5 Powerful Social Media Questions and Answers

Filed in Asset Management

Today, we present a look at social media in the investment management industry from the stand-point of a technology solutions provider. Chad Bockius from Socialware Inc., the Social Middleware Company, has provided this guest post covering 5 powerful questions and answers.

You too can be part of the community at EverydayTenacity by submitting a guest post! If you would like to submit a guest post like Chad, you can learn how to do so here.

Introduction:

Chad’s title is VP of Marketing and Product Strategy. In his role, he is responsible for everything related to building the Socialware brand, helping drive leads and increasing overall awareness about the company and the problems we solve. On the product front, Chad is responsible for the definition and positioning of our products for the market. That entails everything from prioritizing product capabilities to identifying new solutions to writing the content to help the market understand the value proposition.

5 Powerful Questions & Answers Courtesy of Chad Bockius @ Socialware Inc.:

How did you get involved in social media technology?:

My adoption of social media started with LinkedIn and then eventually Facebook. When I started I used these sites purely for my own benefit. About 4 years ago I started helping companies adopt word-of-mouth solutions and this increased my awareness of social technologies. While I’ve been using social media for some time it really wasn’t until Socialware that I doubled-down on social for business purposes. Today I manage multiple Twitter accounts, a Facebook page, a YouTube channel, a blog and more to help spread the word about Socialware and the work we are doing. The results have really opened my eyes to the possibilities social technologies have to offer whether it is for sales, marketing or product management.
Please describe how your company’s technology solutions help in managing a company’s social media endeavors:

Today, we offer two solutions. One that is geared towards social networking enablement and the second that is geared towards helping marketers get the most out of their social media investment. At Socialware our second offering, Social Marketer, allows us to segment posts for either personal or professional use. All professional posts, regardless of social network (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn) get aggregated and embedded directly on Socialware.com. This corporate social stream provides a new way for visitors to engage with the company and most importantly provides a new source of fresh, keyword-dense content for the search engines. Think of it as Google-juice.
What is the most pressing issue that you have seen in the Investment Management industry that prevents firms from making progress with social media?:

Without a doubt the #1 issue is compliance. There are questions and concerns around the FINRA guidelines, questions around how to capture and archive the data, questions on how to supervise activity and the list goes on.With the recent FINRA clarification around social media use we’ve seen a dramatic increase in firms moving to adopt social media. Now that firms have a better handle on how to interpret the guidelines the next question is how to automate social media compliance. This includes everything from records retention, supervisory review (pre and post), eDiscovery to access control.

To date firms that have engaged with social media have manually managed compliance through things like Facebook screenshots or copy & pasting tweets into an Excel file. Not only does this not meet the FINRA guidelines but it is also a massive waste of time. Socialware is helping regulated firms automate the entire process of social networking compliance. Once a policy is defined it gets mapped to our filters, those filters then govern how employees can use these social networks, what data needs to be archived and also what content needs to be scanned and moderated. On the backend all of this information is stored in a structured and tagged format so search and discovery is a breeze.
At this time, what investment management / asset management firms do you think are doing the best job with social media?:

I think firms like Fidelity, American Century, Vanguard and TIAA-CREF are off to a good start by either creating a Facebook Fan page, introducing branded channels on sites like YouTube or starting to build their brand presence on Twitter.But in every case it is just the start. In this industry it isn’t just about telling the corporate story through social media. You need to enable your employees, whether they are regulated or not, to engage in this channel of communication. The companies that get here first will have the biggest advantage in the market.

A great example of this, from another industry, is Best Buy’s Twelpforce. Best Buy has taken the collective power of their store workers and pointed them towards Twitter to help solve customer problems. The moral of the story with Best Buy is that the reach, impact and knowledge of the many is far greater than the few. And it doesn’t hurt that Best Buy didn’t have to hire anyone to man what amounts to a massive customer support channel.
What business case can be made to help Investment and Asset Managers looking to make their first foray into social media?:
The possibilities are really endless. With that being said here are 4 reasons Investment and Asset Managers should start engaging in social media.
- Follow the business
  Today your customers and prospects are spending an average of 55 minutes per day on Facebook. Think of the opportunity to get your message to them, address questions and ultimately drive lead generation and sales. Social media is no different from traditional marketing channels. You want to evaluate the reach and cost. Reach is massive with Facebook, having over 400mm users. And the cost can’t be beat (it’s free). Given these facts you can see why the world is flocking to these social channels.
- Hire your next star
  Finding top producers is as important to the business as finding your next customer. Typically the best producers are happily employed. However, using sites like Twitter and Facebook you can uncover who those people are and then combine that information with LinkedIn to start actively networking with those individuals to get one step closer to a new hire.
- Build your brand
  In this industry your personal brand is likely more important than the corporate brand. Social media is the one channel that allows you to share value with prospects in a pull format, demonstrate expertise and let future customers get to know you on a personal level. All of this translates to increased awareness and an increased chance of converting a new prospect.
- Improve customer service
  Gartner recently released a set of predictions and one of them was that by 2014, social networking services will replace e-mail as the primary vehicle for interpersonal communications for 20 percent of business users. While they didn’t give a prediction for how many consumers will switch, I can assure you it will be much higher. So if your customers and prospects want to use social media as a primary form of communication how will you service clients if you aren’t there? Bank of America is already taking some great strides in this arena with BofA_Help on Twitter and they are a great example of what is possible with social networking-based customer service.