Over the last 12+ months Facebook has gotten serious about separating personal activity from business activity on Facebook. As Facebook invested more and more money and development into Facebook (business) Pages, the transition was inevitable.

Let’s start with the facts. Their Terms of Service (TOS) make it very clear:

 You will not use your personal timeline primarily for your own commercial gain, and will use a Facebook Page for such purposes.

And on their help page they offer the following explanation:

Facebook Pages offer different features for organizations, businesses, public figures, brands and organizations. It’s a violation of our terms to use a personal account to represent something other than yourself (ex: your business).

Examples of violations would be financial advisors, insurance agents or mortgage brokers creating a Personal Timeline to help fuel their business. Make no mistake. Facebook is serious about enforcing their rules.

If you’re using your account to represent something other than yourself, you could risk permanently losing access to your account and all of its content if you don’t convert it to a Page.

Last year Socialware helped many of our clients work through this transition very successfully. If you are still using a Personal Timeline for business, click here to get more details on migrating to a Page.

In many regulated industries, like Financial Services, the archival of electronic communications, including social media, is required if you are conducting business with those platforms. Facebook has made it clear that you can’t use your Personal Timeline for business and therefore will not support any vendor building solutions that archive Personal data to satisfy these regulatory requirements. However, they do support social media compliance solutions that capture communications on Pages so that advisors, agents and others can compliantly use the platform.

But what if you aren’t archiving Personal Timeline data? What if you were just listening to what was happening with everyone in your network? We all know how valuable life and money-in-motion events are for this industry. So it would be very valuable to use Personal Facebook data to get notified when those events occur. Unfortunately, Facebook prohibits it.

This ultimately comes down to an issue of privacy. When you accept a friend request on Facebook, you have an expectation of privacy with that individual. It would violate this expectation if that individual gave access to a third party application so it could scan your personal data and then alert that person about what it found.

As it happens, this type of solution would also violate how you are able to use your Personal Timeline. You would be purchasing an application that is going to alert you to events you can monetize for your own commercial gain.

Nothing is stopping you from using your Personal Timeline to keep up with friends and critical changes in their lives, but don’t look to vendors to provide solutions that operate on Personal Timelines or Personal Data…Facebook doesn’t allow it and will ultimately shut down those applications.

So what do you do from here? Here are a few recommendations:

- Make sure your employees are using the right “page” for the right purpose

- Make sure your technology partners are in compliance with Facebook

- Continue to build best practices to get the most value out of your social business investment.

The post Facebook values your privacy; shouldn’t your software vendor? appeared first on Socialware.com.

In the Q1 release of Socialware’s platform, we delivered several key capabilities for corporate and field marketing teams to develop and deliver content—including entire campaigns—­­to financial professionals in the field. This includes the ability to serialize the delivery of messages though the use of a go-live date. This date allows the marketer to control when content is available for delivery.

In the last two weeks, we closed the loop on this set of content marketing features by adding capability for financial professionals in the field to subscribe to a particular campaign. Now the circle is complete: marketing can push the content, and advisors can subscribe to the content, send it out via their social channels and measure engagement with that content. This gives financial professionals the ability to market their business, become a thought leader and grow their customer base all while remaining compliant with corporate policies and branding guidelines.

While marketing is key to enabling the field with the right content at the right time, there are scenarios where financial professionals need the ability to create and deliver messages directly.  With our last product update, financial professionals can create and deliver their own messages directly through the Socialware Voices portal, based on their corporate policies.

Our product aligns with the industry we serve, which is organizations that have thousands of regulated employees in the field who need to use social channels to push content and act as a mini “marketing agency” to grow and support their business. We are the only social relationship platform that focuses on the needs of these types of enterprises and we are continually adding features and functionality to activate the entire social enterprise, from marketing to field employees to compliance to IT.

The post Social Intelligence: Recent Socialware product releases focus on expanded content marketing capabilities appeared first on Socialware.com.

By Erin Koufer, Customer Success Partner, Socialware

At the end of last year I was fortunate enough to attend a gathering of the Marketing Directors of one of our clients, The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America. Our CEO, Chad Bockius, had the Marketing Directors on the edges of their seats as he outlined the business opportunities waiting to be uncovered on social media by Financial Representatives. Marketing Directors at Guardian are responsible for supporting the marketing efforts of Guardian’s Financial Representatives and it became clear to them that social media is becoming a critical part of their arsenal.

I spent the afternoon at the Social Media booth with Nate Isaacson, Director of Social Media at Guardian, where we fielded questions from the Marketing Directors about how they could best support their Financial Representatives as they develop their presence on LinkedIn. They were clamoring for detailed information about Socialware, LinkedIn, and how to arm their Financial Representatives for success on social. It was there that Nate and I decided to design a program inspired by the 1:1 coaching that Socialware was already offering.

The Socialware coaching team recently completed this comprehensive coaching program for the Marketing Directors at Guardian. It included four two-hour coaching sessions every other week. On the alternate weeks, the coaches conducted Q&A sessions where the Marketing Directors were encouraged to share their experiences in the field and get feedback from their peers as well as our coaches. This was supplemented by lively discussions among the coaches and Marketing Directors within a private LinkedIn group.

The Guardian Marketing Directors far exceeded our expectations. They took what they learned and quickly began coaching their Financial Representatives with terrific results. One coached a Financial Representative on prospecting via LinkedIn first-degree connections. The Financial Representative created a list of individuals they would like to meet from one of their client’s connections, presented it to their client in person, and was personally referred to twelve of those prospects.

Hats off to Guardian for sponsoring such a worthwhile coaching program for their Marketing Directors and to the Marketing Directors for being such stellar students. We are looking forward to hearing many more success stories as the Marketing Directors continue to teach the Financial Representatives in their branches how to drive business value from LinkedIn.

The post Guardian takes advantage of Socialware Coaching appeared first on Socialware.com.

According to a 2012 survey by the Conference Board, more than 14% of companies are already using these social media outlets to communicate with shareholders. That number is obviously going to grow, especially as a result of this new guidance from the SEC. As you might expect, this move resulted in widespread press coverage, applause and new questions.

A key part of the story here was that the CEO of Netflix, Reed Hastings, was using his personal Facebook account to announce company news, although of course he has 200,000 followers on that account. This fact begs a few questions: what other scenarios should companies be considering as they investigate how they will proactively use social to communicate with shareholders and what must they train and monitor for to prevent unintended releases?

Let’s look at a few scenarios. Information such as the release of earnings or changes in management would require Reg FD compliance. But let’s explore how employees and executives might get tripped up on social and accidentally create issues:

-Release of earnings information

Social Media Scenario: An employee tweets out that they are celebrating blowing out the company target ahead of the formal announcement. In a day when so much energy is devoted to company culture, these types of celebrations are a regular occurrence. A tweet like this is only a smart phone away.

-New products, developments regarding customers or suppliers

Social Media Scenario: A sales person comments on a Facebook page about closing a HUGE account. We’ve all been here. The excitement of the moment gets the best of us. The rep is probably thinking, “What is the harm of sharing my success with my 500 closest friends on Facebook?”

Social Media Scenario: An executive “checks-in” or posts a picture with embedded location-based information from a strategic partner’s HQ. As more and more people venture into social, there is always a learning period. Users must consider who is going to see this information and how it is going to be interpreted.

-Changes in control or management

Social Media Scenario: A key executive changes their title on LinkedIn ahead of a formal announcement. This could be a simple oversight, being out of sync with the Investor Relations team announcement of the change.

Social Media Scenario: Services, like Bullhorn Reach, detect that someone is making an abnormally large number of changes to their LinkedIn Profile or is adding a large number of new connections, indicating they are on their way out. Today’s technology is expertly parsing the different signals to determine likely events. Just look at how many hedge funds are poring over the Twitter fire hose. Insight exists in the data, and the tools to find the insights are getting better every day.

Some of the scenarios above are clearly more serious than others, but they must be considered as part of an effective risk management program.

With Twitter producing 450 million tweets a day, LinkedIn adding two new members every second and Facebook sitting at over a one billion users, you have to expect that information is going to flow and people will make mistakes. Public companies recognize that they are being held to a higher standard and that the level of scrutiny is high. They also realize that social media is how we communicate today, no different than the how the rise of the Internet changed the way we communicate more than 15 years ago. Social media democratizes the distribution of information and should prevent insider information, but can have the adverse effect if not managed appropriately.

Companies are going to embrace this channel. It is inevitable. With the right plan, strategy and technology, you and your employees can take advantage of social media channels while ensuring that the proper controls and approvals are in place to align with your compliance policies. As you progress on this journey, make sure you are looking at all of the risks and take the necessary steps to avoid being the next company on the cover of the Wall Street Journal for a mistake that may have been avoidable.

Chad Bockius
CEO, Socialware

The post The SEC likes social: now what? appeared first on Socialware.com.

AUSTIN, TX, Apr 10, 2013 — Socialware, the leading social business solution provider for financial services, today announced a new release of the Socialware platform. Socialware has a themed release each quarter, with a particular target audience in mind and set of capabilities built for that target audience. The Q1 2013 release theme is “Brand Protection and 1:Many Marketing” and includes new features to enhance capabilities for corporate and field marketers. This gives financial services firms the ability to increase their Social Intelligence: to reach more people with unique content through their social channels, and to track the effectiveness of their efforts and do it in a way that still maintains compliance and enterprise control. All new capabilities are immediately available to all customers.

“We recognize that one of the key roles of the marketer on social is to add value to other people’s networks, making it critical for marketers at financial services firms to have the tools they need to do effective content marketing. This is why our new release adds rich capabilities for this audience,” said Chad Bockius, CEO of Socialware. “But it’s just as critical for checks and balances to be in place to make sure the messages being broadcast are compliant with the firm’s policies and are consistent with the firm’s approved brand guidelines. Socialware is the only solution that offers this complete functionality.”

Features and enhancements in the new release include:

Campaign management and publication schedules

– Marketing teams now can extend their campaigns to include distribution through social channels. Marketers can define a campaign and associate content to it.

– Marketing teams can set a date for when specific content will be available to advisors for posting to their social networks.

Ability to generate brand-compliant content with prescribed approval

– Firms can establish a review and approval workflow to ensure content meets compliance requirements.

– Marketers now can create content within built-in review workflow.

These new enhancements allow marketers to automate and flexibly manage messaging for social media campaigns, making it easy for financial services advisors to share content and engage with second and third level contacts across their social networks. This product release also includes additional enhancements for the advisor, compliance and IT users.

For more detail on the complete features and functionality of the Socialware platform, please visit socialwarecom.staging.wpengine.com.

About Socialware Socialware provides industry-leading software and services for organizations to securely and compliantly market through social media, and to generate business through relationships with customers and prospects on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Socialware is a trusted technology partner to over 160 of the leading businesses in the US. Learn more about Socialware at socialwarecom.staging.wpengine.com.

For more information, contact:

Michele Fanning
Socialware
mfanning@socialware.com
512-413-1921

Source: Socialware

The post Socialware Announces Latest Release of Its Social Business Solutions Platform appeared first on Socialware.com.

“As more and more Americans are utilizing social media in their daily lives, we believe this is an excellent opportunity for our Advisors to stay in contact with clients and really understand what’s important in their lives, said H.D. Vest President & CEO Roger Ochs. “We are very excited about our partnership with Socialware. Their experience working with financial professionals who have increased regulatory responsibilities when it comes to social media is going to be a benefit to our Advisors and our firm as we enter this new territory.”

H.D. Vest is launching a pilot program on April 16, 2013, with 50 Advisors and will offer all of its 4,600+ Advisors the opportunity to sign up for the social media program through Socialware at its annual National Conference June 18– 21, 2013, in Miami, FL. Advisors who participate will use Socialware to create, nurture and identify business opportunities through their Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter networks. Socialware is also providing strategic consulting to create a successful implementation plan across the organization.

“We’re thrilled to be awarded the opportunity to build a social program from the ground up with
H.D. Vest, said Chad Bockius, CEO of Socialware. “This is a great example of a company recognizing all the constituents in the social process and collaborating with a trusted partner to empower every professional. Utilizing our integrated software and services solution will allow H.D. Vest and their advisors to activate the social enterprise to grow their business.”

Learning the news about this rollout, H.D. Vest Advisor Joe Bonfiglio of Holmdel, NJ said, “I am very excited to start using social media as a new way to connect with clients.  I believe this medium has tremendous potential to keep me actively engaged with my clients.  Research has shown that engaged clients are both more loyal and more likely to refer new clients to their financial advisor.  I am looking forward to using social media to help further strengthen my client relationships and grow my business.”

About H.D. Vest Financial Services
Since its inception in 1983, H.D. Vest Financial Services supports an independent network of tax and non-tax professionals who provide comprehensive financial planning solutions, including securities, insurance, money management services and banking solutions. Approximately 4,600 independent contractors manage over $30 billion in assets for some 1.8 million individuals, families and small businesses in all 50 states.

For more information, visit www.hdvest.com.

About Socialware


Socialware provides industry-leading software and services for organizations to securely and compliantly market through social media, and to generate business through relationships with customers and prospects on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Socialware is a trusted technology partner to over 160 of the leading businesses in the U.S. Learn more about Socialware at socialwarecom.staging.wpengine.com.

Media Contacts:      

Hillary Geisler
Socialware
hgeisler@socialware.com

Laura Jocoy
H.D. Vest
(972) 870-6258
laura.jocoy@hdvest.com

The post H.D. Vest Selects Socialware to Provide a Compliant Way for Advisors to Use Social Media appeared first on Socialware.com.

The post Socialware Expands Leadership Team With Addition of New VP of Customer Success appeared first on Socialware.com.

Austin, Texas – January 16, 2013 – Socialware, the leading social business solution provider for financial services, today announced 162 percent revenue growth over prior year in 2012, the result of customer wins and accelerated activations among large-scale organizations. In response to the unique needs of enterprise customers, Socialware also announced a new version of the Socialware platform featuring an enhanced architecture and added capabilities that allow financial institutions to rapidly scale to support tens of thousands of users. These enhancements add to Socialware’s market-leading capabilities to manage advisors’ use of social networks to generate business opportunities while maintaining enterprise control.

‘The role of social media in business continues to evolve and mature as we help organizations develop their Social Sense about how to drive revenue and foster community,” said Chad Bockius, CEO of Socialware. “As demand from advisors has increased, our customers have a need for scalable solutions that allow for widespread adoption and usage, without expanding the burden on IT or the compliance office. Our overall online customers have increased by over 120 percent over the past six months; that’s testament to the confidence they have in our capabilities.”

Socialware also unveiled it has been awarded a patent for critical technology that allows a computer to look at a third-party website and characterize pieces of the site into different elements. The patent, which covers the process of recognizing and categorizing the intention of various parts of social sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, allows firms to fully control which social functions are available to advisors, ensuring continuous regulatory compliance and adherence to internal policies in a rapidly changing environment.

In addition, Socialware successfully completed a Service Organization Controls 2 (SOC 2) Type II audit report, published under the AICPA’s AT 101 professional standard. Based on customer concern about information security on social media, Socialware’s industry-leading focus and investment in compliance and security has never been more important. The SOC 2 audit report, conducted by Ernst and Young, attests that Socialware’s security and confidentiality controls to safeguard customer data are appropriately designed and operating effectively. Both the technology patent and the successful completion of the SOC2 Type II audit report represent firsts in the industry, and clear examples of Socialware’s focus on delivering Social Assurance to customers.

“Company-wide adoption, insulation from the social networks and data security are all top priorities for enterprises as they continue to lean heavily on solutions in the cloud,” said Bockius. “Our customers understand Socialware’s commitment to these key tenets of social media and continue to turn to us as a trusted partner to help them safely unlock the potential of social networks for their employees.”

About Socialware

Socialware provides industry-leading software and services for organizations to securely and compliantly market through social media, and to generate business through relationships with customers and prospects on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Socialware is a trusted technology partner to over 160 of the leading businesses in the US. Learn more about Socialware at socialwarecom.staging.wpengine.com.

The post Socialware Ends Year With Record Revenue Growth and Customer Adoption appeared first on Socialware.com.

By David F. Carr

When money shakes loose, do you hear it?

Many social media “listening” tools are used to mine streams of posts looking for sales or marketing opportunities. Socialware’s social media management product for financial advisors goes further by adding a listening agent that pricks up its ears at the mention of events such as getting a new job, getting married or having a child – all those things that might prompt a person need to roll over a 401(k), rebalance a portfolio or buy life insurance.

Socialware is one of the financial industry specialists that helps agents and advisors make compliant use of social media, with customers including Guardian Life Insurance. Compliance features include screening posts before they appear on a social network and automated policy enforcement, as well as archiving communications on social media. These features are all necessary for regulated businesses, but Socialware also wants to help advisors make sure they don’t miss important business opportunities in the social feeds from clients and potential clients they have connected with.

“Part of the challenge happening in the space is just information overload — your stream becomes a fast-moving river, and your ability to make sure you don’t miss critical events is just becoming harder and harder,” Chad Bockius, CEO of Socialware, said in an interview.

According to LIMRA, a financial industry research group, 69% of people roll over their 401(k)s within 12 months of a job change, while 68% of recently married couples and 73% of new parents go shopping for life insurance. Smart advisors will not necessarily respond to cues like a job change with a hard sell sales pitch, Bockius said. “It’s really about being human — being the first one to call and congratulate them on a change and seeing if there’s anything you can do for them, whether financial or not.”

Socialware created its own listening software, rather than licensing or reselling another product, because most listening services are designed to cast a very wide net for brand or product mentions on the social web, Bockius said. In contrast, Socialware is listening to the social graph connections for a particular individual and filtering for a pre-defined set of words and phrases associated with life events.

Future releases might provide opportunities to customize the keyword list, but most advisors will be just as happy not to futz with that, Bockius said. “One of the things we’ve learned in this industry is that these advisors, these agents — they’re looking for the Easy button.”

Ameriprise Financial participated in a beta rollout of the new platform. “Social networking is an increasingly important strategy used by our advisors to identify potential clients and engage with current ones,” Jon Pauley, senior VP of interactive strategy and marketing at Ameriprise, said in a statement for the press release. “Socialware essentially provides an automated social ‘to do’ list for our advisors, alerting them to only relevant updates and recommending action. It eliminates the time and resource burden of manually combing through the network feeds every day.”

Socialware did not disclose pricing, saying its customers will pay for this feature through an enterprise agreement. In some cases, the cost will be passed on to the individual agents as overhead for the marketing of their services.

The post Socialware Listens For The Sound Of Money appeared first on Socialware.com.

“The success of an advisor can be measured by the number and quality of relationships they’ve built, and financial firms rely on their advisors to drive and retain business through those trusted relationships,” said Socialware CEO Chad Bockius. “Advisors need a way to manage one-on-one relationships efficiently and at scale.”

Socialware’s social network listening platform “provides social marketing, listening, compliance and measurement in one place, allowing professionals to unlock the full business value of their social networks,” said Bockius.

By integrating Socialware’s listening capabilities with their overall marketing and engagement activities, professionals can bridge from social activity to social relationship management. When professionals are given the means to also track and measure effectiveness of social activity, they gain insight into the most relevant ways to share what matters most to their network connections at the right time.

The post Socialware Launches Social Network Listening Platform appeared first on Socialware.com.