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.

Last year, as imploding credit markets roiled the economy, mutual fund organizations throughout the country took stock of their revenue prospects.

It was clear that a change or two was in the wind at Denver’s Old Mutual Investment Partners, too. For Chief Executive Officer, D. Bruce Johnston, one more change was clear: He wanted to do something different.

From thought leadership to measuring results

Two major influences fueled his thinking: The prolific blogging activity of his friend, the best-selling author of The Ultimate Client Experience, Scott McKain and the promise of social media metrics and analytics in measuring the success of advisor value-added programs. After serving as a C-level executive at Conseco Funds, Garthmore Funds, Sentinel Funds and Old Mutual, he wanted to take a closer look at the role of social media in transforming business strategies in general and mutual fund distribution in particular.

Bruce shifted his family to Tuttle, Oklahoma where he started networking, interviewing industry thought leaders and practicing the social media arts. In short order, his blog, DBJ Associates became a rising source of reliable social media information for the relatively slow-to-adapt financial services industry.

He also completed a program to provide vigorous, aggressive third-party blogging support to an RIA who wished to attract interest in tax planning themes during the dog days of summer.

Bruce continued, “Social media in the form of social networks, online communities or blogs will become more and more a routine part of marketing, sales and distribution. That’s where the future is headed.”