Advisers get their 15 minutes

While financial advisers provide far from the most popular content on YouTube, they are there. We aren't talking about fictional advisers either, such as Gorlock the green-skinned alien adviser from Comedy Central's popular late-night show "The Colbert Report." No, we are talking about real-life advisers who are using the videos they have created to try to connect and communicate with clients or potential clients. Thomas C. Scott, president of Scott Wealth Management Group Inc. of Irvine Calif., has been posting videos on San Bruno, Calif.-based YouTube LLC's video-sharing site since March 2007 and said they have proved useful as a tool when clients refer their friends to him. "Someone will ask one of my clients if they have an adviser, and they'll say, 'Hey, check out Tom; he has some videos online,'" he said. "You cannot communicate your personality through words on your website, but a video [helps] you communicate a lot about yourself visually," Mr. Scott said, adding that first in-person meetings with potential clients are easier if they have watched one of his videos. He calls his series of videos "2 Minutes with Tom Scott," and a recent episode, "Invest like Warren Buffett," has been seen more than 6,000 times, according to the site's counter. Theodore Feight, owner of Creative Financial Design in Lansing, Mich., also has jumped on the YouTube wagon. He is an old-school adviser who nonetheless has online video production as part of his repertoire. "If I sit back, and don't change and check out new things, I get stale," Mr. Feight said.