Archive for May, 2011
Social Media Adds Spice to the FINRA Annual Conference
Posted by nleong in Compliance, FINRA, Social Networking, Trends on May 27, 2011
Well, I just returned from 2.5 fun-filled days at FINRA’s annual conference. Lots of humidity, lots of suits, and lots of talk around social media. C’mon, it can’t all be about branch office oversight, arbitration trends, and municipal securities dealer obligations. I wouldn’t be writing this blog if it weren’t for a lil bling to shake up the staid world of financial industry regulation.
Judging by the attendance of the “Compliance Considerations for Social Media” session, it’s pretty fair to say that social media is THAT bling giving compliance officers angst. Still in its nascent stages, you didn’t have to walk more than a few feet to overhear conversations like “So, what are you guys doing about social media?” or “How do you guys monitor what’s going on out there?” Oftentimes, you’d hear CCOs respond, “We don’t allow anything.” Other times, you’d hear, “We let our reps use LinkedIn, but we have a tough time keeping track of what they’re doing.”
There seemed to be no doubt, however, about the merits of social media. Brows started to furrow though when the conversations turned towards monitoring and recording of this deluge of social media content. Now, it wasn’t just the social media session where you heard folks talking about this latest and greatest marketing channel. It also popped up in other sessions, too, such as in the “Advertising and Disclosure for Dually Registered IA/BD Firms,” “Risk-Based Examinations and Surveillance,” and “Oversight of Outside Business Activities.” So, social media presents compliance challenges that bridge several FINRA departments.
Despite the fact that Joe Price himself stated that there would be “no fundamental changes” to Regulatory Notice 10-06, the door was still left ajar for minor tweaks to the notice. Example: what to do about non-corporate devices? How do you capture the content that’s being uploaded to Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter from an iPhone, iPad, or BlackBerry? Methinks that whenever FINRA issues updated guidance to 10-06, there likely will be language addressing the treatment of non-corporate devices. Do you agree?
Remember, FINRA is still feeling its way around social media – we know this from our ongoing engagement with their Advertising Regulation and special investigations groups. We also know that FINRA is aware of the availability of technologies (like ours) that enable firms to record interactions on social media sites and that we expect to see more firms turning to social media over the coming months (watch this space for more news on that).
Already, you can start to feel the tide turning with respect to the (inevitable) acceptance of social media usage within the financial services industry, especially when you compare sentiment from this year’s conference to last year’s. I’m already looking forward to next year’s conference to see how much more entrenched social media will be in firms, both big and small.
What say you?
The Big Apple Meets Big Social Media
Posted by SarahActiance in New Internet, Social Networking, Trends, Web Security on May 24, 2011
New York City has long been viewed as the financial and media center of the US, if not the world. So, it comes as no surprise to hear that NYC is aiming to be the premier digital city in the country. It has formed partnerships with social media powerhouses, including Facebook and Twitter, to produce content that will enable New Yorkers to better interact and communicate with local government.
On paper, it all sounds great. But, horror stories abound of social media being used improperly or inappropriately. Take, for instance, the Chrysler F-bomb fiasco. All that hard work that went into the image rebuilding of Detroit was torpedoed due to an errant tweet of a PR guy. You’ve also got the example of Gilbert Gottfried’s insensitive tweets about the tsunami in Japan. His jokes cost him his endorsement deal with Aflac and sullied his reputation. Then, there’s the higher-up at HP who leaked a bunch of confidential information through his LinkedIn profile.
The fact that government agencies are so visible raises the stakes that much more. Additionally, government is arguably held to a higher standard, bound by countless rules, statutes, and guidelines. That’s why it’s so interesting to see NYC enthusiastically embracing social media.
Social media is the exact opposite of government. Social media is the poster child of dynamism, energy, chaos, youth, exuberance – all rolled into one. Government, on the other hand, has been the quintessence of bureaucracy, inertia, procedures, and predictability since the dawn of time. This collision in cultures and philosophies will be tested in NYC.
I’m sure Rachel Sterne, NYC’s first chief digital officer, has been briefed on the potential pitfalls of social media (check out some of the above examples, Rachel, if you haven’t). However, theory and reality are two different beasts. NYC could have all the policies in the world in place to address the security and compliance concerns Ms. Sterne has no doubt considered, but to actually have controls in place to ensure that those management and security requirements are met is even more important.
There are too many evils out there that yearn to bring government to its knees – viruses, malware, terrorists, radicals – you get the idea. Also, one has to believe that there are disgruntled employees looking to leak secrets or confidential information on upcoming trials, projects, etc. Don’t forget that government is the largest employer in the US – be it at the city, state, or federal level. This means that the potential for security or compliance breaches is compounded, given the number of government employees and the viral nature of social media (Retweets, Likes, Shares, etc., come to mind).
So, all eyes will be on NYC. If the project goes well, I’m sure we’ll see other cities jumping on the social media bandwagon, joining what will surely become known as the Big @. Who knows? Perhaps the day will come that you may never have to visit a government office ever again. Ahhhhh, we can only dream.
“William and Catherine are so yesterday”
Posted by SarahActiance in New Internet, Social Networking, Trends on May 18, 2011
A UK judge in the family division of the high court last week handed down an injunction, explicitly banning the publication of protected information on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. It all came about when several tweets were sent that purportedly revealed the identities of celebrities involved in “superinjunctions.” The judge’s order takes the existing one of preventing the identification of children and others involved in legal actions one step further by singling out social media sites.
World renowned for its pesky paparazzi and over-the-top tabloids, it’s no surprise that the UK courts would be proactive in limiting the potential effects of a feeding frenzy amongst the British tabloids and consumers in their search for the latest gossip. Twitter’s UK traffic spiked to its highest levels ever on May 9th when folks were poking around to see which celebrities were involved. Similar events happened on the other side of the pond. Just look at Charlie Sheen, who went from zero to one million Twitter followers in one day, following his much-publicized tirades. #Winning. As I’m sure he’d want me to say. So, it just goes to show that even judges, who often have potentially old-school stodgy images, are keenly aware of the influence of social media and the speed at which information can travel.
Privacy is becoming a misnomer, too, as rumors, allegations, and personal information traverse the social media channels at lightning speed. Sure, courts can issue injunctions and superinjunctions to their hearts’ content, but at the end of the day, technology will play a role in managing (and enforcing) these legal orders. In other words, one can think of technology as a “friend of the court.”
Take for instance, Actiance Socialite. It’s a platform that enables organizations to monitor and manage access to sites like Facebook and Twitter as well as the content that gets posted there. With Socialite, companies stand a better chance of remaining compliant with legal orders and makes it that much tougher for gossip-mongers to satiate their appetites.
Now, I thought I heard yesterday that Kate’s expecting quadruplets…
“Doctor’s orders? Like?”
Posted by SarahActiance in Employee Behavior, Enterprise 2.0, New Internet, Privacy, Social Networking, Trends, Uncategorized on May 9, 2011
The world’s aflutter over social media, but that’s not necessarily the case with the healthcare field. According to Healthcare IT News, Americans aren’t quite embracing the use of social media to communicate with their doctors. A whopping 85% said they would not use sites like Facebook and Twitter for medical communications, if offered the option. Even amongst the Gen Y’ers (18-29 years old), only 21% said they would use an online forum.
Consumers were receptive to leveraging social media for administrative tasks (e.g., bill payment, setting up appointments, accessing their medical records online), but when it comes to actually chatting with a doctor, they still preferred traditional communications channels. So, here lies a perfect conundrum of bringing together social media and healthcare. A person’s medical history and relationship with his or her doctor embodies the very essence of privacy. Yet, social media sites have been lambasted for their (sometimes shameless) lack of privacy.
When all’s said and done, something has to give… and in this case, privacy is holding the upper hand. Until such time that publicly available social media sites have worked out all the privacy kinks and have built enough credibility as a safe, reliable communications channel for discussing sensitive medical issues, skepticism and hesitation will rule the day.
What about specific community sites? Or using platforms like Yammer, IBM Connections, Jive, or SharePoint where an administrator controls the users, the content, and the sharing? Or technology solutions that inject more trust, security, and flexibility into the social media/privacy relationship?
Actiance Socialite enables organizations to safely use enterprise collaboration platforms and social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Socialite is a platform that lets companies manage employee access to social media tools, archive content posted to sites, and even monitor the content to make sure that sensitive data doesn’t get leaked out. For instance, would you want a disgruntled hospital employee being able to post whatever content he or she liked to the hospital’s Facebook fanpage?
At the end of the day, solutions like Socialite are trying to bridge the trust gap in the healthcare field. Given the fickle nature of the court of public opinion, perhaps it’s not too far off in the future that you’ll be able to discuss the risks of monthly Botox injections with your doctor via Facebook. Like.
“Do I get a mulligan?”
Posted by SarahActiance in New Internet, Social Networking, Trends, Uncategorized on May 5, 2011
Unfortunately, due to the breakneck speed at which social media moves, oftentimes mulligans aren’t an option. Look what happened to Scott McClellan, VP of Cloud Services at HP. H is updated LinkedIn Profile barely had hit LinkedIn’s database before news traveled around the Internet about HP’s cloud services strategy. It happened so fast and El Reg was tipped a wink and brought it to everyone’s attention in their usual fashion that we so love (when it’s not us of course…) that poor Scott wasn’t quick enough to take back what he posted. The fact that he’s so high level at HP makes it all the more stunning. J ust goes to show that folks sitting in high places aren’t immune from making rookie mistakes. I must admit to having a momentary cynical thought that it might have been a deliberate ploy….
However, nowadays, you can set up all kinds of alerts on social media sites – your former girlfriend’s Facebook status just changed from “in a relationship” to “single” and maybe the one that got away, isn’t so far away after all…or perhaps that roundtrip flight to Tahiti you’ve been pining for just dropped to 500 bucks. The bottom line is that social media is viral, word travels quickly, and you need to take care over what you’re putting out there. Just ask Scott. It doesn’t matter that Scott only has 329 LinkedIn connections (a mere babe in our LinkedIn world these days); all it takes is one… and a screen grab.
Increasingly, you’re starting to see more companies open up access to social media sites for individuals within the organization, in large part due to internal pressure they get from certain departments like Marketing and HR. These are the guys that typically need full access to sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. They advertise and promote their companies via these new communications channels. More recently, we’re seeing requests from financial advisors, registered reps, sales folks in mutual funds, and agents in insurance companies wanting access. You’ve got to remember, folks, that as human beings, we’re fallible. We forget who we’re connected with and the implications of what we say half the time (yes, yes, of course, I’ve deleted tweets and Facebook updates in my time; no, I’m not going to tell you what it was I deleted!).
Case in point: the Chrysler tweet fiasco. After an inspiring, patriotic commercial painted a picture of a resurgent Detroit back in January, a Tweet got out in March dropping the F-bomb and denigrating the Motor City again. Turns out the tweet was sent by a rep from Chrysler’s social media agency. Yow.
Now, I’ll always advocate education, education, education (and more education), you can’t get enough of it. But remember, we’re fallible, so after you’ve formulated your policy, you’ve educated your team, do what you do with other communications modalities – like email, the Web ,and instant messaging. Enforce your policy with technology and protect the individual (sorry Scott, this is going to take a while to die down), protect the organization (nice strategy, HP), and protect your assets.
Clearly, not all individuals are created equal when it comes to risk and that’s why it’s so important for technology solutions to enable granular policy setting. Different departments need different access rights to social media sites. Or, drilling down even further, perhaps only certain folks in Marketing should have full unfettered access to Facebook, while the other folks in Marketing can have only read-only access. If you’re a FINRA-registered rep, then you need – well, you know that you need to have approval on certain content – to ensure that your LinkedIn profile doesn’t change without approval, and you need to record what it is you’re saying.
These are just some of the things to keep in mind when you’re evaluating social media management vendors like us here at Actiance. Not all solutions are created equal, just as all humans are different. Actiance Socialite empowers organizations to safely accommodate the nuances of each social network, while also taking into consideration the fallibility of humans. It may even let you have a mulligan after all.
Let me wrap this up by asking what your mulligan moment was? C’mon, you share yours and perhaps, I’ll fess up mine too…
Are you socially mobile or stuck in a time lapse?
Posted by SarahActiance in Compliance, New Internet, Social Networking, Trends, Unified Communications, Web 2.0 on May 3, 2011
Most social media interaction relies on a fairly immediate response. A tweet has a half life of 3 hours for instance. Whether it’s responding to a customer query, discussing the latest piece of industry news with a partner or just a bit of friendly banter with colleagues, joining in the conversation an hour later can be an opportunity missed. It’s one of the reasons so many of us take our mobile or cell phone wherever we go. I might only be the other side of the office, but I can still respond instantly to something pertinent, without having to walk back to my desk.
Mobility has become an important part of our lives, but it has also added a complexity to the IT aspect of controlling data. A couple of years ago most enterprises standardised on PCs, laptops and mobiles. Today, users want to be able to choose not just the device that helps them do their job the best, but also the one they feel most comfortable using. Some prefer proper keyboards on their mobile, others like electronic; iPads are really popular with sales guys doing a lot of presentations, hated by others for their lack of true multi-tasking. Users even consider the personal aspects of their devices – can they continue reading the latest thriller on the commute to work, video conference with their family when away from home.
The end result for the poor IT guy is that he has to control and record information coming in and going out of the network through a myriad of devices. It’s one of the reasons we developed our technology to focus on the data stream to the social media application, not the method of communication. We already provide full support for recording conversations on Facebook and LinkedIn regardless of device and will be extending this to include Twitter in May.
However, providing support via a direct connection to the API of the social network is only half the story. It won’t surprise you to learn that social media sites are constantly updating their offering, but it may surprise you to know how many changes are made on a weekly basis that directly affect how third party systems such as those provided by Actiance function. The top three sites Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter average around twenty changes a week, though for a couple of weeks in March they nearly topped forty. Some are minor changes or tweaks, others have a significant impact in the way data is handled.
Fortunately, our close relationship with the major social networking sites means that we are frequently aware of changes ahead of time and can easily make any necessary changes to our own technology in response. In addition, the constant moving of goal posts is nothing new to Actiance. Our heritage in dealing with the instant messaging networks from way back when in the early 2000’s where the introduction of new networks and protocol changes were profuse has enabled us to develop processes that enable our research and technical team to react swiftly.
As the workforce becomes more mobile, the problem of different devices isn’t going to go away. The mobile phone was once touted as being the de-facto communications tool, but the impact of tablets has shown that this might not be the case. I can’t predict what I’ll be using in the future to communicate with customers, partners and colleagues, but I do know that a point solution for devices or specific applications to enable it isn’t the long term answer. A scalable platform that enables the secure, compliant use not just of social media, but UC and Web 2.0 is.
