The wealth management industry has seriously lagged others in its social media provision, but being “late to the party” means that firms can make use of what others have learnt. Here, wealth management marketing and social media expert April Rudin explains what firms should be doing to make the most of social media channels. This is the second part of a two-part feature; the first part can be viewed here.

3. Do you think that it is a good idea to have one senior executive acting as figurehead to voice the company’s message or for lots and lots of employees to be active on social media?

Firm branding is different from personal branding. Firms’ messages are the overall values, passions and tenets of a business and they are the foundation on which everything rests. 

I think that firms should create a central messaging platform and encourage employees within their firm to be active on social media channels as well. A social media policy manual must be put in place, a training program executed and guidelines set for messages for employees within firms. For example, a human resources manager for a wealth management firm might create a blog for other HR managers and encourage them to contribute.

4. What do you see as the best approach to take to compliance (pre-approval/auditing samples of output etc)?

First, I think that a “self-selection” policy works best with regards to social media. In other words, rolling out programs firm-wide for large institutions rarely works, owing to the disparate interest and ability of the end-user. Begin with volunteers and those who want to use it.

Training is essential for this group to ensure their knowledge of a variety of compliance and regulatory issues.  Each firm should also develop a social media policy and manual so that there are clear standards in place. 

The idea of pre-approving content and having a content library is one which has attracted “bad press” but I believe has merit. While most online publications do have Twitter, LinkedIn and share buttons, a content library could be effective as well. 

Compliance content which is pre-approved can be organized into sections like estate planning, tax, philanthropy and other ongoing topics of interest to clients. This library can be further populated by tweets, white papers, blogs and so on to assist with providing robust, compelling, compliant content in a way which is more efficient and effective.  Taking in RSS feed is another way to help populate your content library and while controlling the sources.

5. How interactive should wealth managers look to be in their social media provision?

Wealth managers should be as interactive as they can be with each individual having a varying comfort level.  Social interaction for wealth managers may be “clumsy” as many are left-brained quants and more linear thinkers. They are not accustomed to being open and creating conversations and engagement, whether over the internet or in person. Some firms opt for business development directors and relationship managers who handle client interaction for this reason. 

Again, while there are no rules around level of interaction, I know that those wealth managers who carefully choose from among their differentiators in background, training, skills, expertise, hobbies, passions, interests and more will reveal more points with which potential clients will socially map to them.