Miami-based linkedfa.com, one of the first social networking websites catering specifically to financial professionals, says it has tackled a big issue facing financial services firms when it comes to social media — tracking communications for compliance purposes. The website recently announced that third-party social media websites are included in the linkedFA’s compliance reporting strategy.

The expanded compliance reporting function offers financial advisors the ability to view and post comments to third-party websites — such as Palo Alto, Calif.-based Facebook Inc.’s Facebook; San Francisco-based Twitter Inc.’s Twitter; and Mountain View, Calif.-based LinkedIn Corp.’s LinkedIn — simultaneously through their linkedFA accounts.

By disseminating all your social media activity through linkedFA, says Jason Bishara, founder and CEO of linkedFA, the site’s compliance feature will automatically be applied to these third-party websites and ensures your compliance with the U.S. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority regulations relating to compliance and record-keeping.

“Our growth strategy since launching a year ago,” says Bishara, “is to remain at the forefront of financial social media’s evolution while actively utilizing feedback from our members.

PUSH/PULL SYSTEM

“Any correspondence through linkedFA is winding up on our compliance report,” Bishara explains. “All of these social media websites want to be more social and they want to be more expansive, so they have open controls that anyone can link into. They make it easy for you to tie into the sites because they want more people talking and we want more people talking about money.”

The new compliance feature works off a “push/pull system” that allows you to log onto your advisor linkedFA page, post a comment (such as a news link or research report) and then “push” the comment to be posted on any third-party social media website — such as your own Facebook page, Twitter feed or LinkedIn profile — all at the same time with a single click of your computer mouse.

If someone responds to the comment on any of the third-party websites, the response is then “pulled” back to your linkedFA page and will be included on your personalized linkedFA compliance report.

Currently, compliance reports are sent to any user who enters a valid email address, including Canadian financial advisors, which means that if Canadian firms are monitoring their advi-sors’ email accounts, they already have access to these reports.

In the future, Bishara hopes to be able to look into Canadian regulatory guidelines, as well as those in other countries, to see what can be added to linkedFA’s compliance reports to provide financial firms in those countries with a compliant and secure environment.

Although Canadian regulators have yet to endorse a specific technology to address compliance issues, the Canadian Securities Administrators’ compliance examiners are currently conducting a marketing and advertising compliance review, says Sandy Jakab, director of capital markets regulation at the B.C. Securities Commission, that includes looking at the use of social media in the financial services industry and how well both firms and compliance officers are dealing with what their representatives are doing on social media websites.

PUBLIC DIRECTORY

“We do want to see what the experience is on the ground for firms and compliance officers,” says Jakab, “and when the results come in, we hope to learn a great deal about what the challenges are and how they are being met.”

Also new to the linkedFA website is a “public directory” search function that allows you to access more than 1.4 million financial professionals in the U.S. (something that Bishara hopes to expand to other countries). Other new features include a “people you may know” function that introduces peers and people of interest to the user; and a public discussion forum that allows the user to post comments.

LinkedFA, owned by Bishara’s Coral Springs, Fla.-based firm, MY FA Network Inc., has grown to include more than 5,000 active members on a global scale, with members in Canada, Britain, Ireland, New Zealand and Australia. Bishara’s strategy this year is to look at expansion opportunities in the U.S. and globally.

To that end, the firm recently appointed Richard Joyce as chairman to help develop a global product-development strategy that will include the addition of country-specific features. Joyce has been in the communications industry for more than 30 years, most recently as an executive with 3COM Corp., which offers networking and security products to enterprises.

“The website, as it evolves over the next few months, will see slight variations that will make it more centric to Canada, or [Britain] or whichever country the advisor is from, which will include terminology and functionality that is specific to that country’s industry,” says Bishara.

LinkedFA also recently acquired Connecticut-based Advisor Connect, an online community of financial advisors who are already leveraging social media to grow their businesses, says Bishara. Advisor Connect currently has about 1,000 advi-sors signed up. IE