Article Highlights:

Courtesy of Ignites, a Financial Times Service: Vanguard Makes Twitter Debut, Soups Up Mobile Apps

By Jackie Noblett July 29, 2010

• Vanguard Group officially launching a Twitter feed on Tuesday, July 27, joining the likes of Fidelity Investments and Putnam Investments who have active Twitter social media profiles
• Vanguard officials say they spent a great deal of time determining how best to expand their presence on the Web:
  • “If we’re going into any [social media] space, we want to know why we’re going into it,” says Amy Dobra, head of social media at Vanguard. “Once we had confidence that we could add something new with Twitter, we went into it.”
  • Vanguard conducted nine months of planning before launching their Twitter presence.
  • Over the course of the nine months, Vanguard dealt with compliance considerations and identified six key executives who would contribute.
• Vanguard estimates that about 60% to 70% of the messages shared by the six key executive will be thoughts or commentary on their respective competencies, with the balance being links to content on the main Vanguard site.
• Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites have arguably become a major part of the social fabric, especially among younger generations. Yet asset management firms have been surprisingly slow to embrace the medium. Although there is recognition that social media is more than a fad, many have been hesitant to embrace it. To wit, a survey conducted in January by kasina found that 84% of asset management firms believe social media is here to stay, but only 48% indicated that they engaged in some form of social media.