The next frontier for social media

Today, more than half of Facebook and Twitter users are accessing these social media sites via mobile devices, says Geoff Evans, founder of Social Media Coach in London, Ont.: “Users are in a state of constant communication that goes beyond regular working hours. Being able to access social media via a mobile device means more opportunities to connect [with contacts] at a meaningful time and to address real-time questions or concerns.”

This means that firms in the financial services industry – many of which have just begun to get comfortable with providing their advisors with desktop access to social media – now will have to take it up a notch as their social media-monitoring providers begin to offer mobile apps.

Toronto-based brokerage firms Macquarie Private Wealth Inc., which has been in the social media game since early 2011, CIBC Wood Gundy, which approved social media access for its advisors this past autumn, and BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc., which is currently in the process of a social media pilot project, have all partnered with Belmont, Calif.-based Actiance Inc. to monitor and archive their advisors’ social media activity.

Last month, Actiance launched its Socialite compliance-monitoring platform onto a mobile app for iPhone called Socialite Engage. This app not only provides advisors with compliant yet mobile social media access, it also gives their firms’ compliance officers access, which allows for a speedier pre-approval process.

@page_break@The iPhone app allows users to access Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Users are able to interact online while their activity is monitored and archived instantaneously. Users also can access a library of pre-approved content, yet have the option to post personalized messages. If a message contains any “flagged” words, it will be sent directly to the firm’s compliance officer for approval before being posted. The compliance officer can approve or deny the message directly from his or her own mobile device, thus cutting down on approval wait times.

“Many posts have a certain shelf life, and our clients know that [a post] loses its impact the longer it stays in the approval queue,” says Victor Gaxiola, subject matter expert, social media, for Actiance. “Now, we are able to provide the financial community with the ability to engage and distribute content really at the touch of a button on the go.”

Austin, Tex.-based Socialware Inc. launched its iPhone application, which enables advisors to access the Big Three social media networks last summer. That app allows advisors to post only pre-approved content, respond to a comment or tweet, “like” a status, retweet or repost an online link.

“We found that 75% of the things advisors are doing on the phone are very simple tasks,” says Bruce Milne, chief marketing officer and vice president of products and marketing with Socialware. “When it comes to more complex tasks, for which a keyboard would be required, the advisors are telling us they still want to be at their desktop.”

SunGard’s Protegent platform, which Toronto-based ScotiaMcLeod Inc. and DundeeWealth Inc. both recently adopted, has the ability to capture all online activity from a mobile device. An advisor can access a social media site from a mobile device and, if any activity is conducted, the content is captured, viewed by the firm and archived. Currently, SunGard is working on a pre-approval process for content, as well as expanding Protegent to include Google+ and YouTube posts.

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