LinkedIn is a powerful marketing tools.

Using LinkedIn to help you with your marketing is a strategy for both your business and your career. Here are some tips to help you.

The Stella Network started as a LinkedIn group to support women in financial planning through an interactive discussion forum through LinkedIn. Of course that makes me a little biased towards the social networking group – which has been described as Facebook for business – but I believe that LinkedIn is an essential part of your career success today.

Any business today without a web presence is doing itself a disservice. The first thing we do when looking for any business is turn to the internet – we search for restaurants, recruiters, car sales and a myriad other things. When it comes to checking out someone for a role, again we turn to the internet to find out what we can about them. To make it easier to have the right information presented in the best way, we need to spend some time compiling our internet profile – and currently LinkedIn is the best platform for this.

To check this, Google someone you know and if they have a LinkedIn profile this is likely to be the first thing that appears in the search engine.

So to make sure you are making the most of yourself and your talents make sure your LinkedIn profile is doing the best job for promoting you.

For those unfamiliar with LinkedIn or just starting to update their profile here are some tips to help you reach Best Practice standards with you profiles and use of the social media network.

5 LinkedIn essentials

• Your profile photo. A LinkedIn profile without a photo looks dodgy. It looks like you’ve set up in a hurry, there’s something you’re trying to hide, or you couldn’t be bothered completing it. Choose one that looks professional, not with other people, or in very casual attire or at clearly non-work activities – such as a ball, or at the beach. Just something simple is best.
• Your professional headline. This is very important – and what you say here is searchable. This means that if people are looking for someone with your skills you should make sure that your profile is included in that search. Your current position is not necessarily the most descriptive of who you are or what you do. So if your title is marketing manager BT financial group you might be picked up in a search but if you are a superannuation expert   in marketing – you’d be better putting that in your description, or whatever specialities you think are relevant for you.
• Your summary. This is a searchable area also – so make sure you add in as many relevant terms as possible to describe what you offer. This includes specialities – if you are proficient in accounting systems, or IT systems or design programmes or financial planning specialities – or anything that might set you apart – list them in this section to potentially expose your profile to clients or anyone who is seeking your talents.
• Complete your job histories. When you are adding in different jobs, especially with your most recent, remember to put in enough detail to give someone looking at it a good picture of what you achieved in that role. If you won awards, achieved, particular goals, mention it. Add video/ photos/screengrabs/links to make your profile look as good as it can. This is often the best chance you have of winning someone’s attention for a role or for work if you are using it as a marketing tool. In essence, you are marketing yourself so take it seriously.
• Ask for recommendations. To complete your profile ask for recommendations – from people from different roles where you’ve worked and those who are going to be most relevant to the profile you’re presenting. There is a simple tool to use when asking for recommendations (and those people must also be on LinkedIn). They are not compelled to provide a recommendation but most will.

Other tips

• Look at other colleagues to see how they present themselves to give you an idea if you’re not sure what to put up.
• Make sure you switch off notifications when updating your profile – as you add to it bit by bit, if you don’t have this switched off, all your contacts will be alerted, which will be annoying for them and not professional for you.
• Keep it up to date. When you change jobs, you might not want to put all the details of your new role in until you’ve perhaps passed probation, but it looks odd if you’ve still got your old role featured as a current one six months down the track.

Julia Newbould is lead for The Stella Network , which is an initiative of BT.

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How to help your clients through divorce and beyond.

Breaking up is hard to do and divorce is a difficult topic for anyone experiencing it or helping others through it. For financial planners there are ethical questions such as who is the client – can you keep both parties through this time? How do you approach the necessary discussions? What type of other professionals do you need to work with to achieve the best results and in what way?

The Stella Network has chosen “Divorce – Breaking up is Hard to Do” as its topic for a panel discussion this week in Melbourne (with live webcast) on Tuesday August 11 and in Sydney on Thursday August 13 because of overwhelming interest by members.

Australian statistics now claim 30% in marriages will end in divorce, which makes the topic one of great relevance for advisers as many client’s marriages will end in divorce.

Because most advisers will see their clients as a couple and discuss joint goals and financial positions having a breakup will impact the relationship greatly.

Many advisers will say that they are able to retain both parties after the divorce – at least within their business although they will have different advisers helping them through the actual divorce and division of property.

The emotions that come out during a divorce make it more difficult for many people to deal with their professional advisers – even more difficult than death, advisers said. This is often because divorce (unlike death) often brings with it feeling of shame and guilt and people feel that it’s their fault and they will be judged. It is, therefore, very important to try to minimise the involvement with the emotion.

You need to listen to your clients, and hear them out but then offer what you can do – which will not be to sort through their feelings but give them the ability to focus on their financial position so when it is all over they can start again in the best way possible.

One financial planner said that when clients are in the depth of the emotion they are often unable to listen and focus on what the planner is saying and there is a risk that down the track they will not remember why they made the decision so it is often better to talk to clients who have someone with them

Another adviser said that from his perspective, one of a couple is often more through the process of divorce than the other. One person has probably been thinking about it longer and has mentally processed more of the separation than the other. You just have to give them time to process things at their own speed. And remember, often people going through divorce are lonely and vulnerable.

There will be time to network with other planners and aspiring planners at both the Melbourne and Sydney events and ask questions of the panel. The session has 1.5 CPD hours accredited.

To register for the Melbourne event click here.

To register for the Sydney event click here.

The Stella Network is an initiative funded by BT Financial Group to support women in financial planning. Currently the industry has only around 20% of female financial planners and it is the belief of the network that more diversity will be better for everyone – both men and women working within the industry and those seeking financial advice.

Previously, the network has run events on “You had me at Hello”, focusing on how to make sure your discussions with clients are a call to action. This is something that women in our network expressed they’d like help with. These sessions were successfully run in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and involved a group of actors performing real scenes from adviser meetings.

“Doing good, and Giving Well”, was another panel discussion held last year on philanthropy with a focus on how important the connection could be with clients on this topic.

By Julia Newbould

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Anne-Marie Humphries

The Stella Network has awarded a Masters in Financial Planning to Anne-Marie Humphries from Huon Financial Planning in recognition of her support to women in the financial planning industry.

Ms Humphries won the Masters course from Kaplan Professional Education for her entry into the Stella Network’s one-year anniversary competition asking entrants how they have supported a woman in financial planning industry in the past 12 months.

Ms Humphries’ entry was identified by Kaplan as the winner because of her willingness to identify women who would make good financial advisers and business leaders, her focus on quality and sustainability and her desire to support women keen to go out on their own.

“Our business is built on a foundation of education and professionalism, so we are thrilled to work with The Stella Network to recognise and encourage more women to join the financial planning industry,” says Brian Knight, Chief Executive Officer, Kaplan Professional Education.

“Anne-Marie stood out as someone who aligns with the focus of not only The Stella Network, but of the industry as it strives to be better.”

Four finalists were also awarded a prize of $1000 each by BT Financial Group to go towards professional study – Emma Arthur, SHB Business and Wealth Advisers, Amanda White, Skilled Paraplanning Services, Nga Vu, Kearney Financial Planning and Werner Watzdorf, McLeod Watzdorf Financial Planning. Launched in October 2013, The Stella Network aims to enrich, develop and connect women in financial planning.

To date, the network has focussed on building a membership base, now close to 1500 members, through a number of networking events. However the future of this inclusive male and female network is much broader.

“The Stella Network is a real game changer in our industry,” says Mike Chesworth, General Manager of Bank Financial Planning, BT Financial Group.

“Already with such a large membership base in such a short period of time, we can see the interest and desire of our profession to better reflect the customers that we service.

I believe The Stella Network will help broaden out the appeal of financial advice and truly change the face of it.” The Stella Network now has 15 ambassadors who work to promote, encourage and educate members in the network. This number will grow nationally and ambassadors will also host their own educational and networking events throughout the year.

Head of the Stella Network Julia Newbould says the future of the network is bright given its members are so motivated and willing to lean in, get involved and make a difference. “We have such a great membership base of women and men with varying experiences but who have a common desire to make a difference and to change how the financial planning industry presents itself to consumers.

The Stella Network is real step forward for the industry.” The next Stella event ‘Divorce: breaking up is hard to do’, will be held in August in Sydney and Melbourne. For more information on The Stella Network or events go to www.stellanetwork.com.au

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