subject: Financial Services Social Media: Proceed With Caution [print this page] Customer care and acquisition should be the chief goals of virtually any social media endeavor which is one of the chief reasons in the rise of financial services social media campaigns.
Morgan Stanley and Raymond James Financial are among the major wealth management firms that allow advisors to access several social media sites for business use, with certain restrictions. Financial advisors whose employers do not let them use social media sites for business can still benefit from setting up personal profiles. As part of their financial services social media campaigns, wealth advisors and other investment professionals can use LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook to find potential clients, keep up name recognition among acquaintances and existing clients and monitor what their competitors are doing.
This personal use strategy could help advisors at firms like Merrill Lynch Wealth Management and Wells Fargo Advisors, which restrict advisors from social media sites for business use, outside of pilot programs. Of course, given the regulations in the financial services industry, care must be taken in approaching social media sites from a personal use perspective and advisors must be circumspect in what they say to avoid running afoul of the regulations. In addition, there is the need to archive all communications to avoid legal problems down the road when undertaking a financial services social media program.
While personal use social media is helpful in some ways there are drawbacks particularly in directing customers to a companys website for additional information as this might cross the boundary of regulation.
The world of Financial Services Social Media is vast and for the most part uncharted. Before engaging in a financial services social media campaign, do involve your firms compliance department. Most likely, the firm has a policy in place governing the application of financial services social media; however, you be sure that this is a policy that is evolving and will continue to evolve as the regulatory bodies continue to address the issues that are bound to emerge daily.
