November 20 is rapidly approaching.
That’s the deadline for providing the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. (FINRA) with your views on how social media should be treated.
As reported in DBJ Associates, “The cost of not communicating to advisors and clients through their preferred vehicles (social media) does not make a lot of long-term business sense.” It may be difficult for FINRA to address the social media question since a search of “social media” in both Regulatory Notice 09-55, the comment notice, and the text of the proposed new rule does not turn up a single reference to social media.
Samuel Morse’s original telegraph is an example of electronic media.
Instead the preferred term is “electronic media” or electronic communications. But are social media and electronic communications interchangeable? Electronic media uses electronics or electromechanical energy to access content. The primary electronic media sources are video recordings, audio recordings, multimedia presentations, slide presentations, CD-ROM and online content.
Social media, on the other hand, is designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media supports social interaction, using Internet- and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many). It transforms all of us from content consumers into content producers.
You can download Regulatory Notice 09-55 and a draft of the new FINRA rules here.
The notice 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 and state opinions.
Filed under: Branding, Financial, RIA, Social media
