The question and the answer are relevant to other professionals. Our insights emerge from dealings with public relations firms, financial planners, and from establishing this Lightbulb lawyers blog and  maintaining it since mid-2006. We've also learned from Michael Perkins, a lawyer and author who works closely with financial planners.

Here's the question as posed by Des Walsh, a collaborator with our firm and one of Australia's foremost social media coaches. He is a pioneer in the field in Australia and inspired the establishment of Lightbulb.

"What do you believe are the key obstacles or disincentives for financial planners/advisors for incorporating social media in their marketing strategy? Preparing a short (50 min) workshop style presentation for a group of financial planners in Australia."

Here's our answer to Des, which is about putting a lightbulb on "black art".

First look at the GENERAL BLOCKS. Time, compliance, regulation and technophobia are typical blocks for most professionals. They are put into silos, are kept in there, and keep themselves there, all due to a combination of forces and processes. These include the university course selection criteria, university education course content, professional regulation, insurance contract obligations, and long standing professional cultural.

Meanwhile the world is changing faster then ever and requiring new knowledge and better, faster, cheaper and more ways for it to be communicated.

Second look at a SPECIFIC BLOCK for financial planners - they are typically accountants or former accountants. Accountants are not famous for being great in self-expression beyond use of numbers. Part of the evidence for that is that it is very rare indeed to find an accounting website, let alone a blog, that is engaging in its content. When you find a useful financial planning website or blog please let me know!

To change, financial planners need knowledge and skills development: (1) to see beyond the general blocks noted in the first paragraph and learn ways to manage each perceived or potential "professional practice" issue (eg over-simplification, confidentiality, secrecy, privacy etc); (2) to self-express engagingly on the web in words, images, audio or video, and (3) to find ways to make their subjects interesting.

Each requires a process of change management, essentially to build each financial planner's journalistic knowledge, skills and imagination.

Without change financial planners will more and more be regarded as practitioners of a black art in tradition-bound silos.