By John C. Drachman

Confronted with the shock of the new,  it’s only natural for large organizations to trust that yesterday’s strategies will continue to work a little longer.

Such is the case with the pace of adaptation for Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley Smith Barney concerning FINRA 10-06, the generally enabling regulatory policy governing social networking.

Smaller financial firms take lead in SMM.

According to a recent article in Financial Advisor Magazine, neither of these major firms allow “advisers to conduct business through social networking sites.” The article quotes one spokeswoman, saying: ”There are substantial restrictions on its use right now, but we are continuing to review the issue.”

Meanwhile, for smaller, nimbler broker/dealers and RIAs the implication is clear: the free marketing bandwidth provided by FINRA’s common sense and clarifying guidance is theirs to use nearly exclusively. Because the social networking and media playing field is theirs, at least for the moment, enterprising marketers with few resources can be the first to adapt to the newest game in financial marketing.

Growing numbers of social media strategists and service providers are determined to help these Davids live like Goliaths — if only for a day — until the slow-moving giants make their moves.

Addressing  FINRA 10-06′s archiving requirement, for example, SocialWare’s Compliance Guide to SMM points to a number of ways to meet data storage needs to reduce the risk of non-compliance.

Steph Sammons intros advisors to SMM

Other firms are concentrating on how financial advisors can put FINRA 10-06 to work in their distribution strategies. Financial social media strategist Steph Sammons is showing her advisor clients how to take advantage of new media by setting up  blogs and improving their presence on social networking sites.

“Attracting new clients has suddenly gotten easier,” says D. Bruce Johnston of DBJ Associates. “Low-cost and creative, social media strategies are like free money to underfunded marketing departments.”

SMM offers free bandwidth to enterprising small businesses.

For smaller firms looking to be the speedboats in the river while the lumbering barges make their glacial turns, Mr. Johnston points to a good SMM road map for advisors to start with: One-2-One: How to Have 1000 Conversations at Once.