Tales from the Social Media Symposium

I was a panelist at the big Thomson Reuters Online Financial Symposium at their Times Square headquarters in NYC the other day.  The panel was moderated by my friend Lauren Young (Reuters) and my co-talkers were from Actiance, Morgan Stanley, Charles Schwab etc.

Here are two summations of what was discussed…

The compliance aspect of social media is really what gets the most attention right now, there are a lot of unknowns and finance people are adopting social media very tepidly at this stage.  Eventually, it’ll become do-or-die as more of the wealth finds itself in the hands Gen Y and the Millennials (who would never do biz with someone who didn’t exist online).

From Reuters:

Despite the risks, Joshua Brown, a New York-based financial adviser with Fusion Analytics and panelist at Wednesday’s conference, said advisers don’t have a choice but to get on social media.

“I love the fact that we’re talking about this like it’s optional,” Brown said. “E-mail at one point was optional.”

Brown said he no longer uses traditional methods for finding new clients, like cold calling or getting involved with charities. Instead he has used his blog, The Reformed Broker, and social media sites to establish himself as a thought leader. Now clients seek him out, saying they’ve been reading his blog for months and they agree with his thinking.

And then my friend April Rudin wrote up the conference for Registered Rep:

The conference topics ranged from retail banking to emerging markets and conversation about analytics and more.  While the conference theme revolved around a variety of different topics relating to the migration of financial services functions onto digital platforms,  my special interest revolved around the first panel, “ Emergence of Social Business—The potential of social media tools to change how we market and grow.”  Moderating the panel was Lauren Young – Wealth Editor of Thomson-Reuters.  Panelists included: Lauren Boyman of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Joshua Brown of “The Reformed Broker” fame, Kelli Keogh from  Charles Schwab, Scott Whitney of Actiance and Jaime Punishill of Thomson-Reuters.

To hear what each of us had to say about the emergence of social tools, head over…

Sources:

Reuters Symposium-Engage clients online to get an edge (Reuters)

Social Media Report From The Thomson-Reuters Online Financial Services Symposium  (Registered Rep)