Random Recommendations: A Look Back At 2009’s Must-Read Financial Services Marketing Tweets

Every year in December I review the photos I’ve taken throughout the year. Some will be the basis of gifts I give or pranks I play. Looking at them all together as a 12-month set satisfies some need to put the year in context.

I had the same instinct this week to review a quite different collection, also something I’d spent the year creating: the 1600-plus  @RockTheBoatMKTG tweets of mostly references to financial services and digital marketing-specific Web content. There was good stuff in there!

For this final Rock The Boat Marketing blog post of the year, I’ve indulged a stroll down memory lane (the stroll itself made possible via the free social media archiving capability of Arkovi.com). The following is an edited, chronological list of tweets to content that’s especially worth an investment marketer’s attention. Of my 1600 tweets, I’d tagged only 28 as “must-read.” Most of them have stood the passage of time and are listed below as they were first published.

Below the must-reads, if you’re still with me, are tweets about content that I considered “great.” You may notice a degradation in quality and focus as, depending on the day and the hour, my head can get turned by a cute Valentine animation or an interview with the Mad Men props guy. In all, I described something as “great” 71 times; what’s below is a more heavily edited, more financial services-specific list.

If you’re new to reading tweets, you may need this quick explanation. RT means that it’s content someone else created and all I’ve done is forward it. Because tweets can be only 140 characters long, URLs are shortened and you’ll see multiple shorteners (e.g., bit.ly, cli.gs) in use.

My hope is that you’ll scan the list below and find something of value, maybe something you missed during the year. As I hope the list suggests, there’s a lot of relevant financial services marketing-specific content being discussed on Twitter. If you’re not out there, 2010 is the year to check it out. When you do, please follow us at @RockTheBoatMKTG and @AdvisorTweets. The tweets below and our RockTheBoatMKTG and AdvisorTweets Twitter lists can give you a good idea of who else you’ll want to follow.

And now the tweets:

The future of your work will be influenced by this, a must-read for marketers: Obama's Internet strategy http://cli.gs/X3DNyZ

Biz Week's take on financial advisors, inside and out. Must reading for asset management marketers http://cli.gs/q47UPz

A must-read and follow for public companies: Tweeting material news http://bit.ly/157eGv

Must-read RT@CaleInTheKeys Why money messes with your mind. http://ow.ly/1Zk5

Must-read/listen for #financialmarketers: Asset managers' optimization of CRM: ppt at http://bit.ly/12ddCb, notes at http://bit.ly/DSngm

Must-read for investmentmarketers @newrulesinvest: Case study on investment advisor using social media to build practice http://bit.ly/QuKmn

RT@lawain Must-read: Compliance Dangers & Insights for Advisers Using Social Media http://bit.ly/S0FAn

Update on my must-read tweet about redefining the delivery of financial advice--You're going to need the link: http://bit.ly/pEt6a ;)

Online analytics isn't just for marketers. Must-read on how other biz groups benefit. http://bit.ly/17oKhu

Must read: 5 reasons corporations are failing at social media http://bit.ly/zKieb

Must-read for Investor Relations pros on the fence about taking part in social networks http://bit.ly/7ubiLU

Must-read for all--not just Marketing types--responsible for mutual fund communicating http://bit.ly/7biJMG

Must-read: A financial advisor explains why he tweets (via @rwohlner) http://ow.ly/KPBj

Great WSJ article illustrating in plain-English what affects Google search engine rankings http://cli.gs/aetG84

Love this, great aid for party planning! Twitnest visualizes who knows who among your followers.http://bit.ly/oLK8a

Great idea with lots of potential: Geo-segmenting an opt-in email list http://bit.ly/ALHN

Financial services marketers, the drumbeats are getting louder for using visualizations to tell stories. Great article: http://bit.ly/OHMal

Great read: 147 slides from Mary Meeker on economy/Internet trends. http://cli.gs/Whn6he (thanks, @JDavidMorris)

Great article on using Twitter as your help desk (customer support) http://bit.ly/86dMC

Great article about online communicating--Site visitors are "more than skin and bones with credit cards" http://bit.ly/Tqhbn

Great way to start the morning! What's new? Just check out this news map of trending topics: http://bit.ly/3wmS9z

Great first-person account by a financial advisor determined to build high ranking blog You go Jeff! http://bit.ly/XTmLf

RT @RussThornton Great post from @BehaviorGap on managing wealth vs managing investment returns > http://su.pr/1BsWbQ

Great data on the time spent on content sites. Content rules! http://bit.ly/EQ2VM

Great, practical article on social media monitoring http://bit.ly/oTpKZ

Great infographic and what am I doing looking at this on a Monday? The Hierarchy-of-Digital-Distractions http://bit.ly/3q9hLQ