5 things every financial services company should know concerning social media

Few industries are as heavily reregulated as the financial sector in the U.S. There are rules that seem to govern every aspect of business including communication. Social media has thrown a wrench into a seemingly well-oiled machine of compliance. I recently attended the Financial Services and Social Communication Leadership Forum in New York City and uncovered five pieces of advice for any financial services company looking to expand or even get into the social media space.

But first, I wanted to share a great infographic from a blog post on social media and financial services by Socialware:

1. More people in your company use social media than you may think

An Actiance Customer Survey of 155 organizations showed that the IT department thought that about 60% of employees accessed social media applications at work. Actual usage statistics showed 100%. Organizations have to realize that social media is part of the daily work schedule. 

2. Develop a social media

policy today

This advice is pertinent for any business really. We've even discussed the importance of a social media policy on this blog in the past. But for the financial sector, it is imperative (and by that I mean stop what you are doing right now and create this today) that they have a well defined social media policy and that all employees are versed on this policy. This provides a common understanding among the company as well as lessening (somewhat) the legal exposure to the organization.

3. Follow the guidelines

 What were once clear-cut, black-and-white, right-and-wrong regulations have become less so with the advent of online posting, tweeting and commenting. An alphabet soup list of regulations and regulatory agencies are peering on the collective shoulders of the financial industry: SEC, NASD, NYSE, HIPAA, SOX, eDiscovery, etc.   

So, faced with this new communication frontier, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) created Regulatory Notice 10-06 to provide guidance to firms regarding social media. In addition, the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) created Rule 3010 and New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) created Rule 342 and Rule 410.

All should be reviewed.

4. Talk with your legal and/or compliance teams

Social media teams within a company are trained to share information while legal and compliance teams are trained to watch everything you say. These are conflicting sentiments and can cause problems. However, it is important to keep the lines of communications open between the two departments. It may mean altering some of your social media tactics, but in a regulated world, an open dialogue will prevent headaches in the future.    

5. Keep track of everything

For compliance sake, organizations should be logging any communication over social media channels. That means keeping records and having them available in case of an audit. 

For more information concerning social media and financial institutions, you should download Sarah Cater's presentation from SlideShare (she was one of the presenters at the forum). 

Kevin Duffy is the Creative Director for The Duffy Agency's Boston office.

Comments

[Mary Bush]

Jamie Dingman Shipston Groupvery informative and relevant , , thanks for making readers aware of the five things every financial services company should know concerning social media..