By: D. Bruce Johnston, President & CEO

To say news of the US downgrade has thrown the US stock market into a tailspin is an understatement to say the least.  To help them through these troubled times investors are turning to their advisors for up to the minute news and advice.  Where are advisors turning to get the information their clients are demanding? The answer may surprise you.

Increasingly advisors are turning to twitter as a new up-to-the-tweet source of breaking news and its versatility as a terrific networking and marketing platform.   Other than being free, what else compels advisors to use twitter as part of their marketing strategy?

Here are a few reasons:

• 51% of Twitter users follow companies, brands, or products on social networks

• 5% of Americans were aware of Twitter in 2008 compared to 87% in 2010

• Twitter’s search engine processes over 600 million queries every day

• 82% of companies using Twitter tweet company news in an average week, with an average of 27 tweets per week

The infatuation with twitters speed and ease of use may have caused some to overlook the vast power of twitter’s content.

What’s obvious is today’s wired world is about content.  The very audience being targeted by advisors has a voracious appetite for content.

Social media content in and of it’s self is content.  Social media content when put into context is extremely valuable.   Social media content put into context and aggregated creates a competitive advantage that can power your brand to the next level and beyond.

What advisors are missing is that to be active, to be heard, to be found, to be a thought leader doesn’t mean you have to create all the content by yourself – that’s where twitter comes in.

How then can advisors leverage the content twitter delivers throughout the day, put it into context, aggregate it and deliver it to their clients in their own voice?

The first step is to get a copy of Twitter’s new guide “Twitter for Newsrooms”.   The guide, titled “Twitter for Newsrooms,” is a little bit obvious for anyone who uses Twitter on a daily basis.  But the fact that Twitter has launched an official guide for journalists is indicative of the impact of social media on the news.

Next, you will need to identify a social media archiving solution provider.  Your provider decision should take into consideration their ability to provide monitoring, market intelligence, and research in addition to satisfying compliance needs.

At a minimum your provider should:

• Allow you to customize your Twitter experience with groups, columns, saved searches and automatic updates on topics and people you are following.  Being able to track what others are saying about you, give updates via tweeting, and to share photos, videos and links from a single dashboard is a must for convenience and efficiency.
• Allow for the archiving of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
• Allow for RSS integration for archiving blogs, blog comments and a wide number of other social and web destinations used for monitoring and archiving.
• Allow you to leverage discovery tools such as StumbleUpon.  Discovery tools allow you to find fresh content and to share your content that you might not find on your own.
• Provide a dashboard allowing you to easily and conveniently monitor and launch your communications

These features allow advisors to conveniently listen, converse, share your voice, understand your customers, gather feedback and engage a large audience in a more personal manner. By selecting a provider that is able to offer content management workflow for web and social content, analytics to measure results, while preserving compliance, satisfies the need for data aggregation and enhances your return on investment.

In markets like we are experiencing now, clients aren’t demanding that their advisors have all the answers.  However, they do expect their advisors to provide them a source of credible information from which they can make informed and intelligent decisions.   More and more advisors are finding those 140-character tweets provide them the ammunition they need.

But Most Missing the Power of Twitter’s Five “C’s”

By: D. Bruce Johnston, President & CEO

Increasingly traders, financial advisors, investors and even farmers, are turning to twitter as a new up-to-the-tweet source of breaking market news, market sentiment and planting guidance.  Not to mention the ease of connecting with other financial advisors and traders.

The infatuation with twitters speed and ease of use may have caused some to overlook the vast power of twitter’s five “C’s” – content, context, communication, compliance, and connectivity.

This is not a new phenomenon as a January 2009 article identifies 40 Traders To Follow On Twitter. Wefollow, a directory of people organized into categories, has created a directory of Trading Twitter Firms/Users that numbers 1,322 firms with the top 25 claiming well over 1,000,000 followers.

@AdvisorTweets is a Twitter site dedicated to “What are U.S.-based financial advisors, including certified financial planners (CFPs) and RIAs, thinking?” In 140-characters or less the 573 members of this site exchange ideas instantaneously.

What’s obvious is today’s wired world is about content.  The very audience being targeted by traders and advisors has a voracious appetite for content.

Social media content in and of it’s self is content.  Social media content when put into context is extremely valuable.   Social media content put into context and aggregated creates a competitive advantage that can power your brand to the next level and beyond.

What traders and advisors are missing is that to be active, to be heard, to be found, to be a thought leader doesn’t mean you have to create all the content by yourself – that’s where twitter comes in.

How then can traders and advisors leverage the content twitter delivers throughout the day, put it into context, aggregate it and deliver it to their clients in their own voice?

The first step is to get a copy of Twitter’s new guide “Twitter for Newsrooms”.   The guide, titled “Twitter for Newsrooms,” is a little bit obvious for anyone who uses Twitter on a daily basis.  But the fact that Twitter has launched an official guid e for journalists is indicative of the impact of social media on the news.

Next, you will need to identify a social media archiving solution provider.  Your provider decision should take into consideration their ability to provide monitoring, market intelligence, and research in addition to satisfying compliance needs.

At a minimum your provider should:

• Allow you to customize your Twitter experience with groups, columns, saved searches and automatic updates on topics and people you are following.  Being able to track what others are saying about you, give updates via tweeting, and to share photos, videos and links from a single dashboard is a must for convenience and efficiency.
• Allow for the archiving of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
• Allow for RSS integration for archiving blogs, blog comments and a wide number of other social and web destinations used for monitoring and archiving.
• Allow you to leverage discovery tools such as StumbleUpon.  Discovery tools allow you to find fresh content and to share your content that you might not find on your own.
• Provide a dashboard allowing you to easily and conveniently monitor and launch your communications

These features allow you to conveniently listen, converse, share your voice, understand your customers, gather feedback and engage a large audience in a more personal manner. By selecting a provider that is able to offer content management workflow for web and social content, analytics to measure results, while preserving compliance, satisfies the need for data aggregation and enhances your return on investment.In part three of our selecting a social media provider series we will discuss the fifth twitter “C”, connectivity and introduce a sixth “C” – conversion.

A look at the traders office of the future and how financial advisors may begin to communicate with their clients: http://reut.rs/kniuEr

By: D. Bruce Johnston, President & CEO

A special thank you for everyone that read my blog: “5 Must-Haves to Look for From Your Social Media Archiving Provider”.  I am flattered and most appreciative of your support and interest in a subject that will only become a larger part of your personal and professional lives going forward.

If you are interested in learning more about the rules and regulations regarding social media arching please visit www.arkovi.com.  If you are interested in learning more about how social media archiving technology coupled with automated client acquisition technology can make your professional life more productive, please visit www.capturetrackconvert.com

On Monday, June 27 please return to this site to listen to the replay of last week’s ByAllAccounts sponsored webinar: Social Media Q&A.  I had the good fortune to be on the panel and joined by Zach Hedges, CEO of CaptureTrackConvert and Blane Warren, CEO Arkovi.  Please tune in as we discuss the rules and regulations governing financial advisors use of social media as well as share some best practices with you.

You will also be able to download are current whitepapers: “How Financial Advisors are Leveraging Digital Marketing To Differentiate Themselves in A Crowded Marketplace” and “Measuring Client Acquisition Technology for Financial Advisors”.

If you can’t wait for the whitepapers you can download a copy now by visiting: www.capturtrackconvert.com

Thank you again for your support and pushing my article onto the Top 7 most popular posts of the month list at ByAllAccounts.

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By: D. Bruce Johnston, President & CEO, DBJ Associates

Today, with more and more firms evaluating and entering into social media, it stands to reason that FINRA & SEC rules governing social media and archiving solutions will play a bigger role in the professional lives of Financial Advisors and Advisors. In fact, you may be feeling enormous pressure right now to begin leveraging social media in your practice. That’s because an increasing number of clients are demanding that their financial advisors communicate with them through some form of social media—and it is, after all, a client’s prerogative as to how they’d like to receive their communications.

That said, when you’re enlisting the services of a social media archiving provider, there are five essential questions you must ask. These questions will let you know whether the provider offers all the “must haves” that are necessary to do the job right.

1. Can the provider archive, supervise and make communications discoverable?

Of course, by now advisors understand that the definitive source of FINRA guidance on Social Media Web Sites is Regulatory Notice 10-06, published in January 2010.  In this document, FINRA made it clear that online communications, including of Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, are the same as traditional written communications.  Meaning, the appropriate action for this content is that it needs to be archived, supervised and made discoverable.

2. What about the provider’s pre-review and approval capabilities?

Regulatory Notice 10-06 also provided guidance on:

• Websites – considered advertisements
• Communications sent to 25 or more prospective customers – sales literature
• Password-protected websites – sales literature
• Chat room discussions – public appearances

Additionally, there are NASD Rule 3010, which addresses a firm’s supervisory obligation to review correspondence; and NASD Rule 2210, which addresses a firm’s advertisement pre-review and approval obligations.

In order to satisfy these rules, archiving providers have developed several solutions that are currently available in the marketplace. You’ll find that most archiving providers offer these solutions, and can effectively assist FINRA-regulated clients in meeting their supervisory obligations to review correspondence under NASD Rule 3010.

3. Does the provider have hold and release functionality?

Furthermore, most of the available solutions have built-in hold and release functionality for the social media accounts of associated persons who are already set-up in your system. This capability enables your business to meet its advertisement pre-review and approval obligation under NASD Rule 2210 (b). Make sure your provider is up to speed.

4. Do they have surveillance and retention of data capabilities?

There has been a lot of discussion lately around two elements—surveillance and retention of data.  Today’s solution providers have built product features that act as surveillance tools, monitoring any use of an associated person’s social media accounts wherever the account is accessed.  These features are a “must have” if your firm wants the ability to identify non-compliance via activities that are prohibited in their social media policy. For example, what about unapproved updates to profiles or recommendations (testimonials) on LinkedIn sites that have occurred outside of the broker/dealer’s distributed technology? Surveillance and retention are essential if you are to prevent regulatory “surprises”.

5. Can providers handle the specific demands put on RIAs?

RIAs have their own set of regulations, SEC Rule 17a-4, that have requirements for indexing, time stamping and verification functionality.  Solutions providers are aware of these rules and have solution sets in place to accommodate them.

With these five “must haves,” it’s important to note that the most compelling fact is not that archiving solutions enable firms to monitor activity that is prohibited. Rather, it’s the fact that these solutions enable FAs and Advisors to empower their businesses to leverage social media. The shift is on; it’s a move from a reactive, prohibition-based environment to one that is proactive and consultative to your customers.

Through this new set of lenses, it’s possible for your business to construct a meaningful social media policy; design strategies and tactics that advocate your brand; and enable you to engage with customers, peers and prospects. These actions result not only in building new awareness for your brand and business, but also in extending and constructing new relationships as well as new revenue opportunities.

Social media is here and not just a fad.  Using the appropriate social media archiving solutions can bring the power of “social” to the forefront of your business.

By D. Bruce Johnston, President, DBJ Associates

Last week I sat on a social media panel at the “Innovation and Growth In A Post Economic Crisis Era” Conference sponsored by Spectrem Group and Financial Advisor Magazine.  Other panelists were Daniel Bernstein, JD Director of Professional Services, Market Counsel and Dr. Christopher W. Young Jr, Ph.D, Global Director – Strategy and Solutions Wealth Management for Dow Jones.

Dan did an excellent job discussing FINRA Regulatory Notice 10-06, , FINRA’s Guidance on Blogs and Social Networking Web Sites. (View Full Notice). He pointed out, Regulatory Rule 10-06 makes it clear that any online communication, this includes social networks such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, are viewed by FINRA as the same as an in-person meeting or written communication to a client.

In the world prior to social networks, this information needed to be filed, reviewed and approved by a FINRA representative prior to its use.  Now, should an advisor choose to utilize one of the many financial services social media tools this information carries with it the additional requirement of being archived, supervised and made discoverable.

What’s apparent, financial service social media practioners we will have to get comfortable wrapping familiar terms around new concepts.  For instance, when you think of public appearances think beyond client seminars and client appreciation events and include Tweets, discussions on Facebook and the back and forth banter that occurs on the LinkedIn Q&A section.

Public appearances, sales literature, correspondence and advertisements still maintain their prominence but look for social networking content to be grouped into static, interactive and action classifications for ease of treating this content.

Chris informed the audience that social media growth has taken off quicker than any other media or technology innovation – surpassing the Internet adoption rates, computer rates and cell phone.  We’ve all heard the phenomenal growth story of social media and the staggering follower numbers.   The Wall Street Journal takes real notice when they see 400 million Facebook followers and only 2.2 million WSJ subscribers – a consistently diminishing number.

In his view social media applications will be the tool which provides continuous and real time communication between advisor and clients.  While social media has provided the individual with the voice to be heard, that voice could be that of the advisor, as individual service provider.  Any tool that allows advisors understand their clients likes and dislikes, coupled with aggregated feedback from their entire customer base can and will substantially improve service levels thus enhancing client loyalty and increased AUM, according to Chris.

As a social media practioner I was asked to discuss the results of a few of our case studies at DBJ Associates and Advisolocity.  After comparing the cost of these campaigns against their positive results,  I believe now more than ever that social media will be an extremely cost efficient,  effective and easily measured way for advisors and distributors to reach a very large audience.

The biggest hurdle to higher adoption rates of financial services social media marketing may lie in finding an archiving solution.  This was the number one question wanted answered by conference participants.  At conference time there may have been 4-5 solution providers all providing some degree of confidence and comfort to compliance officers dealing with the issue.

For those of you following this issue you may have noticed earlier this week that Smarsh, the managed service leader in secure and reliable email archiving and compliance solutions, today announced a partnership with Socialware, a leader in helping companies manage, embrace and leverage public social networks. The partnership brings together the companies’ innovative technologies to offer a unique solution for messaging and social media governance and compliance. The 360-degree offering will integrate Socialware’s policy enforcement, capture, moderation and analytics capabilities for third-party networking sites including Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, with the sophisticated message archiving and compliance platform from Smarsh.

We have had several conference calls with Smarsh executives to learn more about this new archiving capability and as I learn more I will keep you all posted.