To Refresh Your Brand, Be 'Personal First'

For financial advisors, firm executives and others, navigating social media can be a minefield. But there’s a new strategy for success.

“Think about being personal first,” says April Rudin, founder and CEO of The Rudin Group.

Rudin notes that, yes, this is a sea change from earlier thinking. 

“This is a switch from previously when most people believed that only your professional background was important,” explained Rudin, whose marketing firm focuses on financial services.

Why the shift?

“Learning about someone’s personal beliefs, passions and background are great conversation starters,” Rudin said in a recent interview with ThinkAdvisor. 

Plus, personal brands “are an important point of entry for getting new business, recruiting and just about anything!” Rudin said. 

“For us, we tried to really personalize the bios that we put up” on The Rudin Group’s new website, she added. “And it works!” 

See: Want to Refresh Your Website? First, Lose the Yachts.

While financial advisors and others still need to “be true” to their professional brand, there’s “more latitude” in what individuals post on social media, she said.

“Your own personal brand should represent you but still stay within firm guidelines,” Rudin advised.

Here’s her latest advice on how to strike the balance between personal and professional branding: 

THINKADVISOR: Today, personal brands and professional brands are merging, right? 

APRIL RUDIN: They are coming together, and you can see that on LinkedIn.

For larger firms, like banks, wirehouses, larger RIAs or other wealth management groups, it’s important for their leaders to build out personal brands. Otherwise, firm brands can seem impenetrable. Difficult to engage with.

Personal brands are important so when people think about reaching out to a brand, they know more about the people at the firm — they’ve heard of someone and know something about them.

Personal brands are an important point of entry for getting business, recruiting, and just about anything!  

So everyone — including advisors — should be more personal and share more of their personality on websites and other media?  

Think about being personal first. This is a switch from previously when most people believed that only your professional background was important. Learning about someone’s personal beliefs, passions and background are great conversation starters,

For us, we tried to really personalize the bios that we put up. It’s important for us to “practice what we preach.” And it works! 

Recently, a client came up to me at a conference and said that a childhood photo of me on our website “is the cutest picture I’ve ever seen.” It’s a photo of me at age 3 on the phone. Sigh, some things never change except the size of the phone.

This approach reveals and reflects a little bit of your personality. It’s now completely business oriented, but you must credentialize yourself as well.