Advisōlocity, a social media marketing resource dedicated to advisors and money managers on a creative budget, launched to criticism and acclaim this week.

Charlie O'Neill, former managing director of Putnam Investments said, "Advisōlocity should be careful not to look like just another marketing agency. The message should be consistently about the power of social media." Paula David, Chief Marketing Officer of legacy firm Funds Distributor, Inc. praised Advisōlocity's founders D. Bruce Johnston, John Drachman and Zach Hedges for their initiative and said, "Their methodical approach to creative will put nervous clients, unfamiliar with the social media marketing process, at ease."

"What distinguishes us from other agencies is our executive level understanding of the investment industry," said D. Bruce Johnston, Institutional Investor's 2000 Fund Marketer of the Year. "Combining traditional marketing communications and financial social media, we offer a comprehensive, flexible menu of solutions that can grow with our clients' firms over time." A first step in that effort is the Advisōlocity Social Media Starter kit that offers a social media policy statement, white paper, blogging support and metrics -- all for under $9,000.

John Drachman, Series 7 Registered Representative and creative strategist added, "We're finding that increasing numbers of advisors, money managers and service providers can no longer overlook the cost-efficiencies of social media in their marketing efforts."

Mr. Drachman pointed out that timing too played a factor in launching the site in the first week of March: "Following the release of FINRA's Regulatory Notice 10-06 on social media, smaller broker/dealers and RIAs have been coming to us for help in accessing the virtually free marketing bandwidth provided by FINRA's common sense and clarifying guidance."

Zach Hedges, Advisōlocity's technology director, pointed out that, while a number of larger firms like Bank of America's Merrill Lynch have announced their intention to wait before applying more robust social media strategies, "We are determined, in the meantime, to help those smaller firms that want to live like Goliaths."

Mr. Hedges urged readers to visit www.advisolocity.com to download a copy of Advisolōcity's first report, "One-2-One: How to Conduct 1000 Client Discussions at Once."