Jottings from the Financial Services Marketing conference

Our workshop on Web 2.0 in marketing financial services took place last Sunday and from what I heard, people found it useful. If you were there, feel free to add your opinion. I'm going to keep this blog going for a while since there seems to be some interest in the topic.

One interesting (and inexpensive) use of Web 2.0 that was discussed was QuickenLoan's becoming an expert on mortgage topics at Yahoo Answers. How'd they do it? Simple, they monitored the site and answered the questions honestly and educationally. Their answers were voted the best and Yahoo asked them to assume an official capacity. Bottom line for QuickenLoan--virtually no cost and lots of new prospects.

Further up the cost scale (way further up) are two new social networks designed to appeal to small business banking customers. Umpqua Bank in Oregon has just finished a test market of its Local Space site, which connects Umpqua small business customers and both B2C and B2B prospects. It's a direct outgrowth of Umpqua's community philosophy. (Check out their "Discover Local Music" site for another example). Umpqua is looking to continue the sort of community-based activities that happen in their stores (called branches by most bankers as branches). The goal is to build awareness of Umpqua's small business banking in its Oregon, Washington, California footprint. So far, it is succeeding.

Another recent unveiling is Bank of America's new site for small business. According to NetBanker, the site is a new version of an old-fashioned small business portal, but with some good features, such as expert-written articles. Check it out and let us know what you think.

We got lots of new links and ideas at the conference which I'll talk to in future posts.

How financial advisors are using web 2.0

Gwen Moran has written an excellent new article on financial advisors' use of blogs, podcasts, Youtube, Facebook, even Second Life, in the October issue of Financial Planning. Of course, she quotes Evelyn Ehrlich, which may make me prejudiced, but it really is a good wrap up article that covers who is doing what and offers practical how-to advice, like how much you will have to spend. Hint: from $0 to tens of thousands.