On today’s broadcast, Google Drive adds new features with third party add ons. Find out which ones will help you be more efficient. A new startup emerges to help advisors compete against “robo advisors.” How their partnership with a leading network of planners could change the mass-market advice model forever. And, find out about the biggest mistakes you should avoid before you upload your first video to YouTube.
So get ready, FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now.
(Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes on YouTube)
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Here are the links to this week’s top stories:
Google launches Docs plug-ins to better compete with Office from PCWorld, and
The Best Add-Ons for Google Drive from Lifehacker
[Three weeks ago, I covered news from Microsoft as they changed the name of SkyDrive, their cloud-based file storage solution, to OneDrive, and added several useful features to the service. Not to be left out, Google announced this week that it is extending the functionality of Google Drive with third-party plugins.
The new feature, called “add-ons,” allows users to enhance the Docs and Sheets office apps similar to what you can to today with Extensions in Google Chrome or packaged apps for ChromeOS. So what are the best new add-ons you can start using today?
The first is HelloFax, which allows you to send a file from Google Docs to any fax number by simply clicking on the HelloFax add-on and typing in the destination phone number. Now you can finally get rid of your fax machine and return it to 1985. Next is an add-on called Mapping Sheets, which lets you create custom Google Maps using data in a Google Sheet file. So for example, if you wanted to quickly map the addresses of all your clients, you could create a Google Sheet with the data and use the Mapping Sheets add-on to easily make the map.
And last is an add-on called Track Changes, which is one of the features where Google Docs underperformed its Microsoft Office counterpart. The new Track Changes add-on now essentially replicates the track changes feature found in Microsoft Word, closing the gap between the two programs, at least for the time being.] Yesterday, Google introduced add-ons for Google Docs and Sheets. These add-ons allow you to add all kinds of functionality to your documents, including signing faxes, creating bibliographies, and more.
Garrett Planning Network To Make Guide Financial Available to Its Network Of 300+ Advisory Firms from PRNewswire
[Next is news from a company new to the advisor technology marketplace called Guide Financial. Guide works in a similar fashion to Mint.com, as it aggregates data from banking, credit card, and investment accounts, but Mint.com doesn’t have an advisor dashboard, which is where Guide steps in.
Recognizing the potential of Guide’s dashboard, the Garrett Planning Network announced this week that it will begin to private-label the Guide online portal to the Network’s 300 plus advisory members.
This is a clever agreement between the two companies, as the online portal form Guide will help Garrett members boost their client-facing technology, squarely taking on the competition from robo advisor services that are proving to be very attractive to Gen X and Gen Y clients.
Pricing details of the private-labaled portal weren’t disclosed in the press release, but you can sign up for your own 15-day free trial to test Guide Financial on your own and watch their presentation from Finovate Fall 2013 by visiting the links to this week’s top stories.] Guide Financial (www.guidefinancial.com), a web-based service provider targeted to financial professionals at advisory firms, banks and insurers, announced today that it has reached an agreement to make its service available to the over 300 advisory companies in the Garrett Planning Network.
YouTube secrets for financial advisers from FPPad
[And finally, you’re probably watching today’s broadcast on YouTube, and you might be considering uploading your own video content to get discovered on the world’s second largest search engine. But before you get started, do you know what the top mistakes advisors are making on YouTube?
Earlier this week, I joined Joe and Luke Simonds in a lively Google+ Hangout to talk about the opportunities of YouTube content, but we also highlighted the biggest mistakes some advisors are making when they post content online. These mistakes include not getting compliance to review a script prior to filming, not making your own thumbnail images, and not using video annotations and hyperlinks to their fullest potential.] Effective video thumbnails, annotations, and hyperlinks are the biggest missed opportunities on YouTube for financial advisers
And stories that didn’t make this week’s broadcast:
Save more with Google Drive from Google
We’ve lowered the price of our monthly storage plans to $1.99 for 100GB (previously $4.99), $9.99 for 1TB (previously $49.99), and $99.99 for 10TB, with even more storage available if you need it.
4 New Advisor Tech Trends from Financial Planning
For advisors, technological change can seem both lightning fast and very slow.
Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for March 14, 2014
