Get With The Social Media Program

Firms that prohibit use of social media are fighting a losing battle, and should instead focus on how to use it compliantly, said attendees at a social media conference in Boston.

At the recent LIMRA and LOMA conference on social media, held in Boston, attendees heard about how to take advantage of social networks and to use the tools compliantly. Still, challenges and confusion exist that are holding back the financial services industry at a time when the tools are becoming even more popular.

Christine Campbell, director of marketing at Socialware, new proprietary research showing that adoption of social networks for business purposes is gaining momentum. She stated that more than 75% of respondents are using LinkedIn (up from 59% last year), more than 50% are using Facebook (up from 50% in 2010), and about 35% are using Twitter (which about doubled in a year’s time.)

The conference covered social media from many angles. Here are five confusing points within the industry that surfaced:

1. Constant compliance changes
James Douglas, senior account executive at Smarsh, shared that their recent survey of broker-dealers and registered investment advisors showed the number one concern of respondents is “new and changing regulations.”

2. New social networks
Douglas highlighted “new communications channels” as the second highest concern. Google+ is a perfect example of a new social network that was released this July that is confusing things even more. Plus, it is putting pressure on the other networks to match new well-received features.

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Source: fa-mag.com
By: Mike Byrnes