Tag Archives: Social Media

Follow the TD AMERITRADE Institutional 2011 Conference Twitter Backchannel

Wednesday marks the start of the 2011 independent adviser conference season with the TD AMERITRADE Institutional 2011 National Conference in San Diego, CA. While we presented at the event last year, this year we’re not able to attend.

This year’s conference agenda is packed with diverse information, but we’re particularly interested in the sessions revealing more information on TD AMERITRADE Institutional’s Open Access Technology. If the custodian rolls out an equivalent of an SDK (software development kit) to its technology infrastructure, it may issue a new wave of tight and highly-functional integrations with 3rd party software.

Also, we’re pleased to see the custodian’s progressive adoption of social media communication at its conference. The company created a Twitter account, @TDAI_National11, and selected an official hashtag of  #TDA2011 to identify conference-related tweets.

We turned TD AMERITRADE Institutional on to VisibleTweets.com, so if you see your tweets projected on flat-panel displays or projectors, you can thank us!

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/TDAI_National11/status/27471415758299137″]

FPPad Bits and Bytes for January 28

Again, we’re busy behind the scenes working with new clients, preparing new presentations for upcoming conferences, and writing new content for columns and articles. Blog posts are sporadic, but we still reserve the best tech related stories for Friday’s Bits and Bytes update.

Here are this week’s stories of interest:

New Portfolio Management Software For Advisors; AdvisorEdge Looks Good from advisors4advisors.com

AdvisorEdge is a new portfolio management software (PMS) app that is being launched as a result of a patnership between Mike Kelly of Back Office Support Service, and Matt Abar of FinFolio.

Making sense of document storage confusion from InvestmentNews.com

A good document storage system can offer convenience by allowing advisers and clients to share documents securely over the Internet, no matter where they are.

Take Digital Notes, Discreetly from MorningstarAdvisor.com

When attending conferences, advisors may find the process of using a laptop to take notes too obtrusive. Here’s one alternative that makes the process much more inconspicuous.

How a big Atlanta RIA kept sledding with technology after snow paralyzed the city from RIABiz.com

While most Atlantans spent the week ensconced at home, Balentine employees continued with business as usual with the help of laptops, iPads, iPhones, and NetX360.

One Year Later: Revisiting FINRA’s Social Media Usage Guidelines from CMSWire.com

A year ago FINRA, the regulator that oversees brokers and other financial advisors, released guidelines for social media usage. Since then, financial advisors have carefully tip-toed into the social media landscape, thanks to financial networking sites like LinkedFA.com and Smarsh.

MarketeRIA® Offers Advisors Social Media and Web Marketing Solution

TripleStop, LLC, a marketing agency servicing the financial advisor industry, recently released a social media and web marketing solution called MarketeRIA®.

MarketeRIA came across my radar due to their partnership with Arkovi, a social media backup and archive provider previously mentioned on FPPad. Within the MarketeRIA platform, advisors using social media to build their online presence can comply with regulatory requirements using the built-in service from Arkovi.

The easiest way to learn more about marketeRIA is to watch their sub 2-minute video on YouTube, embedded below for your convenience.

So who is TripleStop? Here’s their summary listed on their website:

We’re a marketing agency that excels at helping businesses drive their reputations, relationships, and revenues online. Our industry focus is financial/wealth advisory and investment management, where we have years of client-side experience.

FPPad Bits and Bytes for December 17

FPPad headquarters has temporarily relocated to the mid-Atlantic area for the holidays. Our official consulting work for 2010 is complete, and we look forward to serving new and existing clients in 2011.

We are also happy to provide insight directly on this blog and to our subscribers. Yes, individual posts have been a bit more sporadic, but we continue to aggregate the best in technology-related articles from around the web each week in Bits and Bytes.

With new laws taking effect January 1, 2011, cost basis reporting requirements dominate this week’s update. Here are this week’s stories of interest:

Fidelity® Provides In-Depth Analysis Of Finalized IRS Cost-Basis Reporting Requirements at Fidelity.com

Fidelity Investments®, a leading provider of trading, custody and brokerage services to registered investment advisors and broker-dealers, today announced that it has introduced a new report designed to help its clients understand differences between the proposed cost-basis reporting requirements and those recently finalized by the Internal Revenue Service.

Charles Schwab Advisor Services Cost Basis Legislation Resources at Schwabadvisorcenter.com

The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 included new tax reporting requirements that will dramatically change the way investors and financial advisors think about cost basis. The first phase of the legislation goes into effect on January 1, 2011, and may create significant workflow changes for your firm.

Social media shapes new investment strategy at USATODAY.com

You’ll let a friend walk your dog, drive your car or watch your teenager. Would you let them — or someone you don’t even know — invest your money?

FPATelevision: The First Thing Advisers Must Do When Starting A Social Media Strategy

Bill speaks to FPATelevision on the first thing advisers must do when starting a social media strategy.

Independent Broker/Dealers Warming Up To Social Media

Like it or not, social media in financial services has been a recurring topic in the industry this year. The big question for FINRA-regulated registered representatives and SEC-regulated investment advisers is how to engage in social media activities without violating compliance rules (even after FINRA released its guidance on using social networking websites).

In the first significant step in the broker/dealer environment, Cambridge Investment Research announced that it plans to support their representatives’ use of social media by adopting compliance and monitoring software from Socialware.

Click here to read the announcement from Financial Planning Magazine online.

FPPad subscribers have read about Austin, Tx. based Socialware before and their tools that help advisers and representatives satisfy compliance requirements when using social media websites.

The fact that Cambridge is stepping up to the plate and giving the tentative green light to its reps means more and more financial professionals will be able to manage social media profiles to engage in conversations with clients and prospects.

Upcoming Financial Adviser Webcast Series: Guide to Going Digital

I joined a fantastic team at Revenue Architects to deliver a series of financial adviser webcasts to help advisers accelerate their online presence.

Revenue Architects is an expert network of independent marketing, sales, and technology professionals aligned to support the diverse needs for adviser revenue performance. All the details of Revenue Architects can be viewed on their website, http://www.revenuearchitects.com/

I’m presenting the Guide to Going Digital webcast with John Stone, CEO of Revenue Architects, on Tuesday, June 08, 2010 from 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM (ET). The webcast details can be viewed here: http://www.revenuearchitects.com/events-and-webcasts/

FPPad readers are eligible for a 10% discount off the webcast registration. Enter the code FPPadDigital to receive your discount. The code is valid for all four of the events in the Financial Adviser Webcast series.

I hope you consider joining the webcast if you’re serious about growing your presence in the rapidly evolving digital world.

Smarsh, Socialware Partner to Command Social Media Compliance Market

I’d like to be able to say that I saw this coming, but that’s not entirely the case.

Today, Smarsh, Inc. the leading email archive solution provider to financial advisers, and Socialware, a provider of social media archive and policy enforcement tools, announced a partnership to combine their respective technologies to provide one solution for messaging and social media governance and compliance.

Click here to view the press release on Smarsh’s website.

I’ve written about both Smarsh and Socialware before, and while each company’s products could help advisers comply with regulatory requirements when using social media, neither offered an all-in-one solution. Smarsh dominates the archiving market, but lacks coverage in the social media space. Socialware commands the social media space, but doesn’t specialize in compliant archiving.

So I view the partnership as a very promising relationship in support of an all-in-one social media compliance solution to satisfy FINRA and SEC regulatory requirements.

I hope to be able to check out the offering in the future and report back on its capabilities (either here or in my other media outlets).

Read My First Practices Column in the Journal of Financial Planning

I had the privilege of being asked to contribute to the Practices series of this month’s Journal of Financial Planning. The Journal of Financial Planning is the core publication of the Financial Planning Association with the mission to expand the body of knowledge of the financial planning profession.

For my first column, I described many of the best tools and techniques planners and advisers can use to roll out a successful social media strategy.

Click here to read Tools and Techniques to Leverage Social Media (link is good only for the month of May).

I always appreciate comments and feedback, so please let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.

Socialware Launches Social Media Archive Service, Rebrands Website

I’ve made several mentions on FPPad about Socialware, an emerging provider of social media archive and policy enforcement tools, but I’ve yet to include a full feature of their services.

Today, Socialware announced several new initiatives to better serve the market of individuals and small and medium businesses (SMBs). The full announcement can be viewed on the Socialware blog.

What do these changes mean to advisers?

Read More…