Word on the Street is that Morgan Stanley is allowing partial access to Twitter and LinkedIn to its army of over 17,000 financial advisors at
its Smith Barney unit. When one thinks of culture at investment banks, particularly
Morgan Stanley, the image of HP calculator-toting, white-shoe, prim and proper
bankers comes to mind. It's hardly an environment in which harnessing the power
of social media would seem to be considered a priority. I recall when I was an
analyst in banking, access to such sites was blocked and generally dismissed as
work distractions.
Now, Morgan Stanley is determined to blaze ahead of its rival in the social media realm. The firm points out that a yearlong trial with social media marketing revealed that using Twitter and LinkedIn actually generated more business for its retail brokerage operations. However, for now, its financial advisors can only send out Twitter messages from a pre-screened library and must run LinkedIn postings through an internal approval process. It'd be interesting to see stats on the demographics of Morgan Stanley clients who responded most actively to social media engagement efforts.
Wall Street giants Goldman Sachs and Blackstone also utilize Twitter accounts albeit in limited ways, mostly posting company-related news for their followers. They and their peers have some catching up to do with Morgan Stanley... having a Facebook fan page is a start.
Now, Morgan Stanley is determined to blaze ahead of its rival in the social media realm. The firm points out that a yearlong trial with social media marketing revealed that using Twitter and LinkedIn actually generated more business for its retail brokerage operations. However, for now, its financial advisors can only send out Twitter messages from a pre-screened library and must run LinkedIn postings through an internal approval process. It'd be interesting to see stats on the demographics of Morgan Stanley clients who responded most actively to social media engagement efforts.
Wall Street giants Goldman Sachs and Blackstone also utilize Twitter accounts albeit in limited ways, mostly posting company-related news for their followers. They and their peers have some catching up to do with Morgan Stanley... having a Facebook fan page is a start.
1 comment:
After working for Merrill Lynch I believe I understand what a financial adviser needs to be successful. I think Morgan Stanley is on the right track by allowing financial advisers to use Twitter and of course to post on LinkedIn. The ability to use twitter and LinkedIn will have many positive uses but I will just name a few. One great use that comes to mind is when the stock market makes sudden move down the first thing that happens to financial advisers is they get bombed with phone calls asking why the market is moving down. Now with the use of twitter they will have the ability to calm many of their unsavvy clients by sending several tweets to all of their clients quickly and effectively. LinkedIn has shown to be a great way to keep into touch and could be used for finding new perspective clients and by posting messages it will help keep clients and perspective clients informed while building a reputation. With social media on the rise it is wonder why it has taken this long for financial advising firms to take notice..
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