In general,
Millstone said the landscape of client communication is
changing—and like the other panelists, she welcomes it. "[Social media]
is an incredible
opportunity to define yourself," she said.
Despite advisers' willingness to embrace social media, compliance challenges remain.
One hurdle is the lack of immediacy for things like tweets because compliance
must review them beforehand. "The whole point of social media is to be
immediate," Billard said.
Keller said he hopes the industry can someday develop a
rules engine that allows instantaneous compliance approval of social media
posts.
Although compliance challenges exist, Walper said it is more harmful to fail to adopt social media altogether because it can cause businesses to lose or turn away prospective clients. "The adoption
[of social media] is not going away," Walper said. "This is something that's
going to be around forever."
As for the future of social media, seminar panelists agreed
that engagement—rather than just pumping out information—is the next wave. Advisers
must respond in a timely manner to social media posts and remain at the center
of conversations, said Gail Gross, director of wealth management brand
marketing and affluent segment programs for Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Corie Russell