Good advice creates value - Distil your message

This week I followed the Twitter feed of an event called Adviser Edge. The great thing about Twitter and other forms of social media is you can join in, eavesdrop, observe, interact, play along - you can get as involved as you like in a topic or conversation.

While I wasn't in the room of this conference event, I was able to pick up the gems people were sharing. It was all about using social media to connect more deeply with clients - particularly if you're in the business of providing any sort of advice. I think that applies to clients who are internal to your business as well as external.

As I watched the Twitter feed flow over a couple of days, I captured key points that hit home for me visually.

One BIG thing about social media though: don't use it as an excuse for not being good at the face-to-face part of advice and interacting. Don't hide behind videos, tweets, Instagram photos and other 'content'. You still need to be good at the human interaction stuff when you're providing your advice.

Some key points from my Adviser Edge distillation were:
- Business is about relationships
- People are attention and time poor
- Be strong and confident
- Be yourself. Dr Seuss was quoted 'Why fit in when you were born to stand out!'

My favourite point of all was that you need to distil your message. Of all of those hundreds of tweets, I had to distill to make sense of it all.

If you're in the business of providing any sort of advice, distilling your message needs to be a constant service you provide. Help people cut through all the detail, the waffle, the twaddle and the 'blah blah blah' and help them get to the essence, the meaning and the gem of what you do.

Good advice creates value - help people know they're getting some great advice.