Twitter top 10 tips: How to protect your firm

Maria Merricks talks to a range of experts about how to use the social media network as a business tool without arousing the wrath of compliance.

The power of Twitter as a business tool is a message repeated time and time again.
However, many advisers are still refusing to embrace the phenomenon, missing out on vital networking opportunities and business leads. For them, a major concern is how to ensure compliance.

Commentators insist protecting yourself on Twitter is not a difficult task. Here, they share their top tips...

1. The dinner party analogy

A useful suggestion is to imagine Twitter as one big dinner party. Pete Matthew, director of Jacksons Financial Services, asks whether you would start advising someone you had only just met at a friend’s party.

“While you may have a generic conversation about whether pensions are still worth doing, for example, you would never say, ‘yes, and I recommend you do one with such and such’. That would be insane, and you would never be invited again,” he says. “Advisers following that analogy online should stay compliant.”

2. Twitter is not a sales tool

Philip Calvert, director of IFA Life, goes one step further. Quite apart from the compliance issues involved with trying to sell a product on Twitter, consumers would not even be interested, he claims.

“Use Twitter for what it is there for: listen, interact, engage, share and help people out. If you gain a reputation for being helpful and caring, people will quickly warm to you. Follow this best practice and you should not have any problems,” Calvert says.

3. Do not forget the rules

Advisers deciding to promote a product anyway should keep in mind FSA financial promotion rules still apply.

In its most recent industry update on social media (No. 5, June 2010), the regulator states: “Where our rules apply they generally apply in a way that is media neutral, and focus on the content of the financial promotion rather than the medium used to communicate it.”

With this in mind, strongly consider whether the sufficient compliance regulations and risk warnings can be included within Twitter’s 140 character limit.

4. Educate your team

One network has already banned the use of social media among its members. According to Matthew, such a decision is “shortsighted” as he says Twitter is here to stay.

Instead of missing out on the valuable qualities it can offer to a business, he suggests bosses should educate their staff instead, perhaps even investing in a social media training programme.