GlenGilmore

10 Commandments of Social Media for Financial Services

Financial Services National Regulatory Authority (FINRA), “the largest independent regulator for all securities firms doing business in the United States,” issued Regulatory Notice 10-06, a set of ten social media guidelines for financial firms and their registered representatives, in Question and Answer form, recognizing that “Americans are increasingly using social media.”
More recently, on June 28, 2011, at the IRI Government, Legal and Regulatory Conference, in Washington, D.C., Richard G. Ketchum, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of FINRA, issued a statement that FINRA’s “goal is to provide further guidance on these issues in a Notice to be published later this year.”

Read more

Two Big Lessons from Morgan Stanley’s Social Media Investment

{EAV_BLOG_VER:5a4e428e63e811c2}

Image from Wikipedia.com

1.  Tell Your Story in Social Media or Someone Else Will
Wall Street brokerage powerhouse, Morgan Stanley, made a bold investment decision:  within the year, all of its 17,800 financial advisors will be tweeting on Twitter and connecting on LinkedIn.  Bullish on Social Media, its head of U.S. sales, Andy Saperstein, proclaimed:

MSSB is committed to continue leading our competition in innovation.  This will be a significant competitive advantage.

So where did Morgan Stanley break this bold announcement?  Well, ah, it didn’t….That announcement came in an internal memo that was leaked to the press and whizzed through the corridors of social media until Morgan Stanley finally acknowledged that the memo was genuine.  Social media moves in real time.  Not having a presence in social media assures that you will be chasing the story rather than telling it.

Read more

World’s Largest Brokerage OKs Social Networking by Financial Advisors

Memo heralds new media breakthrough

New York-based financial services powerhouse, Morgan Stanley, the world’s largest brokerage firm, announced, not in a tweet or a blog, but in an old-fashioned, internal memo, plans to “begin a staged, roll-out for Advisors to use Social Media.”

Mincing no words about the implications of the announcement, the memo’s author, Andy Saperstein, who heads the brokerage’s U.S. operations, observed: 


“This will be a significant competitive advantage.”

Morgan Stanley’s decision to invest in social media by allowing, initially, a select group of about 600 of its financial advisors to use social media, will undoubtedly leave others in the highly-regulated financial services sector scrambling to follow the leader.

Read more

What You Should Know About the EU’s New “Internet of Things” Privacy Framework

To many, “The Internet of Things,” a predicted, transformative moment in time when nearly all “things” in the physical world will be interconnected, wirelessly, with communication capabilities linking the physical and virtual worlds for a variety of cooperative applications, is a distant point in the future.  To others, the internet of things is now.

RFID “Smart Tags” Connecting

Physical Things to Virtual Things


Radio-frequency identification technology (RFID), a technology that uses “smart tags”, tags with microchips, to provide information to a virtual network, is considered to be a primary technology in advancing “the internet of things.”  In 2011, RFID revenue is expected to exceed $6 billion, with more than 750 million so-called “item-level” RFID tags used in global apparel markets alone.  In Europe, about one billion “smart tags” are expected to be used in 2011, linking many “things” to the virtual world.

Read more

6 Lessons From @RedCross Social Media Crisis

A social media crisis can occur very innocently and quickly, as when a social media community manager “mistweets”, sending a message intended for one Twitter account to another.  The consequences can be humorous or disastrous:  much depends on how the “crisis” is handled.

Such a mistweet occurred with the official Red Cross Twitter account. A message was sent to the account’s more than a quarter of a million followers touting the discovery of “more beer” and boasting:  “…when we drink we do it right.  #gettingslizzerd”

A nightmare?  For most, perhaps, but for the Red Cross, expert at handling a crisis, through candor, quickness, and humor, they turned it into a positive.

6 Lessons from the Red Cross Mistweet

1.  When a crisis occurs, address it quickly.
2.  Respond to the crisis in the same forum where it occurred, as well as putting to work other available social media networks.
3.  Be honest about the mistake.
4.  Apologize for the mistake.
5.  Don’t panic.
6.  Use the moment to humanize your brand.

The Red Cross tells the story best in their blog.

Glen Gilmore

Photo credit:  JasonWatkins, Flickr

Facebook vs. Twitter – Dueling Movie Trailers! Watch them both & You Decide!

Facebook vs. Twitter – Dueling Movie Trailers!

In the Battle for the Hearts & Minds of
Social Media Addicts…



VERSUS


There can be only one Social Media Blockbuster — You decide!


 



Glen Gilmore
@Trendtracker


* Photo credits: Flickr: Zuckerberg by Carlo Nicora; Dorsey by David Shankbone

6 Tips for Finding Great Content to Share on Twitter #sm

In the land of Twitter, you are known by what you tweet Finding and sharing great content is the key to establishing yourself as a thought leader in the arena of social media. Here are some Twitter tips on how to find and share great content:

1. Do a Twitter search of users to identify and follow thought leaders in your niche.

Once you’ve decided what field you would like to establish yourself as a leader in on Twitter, do a Twitter search of users and begin following those who are already sharing content in the space. Listen to what they are saying and how they are saying it and follow their lead. Check in on them regularly to keep abreast of the latest content and share what you consider to be best. Retweeting the latest content from thought leaders is a great way to develop your niche, as well as an easy way to get the attention of and connect with established thought leaders.

2. Create and save Twiter searches for your niche.

Twitter lets you set up and save searches. Create some permanent search topics and check them regularly for good content. Retweet the best of what you find.

3. Create a Twitter List of content stars

Twitter lists are an easy way of keeping track of great curators of information, i.e., people who consistently find and share great content. As you come across users who consistently share great content, add them to your content star list and regularly check in on what they’re tweeting. You will learn much and have much to share as well! (OK, I must confess that this is the only list of mine that I keep private. Seems I’ve read that you shouldn’t give away all your secrets…You will find that a good group of Twitter content curators will quickly best the content you may have found previously using Google alerts.)

4. Set up Google alerts

Creating several Google Alerts related to your field is a great way to identify and share original content. You can let the story items pile up and pick through them at your leisure – though keep in mind that the live-stream, real-time nature of news today gives added points to those who share great content first. Use terms in your search that will narrow the results and focus your niche.

5. Create an AllTop account

This one step should help you enormously in staying on top of the latest developments in your niche: go to AllTop and set up your own niche listening post; the site makes easy the process of tracking the best articles on the web. Look for AllTop pages set up by thought leaders in your field to see what they are reading on a regular basis. It’s how I start my morning: http://AllTop.com/GlenDGilmore

6. StumbleUpon great content

I’m a fan of StumbleUpon, a site where users identify what they believe to be the best content on the web. The site let’s you set up your account to focus you on your own areas of interest. Add a toolbar to your web page and when you need a break from your work, stumble. You’ll find some really great content to share!

Now be sure to folllow me on Twitter at @TrendTracker and share in the Comments suggestions you may have for finding that great content! Thanks! Glen (aka, TrendTracker)

Photo Credits:

Twitter Bird: Flickr: Guy Kawasaki
Google Alert: Flickr: Ari Herzog

Greyson Chance: What A Sixth Grader Teaches Us About Social Media

In a matter of days, a sixth grader from Oklahoma, twelve-year-old Greyson Chance, has become a YouTube sensation, garnering over 15 million views, an appearance on the Ellen show, and a recording contract. In the process, this kid from Oklahoma has given a few lessons for students of social media:

1. Find and learn from a model of success. Greyson chose for his inspiration Lady Gaga. Not a bad choice considering the fact that she is the first entertainer to achieve one billion views on YouTube.

2. Find your voice and sing. Greyson Chance has never had a voice lesson, yet he has a voice that has propelled him to stardom. What made all the difference in the world was his decision to sing.

3. Share your passion. Ah…just watch the video that follows.

4. Be authentic. Be yourself. Chance chose to sing an extremely popular song from an extremely popular singer. Yet, he made the song his own. His version of “Paparazzi” is not an imitation of the original: it is an original, new version of the original.

5. Don’t give in to skeptics: convert them. As Greyson began his performance at his sixth-grade talent show, the expressions of his classmates seemed to convey disinterest at best: his performance visibly transformed skeptics into fans.

6. Content is still king. All the search engine optimization in the world still has a tough time trumping raw talent. Content, really good content, whether it’s a song or story, is still the best way to be found.

7. With compelling content, video is a viral rocket. YouTube is celebrating its fifth-year anniversary with two billion daily views. Twelve-year old Greyson Chance is one if its users who decided to upload a video from his sixth-grade talent show. 15-million views later, the video shows no signs of slowing down in its viral trajectory.

8. Give your friends more than one forum to connect. Greyson first uploaded the video of his performance to his Facebook page, then to YouTube. He has since added a Twitter account.

Greyson Chance’s 6th Grade Talent Show Performance