

Discussing the Pacifica Partners website, his main message was that first impressions still count: "It still amazes me how so many companies and people who use or have personal websites don’t spend the money to have a nice, clean website that conveys their value proposition clearly."

In the end though, Naveen's point was that regardless of your choice of social media, it comes down to the personal interaction:

"the key is to understand that you can’t replace people with technology. People won’t give you a dime (or even take you seriously) unless you get quality face-time with them. And when you get face-time with them you have to impress upon them something they won’t get elsewhere. Something that can be demonstrated during your time with that individual."

The next meetup, April's Meetup is scheduled for April 21st, at 6:30 pm.

If you'd like to see more of last week's Meetup, there are photos and video: