Financial social media marketing just received a welcome boost from the nation’s largest independent securities industry regulator.

Social media age: Investor education begins at 13

The Alliance Library System of East Peoria, Ill. received a grant of  $100,000 from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Investor Education Foundation and the American Library Association (ALA) for social media and other education programs.

FINRA steps up

The library system will deliver saving and investing information through social media targeting individuals ages 13 to 35, according to Earth Times.

The demographically and technologically attuned library system in rural, central Illinois will also provide online and face-to-face investor education programs through six of its public libraries.

What next?

“This move bodes well for financial marketers,” social media consultant D. Bruce Johnston said recently. “FINRA is supposed to provide new guidance about social media vehicles this March.  I think the fact that they are funding this investor education program is a clear tilt toward the benefits of this engaging and cost-efficient communications trend.”

For FINRA, the inference is clear: “How can you say social media is right for younger investors in central Illinois, but not for mutual fund shareholders in general?,” Mr. Johnston concluded.

FINRA’s intentions, however, still remain closely held. The term “social media” appears nowhere in both the text of a new rule under FINRA’s consideration, nor Regulatory Notice 09-55, the comment notice, also currently under review.

You can download your copies of Proposed New FINRA rules and Comment on Notice here.

The notice also invites interested readers to call Joseph P. Savage, Vice President and Counsel, Investment Companies Regulation, at (240) 386-4534; or Thomas A. Pappas, Vice President and Director, Advertising Regulation, at (240) 386-4553 to state opinions.