Archive for the ‘Compliance’ Category

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State DOTs are paving more than roads

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

roadsignThe American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) just published a report looking into the use of social media across the country’s state departments of transportation (DOT).  In total 32 states participated in the study. You wouldn’t think that your state DOT would be a leader in social media but then you would be wrong.

State DOT Social Media Usage:
- 91% use Twitter
- 45% have an active Facebook page
- 64% have a YouTube channel
- 33% offer podcasts
- 45% participate as a member of LinkedIn

The study points out that state DOTs find social media a more efficient way to reach the public with time sensitive traffic and travel information. Survey respondents found Twitter, RSS Feeds, Podcasts and Facebook to be the most effective in reaching their audience.

The Texas Department of Transportation has been one of the DOTs paving the way with social media.  Scanning their Twitter feed (@TxDOT) you can see everything from general news to time sensitive data such as road closures. For example, here is a post they made after the terrible incident with the plane crash in North Austin:

Posted on Twitter:
A small plane crashed into the Echelon Building on Mopac and US 183 around 10 am today. Emergency crews are on the scene. Expect delays. 10:56 AM Feb 18th

One area the report did not focus on was the ability for customers to connect and communicate with their DOT. Most of us would not think to send an email or call our state DOT but commenting on a Facebook status update, retweeting a post or asking a question over this media is very powerful. Here is a great example from TxDOT’s Facebook page.

Screen shot 2010-03-02 at 7.18.15 AMMar 2, 2010

The other area not touched on is the requirement to comply with public information laws. There is a lot of discussion as to whether or not social media falls under the guidelines of public information. Most compliance officials say it does, as long as the information created is used to conduct of state business. In fact, Wisconsin Attorney General J. B. Van Hollen recently issued an opinion in which he states that electronic communications made by elected officials are public records, even when they are posted on social networking sites. Van Hollen states that the Wisconsin Public Records laws applies whenever the content is connected to the official’s purpose or function.

If you are a government or state agency engaging in social media I would encourage you to investigate this issue more closely. At a minimum start taking advantage of tools available to automate the capture and archival of your social media content.


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Helping State and Local Government Agencies Get Social

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

Our very own Chris Richter was recently interviewed on Federal News Radio 1500. The topic was social networking use at state and local government agencies, how to protect the agencies infrastructure and how to ensure compliance with laws, such as the Freedom of Information Act.

Some of the questions answered in the interview are:

- What is Social Middleware?
- How does it enable or help the Open Government directive?
- Is this something that empowers agencies to adopt Social Networks?
- Is this something that makes these tools more useful?

For answers to these questions and more click the play button below or listen to the interview on the Federal News Radio 1500 site.

Interview description
“As state and local governments move forward using Twitter and Facebook, questions are looming as to how to best use these new social media tools to reach private citizens. Social middleware is being used to help ward off the potential IT risks and compliance issues associated with using social media tools.”

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Posted in Compliance, News, Social Middleware, Social Networking News | No Comments »

Social Networking: Going Online Without Crossing the Line (Research Magazine Cover Story)

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

RES-March310-Cover-200pxIn the March edition of Research Magazine they take a detailed look at the challenges financial advisors face in dealing with social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. As they point out “Some have blocked access to networking websites from advisor workstations. At least one broker-dealer requires new hires to delete their LinkedIn profile as a condition of employment.”

The challenges are very real in these highly regulated environments. Kip Gregory sums it up well “Who could blame any firm operating in a regulated industry for taking a cautious approach in the face of all that? Especially in financial services, which is at its core an industry built around the management of risk. The question is: How do you, as a competitor in this business, choose to respond to a clearly shifting landscape?”

Of course the latest move by FINRA helps ease some of the concerns of these financial firms. With the release of Notice 10-06 they address some of the big questions firms are asking. In addition to this Notice you can also download the Companion Guide to FINRA Social Networking Compliance. And if you are still hungry for more information be sure to check out the play-by-play summary of the February 3rd FINRA webinar on this topic.

The article then moves on to discuss the “techno-solutions” to solving the social networking compliance problem. They highlight our Risk Manager solution for it’s ability to turn on or off any part of a social network that could cause a compliance issue. In addition, there is discussion around our ability to moderate content before it hits the social sphere as well as providing full capabilities to do a post-review after the fact.

I don’t want to give the entire article away so let me just leave you with a few final thoughts:
- Social networks are here to stay and the firms that find ways of adopting them first will have a big advantage. In fact the article points out that “100 percent of the 48 firms surveyed thought social media was here to stay and 84 percent thought it would have a lasting impact on financial services.”
- You do have to create a social media policy (don’t skip this step) – here is a good place to start (first paragraph)
- Look for ways to institutionalize your policy through social networking compliance solutions.
- Plan for change – the sites change, compliance issues change and the way advisors use these tools will change.

Read the full Research Magazine article here

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Real world advice for independent advisors, an interview with Kristen Luke

Monday, February 8th, 2010

wmmlogoKristen Luke, from Wealth Management Marketing, was gracious enough to spend some time talking through her work with independent investment advisors and financial planners. We specifically discussed social networking, what’s holding her clients back and how they are dealing with SEC and FINRA compliance issues.

1. Tell me a little about your background and Wealth Management Marketing
“Prior to starting Wealth Management Marketing in October of 2008, I headed up the marketing department of a boutique wealth management firm in San Diego for 3 years.   It was a natural transition from working at my previous job to starting WMM since I performed similar tasks, but now I do it for a variety of firms instead of just one.   I have a BA in Business Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara and an MBA with an emphasis in Marketing from San Diego State University.  WMM develops marketing plans for independent advisors and also provides the back office support required to implement the strategies. Basically, we are an in-house marketing department outsourced.”

2. Can you profile the clients you typically work with?
“I primarily work with independent investment advisors and financial planners.  The majority of my clients are RIAs which can range from solo practitioners with $10 million in AUM to firms with 20 employees with a few hundred million in AUM.  I also work with individual advisors at larger brokerage firms who need help creating their own individual marketing plans or are looking for assistance in creating a social media marketing strategy.”

3. What are their top issues/challenges when it comes to social media marketing?
“I consistently hear the same two challenges from my clients:
- Meeting compliance requirements.  Up until recently, it was not clear what an advisor could and could not do according to FINRA.  It is still unclear about what the SEC requires.  So many advisors tell me that their compliance departments won’t allow them to participate in social media.  I’m not sure if this is going to change now that FINRA has released their guidelines.”
Quick Note: The Companion Guide to FINRA Social Networking helps address these questions.
- “Finding the time to participate in social media.”

4. What percentage of your clients are engaged with social networks today?
“Almost 100% of my clients are engaged with social networks in some way.  Most of them are only involved with LinkedIn.  Closer to 50% are involved in Facebook or Twitter for business purposes.”

5. For those that are active how are they dealing with compliance issues?
“Some advisors have not been concerned about it and are doing nothing.  Others are passing everything through their compliance departments prior to posting on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.  Others are using sites likes Socialware to archive their social media activity.”

6. What would recommend to your clients that are getting ready to start engaging with social networking?
“I would recommend that they first understand what they can and cannot do from a compliance standpoint.  Then I’d recommend they start playing around with the different sites to get an understanding of which ones they like.  I find that the advisors that are most successful with social media are the ones who personally enjoy interacting on the different sites.  Once an advisor has a basic understanding of social media, it’s important to create a plan of action.  This includes finding their target market and centers of influence on the different sites, determining what type of information to broadcast and how often to do so.  Social media is like any other type of marketing.  It should be planned out to increase the likelihood of success.”

It is clear from our day-to-day conversations and interviews like this that social media will continue to play a big role for independent investment advisors and financial planners. As Kristen points out it is critical to understand the compliance issues before jumping into this new channel of communication. I’ve already mentioned the Companion Guide to FINRA Social Networking and in addition you should look at the summary of the recent FINRA webinar explaining Notice 10-06 on Social Networking Compliance.

For more information from Kristen you can follow her on Twitter or at her blog.

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Just released: Companion Guide to FINRA Social Networking Compliance

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

FINRABlogPostYesterday FINRA surprised everyone by releasing Regulatory Notice 10-06, titled “Social Media Web Sites – Guidance on Blogs and Social Networking Web Sites.” Since September of 2009, FINRA created and has been working with a Social Networking Task Force to discuss “how firms and registered representatives could use social sites for legitimate business purposes in a manner that ensures investor protection.” One of the key goals of this task force, and this new notice, is to interpret the FINRA rules with the knowledge of the changing landscape of social media to allow firms to communicate in this channel while still protecting investors.

For the most part there is nothing new in the Notice. FINRA reinforces their position on long standing electronic communication guidelines reiterating that those rules apply exactly as stated for social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.  For example:

  • Recordkeeping – firms ARE required to retain social media records that a related to a broker-dealer’s business.
  • Supervision – firms MUST monitor the extent to which employees are complying with policies.
  • Pre-approval – firms MUST define their policy for pre or post approval depending on their risk profile.

While reinforcing some of the core guidelines there were a few key clarifications that make adopting social networks a little bit easier in the financial services arena.  For example:

  • Static vs. Dynamic content – a registered principle is still required to pre-approve any static content such as a profile or Twitter background details. Dynamic content such as wall posts constitute an interactive electronic forum and therefore firms do not have to have a registered principal approve these communications prior to use.
  • Third-party posts – FINRA clarified that posts by customers or other third parties are not governed by rule 2210. However, if a firm endorses one of these posts they may become attributable to the firm.

While this update is a very positive step for firms there is still the open question of how to address the compliance requirements in an automated fashion.  Additionally, FINRA does not address every fine grain issue you will run into on social networks that could trigger a compliance violation. For example, does Favoriting a tweet trigger rule 2210 because of an endorsement? And more importantly how will protect your firm from these possible violations?

To help firms accelerate their adoption of social networking tools Socialware has released the Companion Guide to FINRA/SEC Social Networking Compliance. This guide provides a detailed analysis of social networks and how their capabilities can trigger regulatory rules. Furthermore, it provides a clear checklist of requirements to evaluate social networking compliance solutions.

For more details you can read the press release and download the guide now.

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Posted in Best Practices, Compliance, News, Social Middleware, eDiscovery | 5 Comments »

Government, Social Networks and Freedom of Information

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

governmentI came across an article yesterday, titled Twitter and Government Transparency. In it Andy Opsahl outlines the potential challenges social networks are creating for government entities.  The question being raised is whether or not activity on sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn need to be archived and available for records requests.

As Melinda Catapano points out in the article “if this is connected to official agency work, you better be able to produce that record.” But aren’t these consumer sites, just used for personal use? The answer is it depends. While the lines are blurring between personal and professional use on these sites one thing is clear. If you are using them to communicate agency work you can be assured that it is going to be governed by the same set of principles that govern other communications

In fact, Wisconsin Attorney General J. B. Van Hollen recently issued an opinion in which he states that electronic communications made by elected officials are public records, even when they are posted on social networking sites. Van Hollen states that the Wisconsin Public Records laws applies whenever the content is connected to the official’s purpose or function.

One option many agencies have employed is to simply block access to these sites. That course of action flies in the face of The President’s Open Government Directive.  These sites are the perfect platform to create transparency, participation and collaboration. The Bright Side of Government recently did a blog post that discusses this exact topic. Of course with increased levels of participation comes the need to comply with the federal guidelines such as the Freedom of Information Act and the Public Information Act.

Catapano admits that “she, like numerous other CIOs, didn’t have a clue as to how to archive external social networking posts”. She goes further by saying “it would probably be a good master’s thesis because everybody needs those answers and everybody seems to be avoiding the problem.”

Well there is good news Melinda. One you are not alone in that other industries are struggling with this same challenge. Here is a quick snapshot of the issues that financial services organizations face around embracing social networks.  Second, there actually is an automated solution to archiving social network activity and content. Socialware’s Risk Manager solution was built from the ground up to solve this problem and many others that can arise from business related usage of social networks.

Today we are currently working with a number of government agencies and look forward to sharing their success stories over the coming weeks and months. In the mean time if you are interested in signing up you can request a free invitation here.

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When is a social media policy not enough?

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

policyAs more and more companies race to adopt social technologies they inevitably ask the question, “what should our policy be?” Depending on the industry and the company you will find a wide range of policies. Some are a few paragraphs and some are literally pages long. If you are looking for some examples here is a great list of policies across a number of industries.  Additionally, here is a more specific list of government related social media policies.

I will be the first to say that policies are important when it comes to opening up the social web to your employees. But a word of caution, don’t stop after pressing the save button.  In a recent report from Deloitte they posed the question to employees “what is your company’s policy when it comes to use of social networking channels”? Here were the responses:

  • 26% – There are specific guidelines as to what you can and cannot say online in relations to the company and/or client matter
  • 7% – The policy is to use your discretion when it comes to posting comments and opinions on the world wide web and social networking sites
  • 11% – There is a policy, but I don’t know what it is
  • 23% – There is no policy
  • 24% – Don’t know if there is a policy

Note that 58% either don’t have a policy or don’t know what it is. This should be concerning. After all if your company believes it’s important enough to create a policy isn’t it just as critical to ensure the policy is followed? On that topic how will you monitor it to ensure compliance? In regulated industries like financial services and government this is even more critical as regulators require that certain activity be captured and archived.

The Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (IIABA) recently published a great resource titled “Creating a Social Web Policy for Your Independent Agency”.  The report offers some very good recommendations and detailed steps on how to go about creating a social media policy. However, there are two recommendations that I would like to expand on.

The first is related to “compliance with federal and state discovery, document retention and other laws and agency procedures.” In the guide they state “employees should copy and paste any client specific social media communication into the agency management system and record an activity in the same manner they would in using other media.”  While that is one way to capture and retain the data it is enormously unproductive and it also raises questions around completeness of the archive.

What happens if someone forgets to take these steps or decides they simply don’t want to? A better approach would be to leverage automated solutions, like our Risk Manager product as an example, that sits between the end user and the social networks to automatically capture and retain the content. Not only will this eliminate the manual work around data capture and retention but it also guarantees completeness.

The second is around advertising statutes and regulations. They correctly state that “social media posts are communications subject to various federal and state laws/regulations, including characterization as advertising under some state laws, so employees should make sure they are complying with all such laws in using social media.” This is correct. The detail that is missing though is how you will comply in this new environment. Again I’ll go back to our Risk Manager product as a mechanism to help ensure compliance on this point and many others.

I encourage you to download the IIABA report if you have not created your social media policy. If you are looking for more information on how the FINRA/SEC rules impact social network use you should take a look at this summary as well. Last be sure you have the tools in place to make it as easy as possible for your employees to meet the policy and compliance guidelines as they start to use these powerful sites.

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New Cisco Report: Need for Social Middleware

Friday, January 15th, 2010

SocialNetsEnterpriseCisco recently commissioned and published a report to study how organizations use consumer social networking tools.  The results were both promising and shocking. The report reveals the both the value of adopting these tools in the enterprise and also the risks that need to be addressed through stronger governance and IT involvement.

Here are a few of the study highlights.

The first set of findings point to the increased use and integration of consumer-based social networking tools in the enterprise.

“75 percent identified social networks as the consumer-based social media tools they primarily use, while roughly 50 percent of the group also identified extensive use of microblogging.”

This part is old news. Organizations are racing to adopt social networking and microblogging tools to help drive the business and it seems there is a new article about it every day.

“Social networking tools are spreading into core areas of the value chain, including the marketing and communications, human relations, and customer service departments.”

Organizations are now moving beyond social networking silos. They’ve already proven there is value in tapping these tools as stand alone solutions and now they are looking for ways to integrate social into their enterprise processes and systems.  This is the next big wave.

While usage and integration is skyrocketing, companies have been lax in regards to governance and involving IT in their decisions.  Ultimately, this creates a great deal of risk and exposure.

“Only 1 in 7 companies noted a formal process associated with adopting consumer-based social networking tools for business purposes, indicating that the potential risks associated with these tools in the enterprise are either overlooked or not well understood.”

This is likely a result of the unbridled growth of these tools and all the buzz associated with them.  But like any good business decision, companies need to step back, understand what they are trying to achieve, evaluate the risks and put the tools in place to manage the program. I will say that the companies we’ve been working with in regulated industries are taking a very programmatic approach to adopting social.  While other industries may not face the same challenges they can learn a lot from these institutions.

“Only 1 in 5 participants identified any policies in place concerning the use of consumer-based social networking technologies in the enterprise.”

This point has come up before.  If you fall in this camp be sure to check out this list of sample social media policies.  As of today there are over 115 examples.  In addition, here is a great list of government related social media policies.

Be careful in thinking that a policy alone is all you need.  Deloitte found in an Ethics & Workplace Survey that 49% of employees say a company policy won’t change how they behave online. As a result you should evaluate tools to help you monitor activity to protect your employees and your brand.

“Due to the unstructured nature of social networking, companies continue to struggle with policy creation and adoption, as copying an established governance process from other, more structured areas (for example, information technology) often doesn’t work for social networking.”

Until recently companies have had two choices when it comes to social networking sites. Open the floodgates or completely block access. Since these are consumers sites there are no built in management controls for the enterprise. This is one reason why social middleware has become such a hot topic.  With it companies can apply structure, define policies, control access and protect their brand on these open, consumer sites.

“Businesses also find difficulty in striking the right balance between the social and personal nature of these tools while maintaining some degree of corporate oversight.”

We hear this a lot from our clients as well.  On Twitter users can easily create multiple personas.  However, on Facebook and LinkedIn you are only allowed a single account under their terms of use.  As a result there is no way to separate your personal activity from the professional on these sites.

Again the need for social middleware becomes clear.  Adopting this middle layer creates the ability for employees to choose whether or not content is personal vs. professional.  As a result companies can implement policies that give employees the ability to choose what category the content falls under and as a result how that content will be monitored, retained and managed by the enterprise.

“Only 1 in 10 respondents noted direct IT involvement in externally facing social networking initiatives. Although the IT department is typically not involved as a primary decision maker, respondents did recognize the need for these tools to scale and properly integrate with existing business processes to reap maximum benefits.”

There are two items of note here. First for companies to realize the full benefits of these tools they will need direct integration to their people, processes and systems. Building loose connections in a one-off manner to each of these sites it not the answer.  IT will want a single point of integration to marry enterprise processes with the top sites of today and those that will be the next Facebook tomorrow.

The second reason it is critical to involve IT is that these sites have a very real impact on the infrastructure of the enterprise. A report from Blue Coat noted “a company based in the US was having problems connecting with its South Africa office” due to the fact that “the bandwidth on its WAN link was completely consumed and it found that 75% of that traffic was Facebook.”

Of course blocking access is not the answer. In that same report they highlighted a customer that “blocked Facebook and within 48 hours they had to unblock it.  Marketing and HR had complained that it was critical to them getting the job done.”

There has to be a happy medium.  Companies will be forced to open up access to these tools but at the same time they need to manage that access.  One solution to the bandwidth problem is to govern access to those parts of the site that consume the most, like videos and photos.  This way you meet the needs of the business by giving access while not crippling the rest of the network.

In addition to the analysis in the report there are some great perspectives by industry leaders on why adopting these social tools will ultimately be a driver of success and competitive advantage.

“Companies who will succeed in embracing the tremendous power of social networking will be those who design a collaborative IT architecture capable of supporting the use of these technologies and mitigating the risks they pose.”
Nick Earle, senior vice president, Cisco Services

“Businesses need to embrace social media not only to remain competitive, but also to continue to attract top talent. The next generation of leaders will be exceptionally savvy with these tools, so 3M is using social media externally to help us with recruiting. Several of the graduates we hired this year specifically told us that they hadn’t considered 3M before they saw our employer profile on social media.”
Hugh Murphy, e-Channels, 3M U.K. and Ireland

Thanks Cisco for a great report on a hot topic. I’m looking forward to part 2.

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What’s in a name? In this case a lot

Wednesday, December 16th, 2009

As you may have seen or heard, Socialware officially launched to the world last week and staked it’s claim to what we consider to be a new category of technology, Social Middleware.

The long and winding road to arriving at what we consider to be the perfect description of the void in the technology and market landscape that we fill with our technology is an interesting one and it is worth sharing details of why we chose this label and why it is so important.  Category naming and claiming is a big deal…we don’t take it lightly. Hopefully the following will share some insight into why we thought that it was so important for Socialware.

As a recent ReadWriteWeb article so eloquently put it, “Socialware talks in a language that IT can understand”.  Thank you for that great line Alex.  In a week full of Socialware visibility, this was one of, if not, our very favorite line because it so neatly represents the genesis of Socialware.

We are asked a lot about why Cameron and I were inspired to create the company in May of 2008 and why we were able to come up with this novel, albeit logical approach to filling such an important gap in the market.  The response is always that it was a direct result of the unique background and experience that we had had in two worlds, the world of enterprise software which we spent the better part of 10 years in, and the world of web 2.0 which Cameron and I had both been fully immersed in for the past 4 years.

For us the idea that enterprises would want to embrace the public infrastructure of social technologies, which are free to use, innovate faster than enterprise software, and that employees are clamoring to use, was the obvious next step towards the consumerization of IT.

But based on our experience we were also keenly aware of the challenges of identity management, policy management, business process management, legacy integration and more.  How would we go about “enterprise enabling” the consumer social web?  The answer was of course to extend the old familiar notion of the glue layer, the traditional middleware that is used intra-enterprise to tie together legacy systems.  So in Alex’s words, the repurposing of the term middleware and applying it to social provides comfort to IT teams in a world where they are confronting a whole new array of technologies with a unique and daunting set of challenges.

Conveniently enough the use of the term middleware in general has fallen out of popularity since the consolidation of that market occurred.  There was no one actively staking claim to that term and in the new world of the “Hyperextended” enterprise, it was clear that middleware had to take on a new dimension. It had to reach beyond the four walls of the enterprise and encompass the open social web.

Another great part of the Social Middleware convention is that is says – security, control and enablement – all at once.  Early on in Socialware’s life we really struggled with the question of: are we about control or are we about enablement? We knew the answer was both but that was always hard to get across to the market.  We have always known that while the present environment is about control, i.e. access control, governance, compliance and more, the future is really to achieve true collaboration across consumer social networks.  Nothing encapsulates this better than the term Social Middleware.

Finally, Social Middleware is a bit of a shout out to the legacy of our hometown, Austin, TX.  In the technology world, Austin has been perceived traditionally as an enterprise software town having been the home of enterprise software juggernauts like Vignette, Tivoli, a large IBM office and more recently companies such as Webify Solutions and Solarwinds.  Austin is making a concerted effort as a tech community to form a new identity in the web 2.0 world.

Local high profile startups such as Bazaarvoice have helped to further that cause.  Given this history and the knowledge base of both experiences, enterprise software minds combined with fresh blood and thinking on the web 2.0 front, I can’t think of a better location to build a Social Middleware company. We are all excited when we think about the impact that Socialware as a company might have on the local Austin technology scene which we have all been a part of for many years.

So how has the term been accepted so far?  Use of the term web wide within 24 hours of our launch date (Dec. 9th) went from next to nothing to over 19,000 references.  To me that sounds like acceptance of a new category in a day.

We look forward to connecting with you and sharing more details about Social Middleware and what it means for your business.

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Posted in Best Practices, Compliance, Consumerization of IT, Marketing, News, Social Applications, Social Middleware, eDiscovery | No Comments »

Bringing financial advisors into the modern world

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009

investment-news-logoInvestmentNews, a publication specializing in delivering news and analysis essential to the business of financial advisers, posted an in depth look at Socialware and our solutions this past Friday.

Most of us take for granted the use of social networks at work.  However, for registered investment advisors or broker-dealers, they must juggle using these tools to grow their business while ensuring compliance with federal and state law.  For example, look at the laundry list of rules around advertisements and the type of communications that must comply with regulatory rules:

- Banner advertisements, blogs, and bulletin boards are advertisements
- An email or instant message sent to more than 25 prospective retail customers is considered sales literature
- A registered representative’s email sent from home or a firm office falls under FINRA jurisdiction
- Chat room discussions are considered public appearances
- Password protected websites are considered sales literature

Then of course, rules 17a3 and 17a4 of the Securities Exchange Act require broker-dealers to preserve certain electronic records. And in many cases prior approval and supervision is generally required before being published.

Naturally this raises a lot of questions around the use of social networks.  Is participation in Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter considered an advertisement? Does it need to gain prior approval before publishing? Does this information need to be archived by the same standards?  On this point Richard Ketchum, the CEO of FINRA, came out on national TV calling for a complete audit trail of this data.

So while the picture isn’t entirely clear one thing is for sure. These sites offer real business value for the financial advisor community today.  Individuals or firms that are engaging on the social networks are doing their best to stay compliant even if it requires a lot of manual work.

Just look at some stats captured during a recent RidgeWorth Investments’ Webinar
- 60% of financial advisors who participated believe that social networking will grow in importance over the next year or two.
- 1 out of 5 said it already plays or will play a significant role in their 2010 marketing efforts

And let’s face it, social networks are all about connections, friends and acquaintances.  And in the offline world those three things all translate to gold for financial advisors…referrals.  The problem is the old way is inefficient and outdated. Advisors and firms need to get in the game so to speak, and soon.

But there is light at the end of the tunnel. First FINRA is holding a live webinar titled Compliance Considerations for Social Networking Sites on March 17, 2010 at 1:30 p.m. EST.   Here is the webinar summary in their words:

“This webinar covers compliance and regulatory considerations when using social networking sites to communicate firm business. With the advent of Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and Twitter, business use of social networking sites has become popular and can present supervision challenges for firms. Panelists from FINRA discuss applicable FINRA rules for communications with the public and offer practical guidance on how to monitor and supervise social networking sites.”

The other piece of good news is that there are finally tools available to help both individual advisors and larger firms be compliant while using these tools (even if the final FINRA guidance hasn’t been delivered).  This is covered in detail in the InvestmentNews article.

The article covers how Socialware’s technology helps advisors and firms get compliant by enabling complete social media archiving, real-time content moderation and discovery of every piece of captured content.  But what’s more, they also discuss how our Social Middleware solutions can help take social networking investments to the next level by aggregating professional posts, from all three social networks, into a single search engine optimized feed that will help drive additional free traffic to your site, improve your market awareness and ultimately help drive sales.

I hope you enjoy the article – if you do please pass it along using one of the sites below.  And as always we would love to hear your comments.

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Posted in Best Practices, Compliance, Marketing, News, Social Applications, Social Middleware, Social Networking News, eDiscovery | No Comments »

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