Part 3 of How to Spur Investment Through Social Media
Mar 3rd, 2010 by David Svet
Part 3 of 3 — This week SPURspectives is examining the new opportunity opening up in the securities sector as a result of changes in the FINRA guidance regarding social media use. Social media is taking off and FINRA has said you are now free to move about the cabin. In this three part series I’ve offered Hildy Gottlieb’s Pollyanna Principles as a unique starting point for financial services firms hoping to develop a high level overview of how to begin planning their use of social media. In each post I’ve introduced some of the most common objections and issues that I’ve heard in light of each of the Pollyanna Principles. The book is a radical approach for community benefit organizations to use in redefining their structures to create extraordinary communities. Since social media is ultimately about building strong communities, I think there are some exciting opportunities to be found in this book by the financial sector. Today we look at what are usually the final objections:
Is there any guarantee that this is going to work? Who’s done this before that can demonstrate best practices? How are we going to make this work?
• Individuals will go where systems lead them.
Community benefit organizations, credit unions, retailers and countless other businesses are successfully using social media for a wide variety of reasons with great success. Adopting and adapting best practices from systems that are known to work with your own systems will lead people to begin to participate with the financial sector in social media space. FINRA saw fit to require the sector to document policies and practices, so you will need to create a planned system in order to begin. Fortunately, you are fashionably late to the party and there are lots of systems on the table to choose from. One is our own available here.
This is an opportunity to clearly show your differential advantage in the market. Never before has it been so easy to publish and interact with the public in a way that demonstrates thought leadership. Now it is possible to take all of the informative and educational ideas and material that you have sent to your investors and make it available in a dynamic venue that enables your constituents to interact with you. It’s an opportunity for people to share your value with their friends and create positive word-of-mouth referrals.
It’s an exciting time and a critical juncture. The collision of market events, technological changes, and generational shifts has created unrest and an opportunity. I believe the organizations that plan to create a better future and move decisively will reap rewards that their laggard competitors will never see.
