1. Social Media Monitoring Report
Prudential Retirement
May 1 – May 14
Presented by
Jennifer Pricci Web and Social Content Development, Community Manager
2. Activity Summary: May 1 – May 14
The amount of conversations regarding Prudential Retirement were
half those of Fidelity during the 2 week time frame of May 1 to May
14, 2013.
• Analysis determined that Fidelity had a greater online reach
generating forum and mainstream media conversation.
• Analysis found Prudential has a greater social reach but not enough
to outweigh the sheer amount of Fidelity posts as in both cases the
topics were brand-centric; i.e. “Fidelity” vs. “Prudential”
While Radian6 reported 10 negative Pru Retirement mentions over
the reporting period, they were not brand-specific.
• The majority of negative comments grouped Pru with competitors
• The only truly comment specific to Pru Retirement was a tweet:
“To deny truth is worse than ignorance. Open Letter to Christine
Marcks, President of Prudential Retirement ow.ly/kW5CO”
• Twitter as part of an overall Content and Social strategy should be
used as a real-time Customer Service Channel
Brand mentions realized the highest volume of conversation on
Twitter over the reporting period.
• Analysis reveals that a revisit Pru Retirement keywords within the
profile needs to be performed. Mentions included HR and job
related posts.
• Retweets of the “Open Letter to Christine Marcks” tweet gained
traction.
• This again supports the theory that Twitter should serve as a real
time Customer Service Channel.
Topic: Retirement
Total Posts: 1742
Prudential: 537
Fidelity: 1,023
NY Life: 182
Prudential Sentiment
Analyzing 24 Posts
~ 58% Positive
~ 42% Negative
Top Media Appearances
Twitter: 32.4%
Blogs: 22.7%
Mainstream News: 18.4%
3. Share of Voice
During the two week reporting period, Pru Retirement generated the second highest
amount of online mentions, accounting for 31% of posts whereas Fidelity and NY Life
accounted for 59% and 10% respectively.
5. Spikes in Conversation
For Prudential, there were two spikes in Activity,
• On May 2 we saw 65 of 537 mention. These are jobs/HR centric or again revisit the
“Open Letter to Christine Marcks”
• On May 6 we again saw a spike with 64 of 537 on this day.. And “Open letter to
Christine Marcks” is still circulating. On a more positive note, there were several
mentions on this day of honoring youths across the US for their volunteerism.
6. Media Type Analysis
Pru Retirement mentions realized the
highest volume of conversation on
Twitter over the reporting period.
• Ironically, with Fidelity’s 66,000
followers, Prudential still has more
mentions on Twitter.
– Pru Retirement on Twitter
174 of 537 = 32.4%
– Fidelity on Twitter
126 of 1023 = 12.3%
• This supports a social strategy aimed at
Twitter as it is a channel receptive to our
messaging where our audience
chooses to engage.
Twitter
174: 32.4%
7. Sentiment Analysis
While Radian6 reported 10 negative Pru Retirement mentions over the reporting period, they were not brand-specific.
•The majority of negative comments grouped Pru with competitors
•The only truly comment specific to Pru Retirement was a tweet:
“To deny truth is worse than ignorance. Open Letter to Christine Marcks, President of Prudential Retirement ow.ly/kW5CO”
Huffington Post
Blog
April 30, 2013
An Open Letter to Christine Marcks, President of Prudential Retirement
Dear Ms. Marcks,
I thought it was very brave of you to participate in the exceptional Frontline report, "The Retirement Gamble." It has long been my view that investors should limit their investments (in both their personal and retirement accounts) to a globally diversified portfolio of low management fee index funds (including ETFs and passively managed funds) in an asset allocation suitable for them.
In retirement accounts, it's very difficult to implement this sound, responsible, academically based strategy because most plans toss in a few token index funds but populate the balance of the investment choices with expensive actively managed funds (where the fund manager attempts to beat a designated benchmark).
It's not difficult to do the right thing for America's employees. A lot of firms, including those in the BAM ALLIANCE (with whom I am affiliated), offer 401(k) plans that consist solely of portfolios of low-cost, passively managed funds at various risk levels. Participants don't have to put together a risk-adjusted portfolio from many fund options (which few are able to do).
I understand you profess ignorance of the data indicating a majority of low-cost index funds outperform their active counterparts. In a blog post reviewing the Frontline report, Allan Roth reported your response as follows: "Yeah, I haven't seen any research that substantiates that. I mean, it -- I don't know whether it's true or not. I honestly have not seen any research that substantiates that."
I do want to thank you for that observation. I am often criticized for my view that brokers will say anything to capture assets. I was referring to retail brokers who are under pressure to meet their fee goals. I never imagined the president of a major securities firm would be captured for posterity uttering words that are either hopelessly ignorant or appallingly disingenuous. I am going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume it's the former, but every fiber in my body tells me it's the latter.
I summarize this research in my book, The Smartest 401(k) Book You'll Ever Read. John Bogle does a great job in his book, The Little Book of Common Sense Investing. These are two examples among many. You should also read books by Burton Malkiel, Larry Swedroe, Rick Ferri and William Bernstein.
Really, everything you need to know about this subject you can find in this brief paper by Nobel Laureate William Sharpe called "The Arithmetic of Active Management." Sharpe is not the only Nobel Laureate espousing these views. They are shared by Paul Samuelson, Merton Miller and Daniel Kahneman.
If you want to delve deeper, take a look at this essay by Eugene Fama and Kenneth French called: Why Active Investing is a Negative Sum Game. Are you also ignorant of the research done by Fama and French? Do you read Fortune magazine? It included both of these distinguished professors of finance in its list of the "smartest people alive in finance."
Have you ever heard of Standard & Poor's? It publishes a report twice yearly comparing the performance of active funds to index funds. The most recent report showed that actively managed funds lagged their indexes in 16 out of 17 categories over the past five years.
Now that you can no longer deny knowledge of the credible research, as a responsible corporate citizen, what are you going to do with this data? The choice is clear: You and your colleagues in the securities industry can continue to contribute to the retirement crisis documented in the Frontline report by populating retirement plans with a confusing array of actively managed funds. Or you can act responsibly and join those of us who advocate for the best interest of investors by debunking the myths of picking "hot" performing active fund managers, stock picking and market timing.
Just curious: Have you heard of global warming?
Sincerely, Dan Solin
8. In the future this report will include…
•Topic Trends across competitors
•Share of Conversation in Industry
•A look at Influencers
