Meet the Financial Planners and Institute of Financial Planning members who are making an impact in social media.

Pete Matthew CFP^CM
Pete has over 2,000 followers on his personal Twitter page and 1,000 followers on his Meaningful Money @meaningfulmoney page. His video page gets around 70 views per day. Pete uses the site, which he set up in 2010, to post short videos on financial issues such as financial plans, budgeting, debt and insurance. He is also branching out into podcasts (audio files)on the site, an area he thinks is "about to explode". He is a keen IFP supporter and is chairman of the IFP's South West branch.
Pete's Top Tip: Take care what you're saying on social media, engage with people and provide value for them in what you say.

Martin Bamford
Perhaps one of the keenest Financial Planners on Twitter, Martin Bamford @martinbamford has over 5,000 followers and has posted a whopping 21,500+ tweets (short messages). The firm also has its own company page @informedchoice with almost 2,000 followers and a page on LinkedIn. Staff are encouraged to publish regular blogs on the Informed Choice website and to interact with followers on Twitter. In 2012, around 25 per cent of new client enquiries came as a result of its website and social media. He was voted Best Blogger of the Year at the Media Adviser of the Year Awards in 2012.
Martin's Top Tip: Be consistent, you don't get results from social media unless you persevere and allow people to get to know you.
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Philip Calvert
Phil has over 6,000 followers on Twitter and 7,000 followers on his LifeTalk @adviserlifetalk Twitter page. He set up his own social network for financial advisers LifeTalk (formerly IFA Life) in 2008 which was the first social network set up especially for financial advisers. It now gets between 800-1,200 unique hits every day. Philip regularly travels the country giving presentations on how best to utilise social media and make it work for business. Phil's Top Tip: Use social media to help people out. Use it to answer people's questions, point them to useful resources and to introduce them to other people who may be able to help them in their business or their lives.

Tina Weeks
Tina has been using Twitter and LinkedIn for over two years and has over 7,000 followers on Twitter. On LinkedIn, she has 500+ connections and she appears as the first result on the site if you search for 'Financial Life Planner'. She uses the sites to engage with people and let them know how her firm works with its clients. Social media initially helped her to build an industry profile but has since led to increased business and clients directly approaching the firm.
Tina's Top Tip: Use your name and a picture of yourself rather than your company name and logo and use the profile part to give information, not just about your business but about you as a person.

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