Start with a good lead, or lose your reader
“…the lead is the doorway into every text. Its job, never a minor one, is to draw the reader over the threshold,” says Francis Flaherty in The Elements of Story, p. 201. The lead, also spelled lede, is the first sentence or paragraph of your blog post or article. Write a weak lead and you […]
Using CFP in your Twitter name–Read the CFP Board’s position
Using a term such as CFP in your Twitter name makes sense as a marketing strategy for financial advisors. It immediately identifies you as a credentialed professional. However, it also means you’re violating the CFP Board’s rules. Twitter alerted me to this issue. When I dug into the CFP Board’s Guide to Use of the […]
Poll: Which should investors fear more? Which #CFA2010 speakers were right?
CFA Institute Annual Conference speakers raised many concerns about the future during the conference, which ran from May 16 to May 19 in Boston. But they didn’t always agree with one another. Their mixed opinions inspired this month’s poll. Which do you fear more? * Inflation or deflation? * Continued fiscal stimulus or spending cuts […]
Plain English can bring your financial topic to life
Must an article about how to prevent another Flash Crash be difficult to understand? Not if you use plain English, as Floyd Norris did in “Time for Regulators to Impose Order in the Markets,” his May 14 column in The New York Times. Here’s Norris’ first sentence: “If your machine makes a mistake that the dumbest […]
The compliance-constrained advisor’s guide to LinkedIn, Part II: Status updates
Your LinkedIn status updates are powerful reminders of your existence to clients, prospects, and referral sources. You can use them in ways that even compliance officers can love. My top three suggestions are to use materials that are already compliance-approved, share your professional interests, and share your professional interests. 1. Use compliance-approved materials Every firm […]