Highly regulated companies – such as financial services, health care, insurance, pharmaceuticals and publicly traded companies – inherently require more confidentiality/privacy than most. These companies often ask how they can confidently engage in social media, given all the red tape – or what seems like red tape. Here are five initial thoughts to consider:

1. Develop a social media policy: This is a good idea for any company, but particularly for highly regulated companies. Make sure your legal, HR and IT teams are on-board with this policy. It will help everyone internally take a deep breath about social media. Getting your legal team onboard from the beginning will make things easier in the long run, too.
2. Conduct media training for all employees: Because of the real-time nature of social media, each and every one of us has the ability to be a reporter or a blogger. It is important for your employees to understand how, essentially, we are all spokespeople and there are personal and professional rules of thumb to consider when communicating online. This can go hand-in-hand with your social media policy.
3. Research and monitor online forums and platforms: Regardless of whether or not you ultimately decide to post comments or feedback, researching the most popular platforms within your space and listening to what is being said is a great first step to better understand the real conversations taking place (and what’s being said about you in those forums). By researching the most influential social media blogs and discussion boards, as well as where your competitors have a presence, it will help you develop a larger strategy should you choose to move forward with responding.

   There are many free and paid tools (in addition to Google) you can use to monitor online Forums. Here are two specific to financial services – 1) Use StockTwits to follow your company; 2) Cognito has its own tool for financial services companies to help monitor social media.

   Keep in mind, just because you monitor, doesn’t mean you need to respond.

4. Understand the rules and regulations: Educate yourself on what rules/regulations impact your company and how to navigate these waters. There are many references that provide some insight into the boundaries for financial services companies, for example – here are two examples:
   • “What the Regulators Say”: A PPT Deck by Actiance presented during a social media day for financial industry professionals in May in New York. This PPT contains an outline of some of the key regulations.
   • Advisor One Article, June 14, 2011: “What is clear are the two most critical areas for advisory social media communications: archiving and sales literature. ‘Advisors already accept that they need to archive their email communications,’ Johnston points out. ‘Now, they have to archive all their other digital communications as well: everything from their Facebook postings to their Tweets.’… The other issue for advisors is sales literature. According to Johnston, Facebook pages and LinkedIn profiles are considered sales literature by FINRA, which means that they have to be reviewed by compliance departments before they go live, and any changes also need to be approved. And every firm will soon be issuing guidelines for any kind of digital correspondence.”
5. Remember…You do have control over what you post online: If you decide to post responses on forums or discussion boards, or if you decide to develop your own platform or page, develop evergreen content (for twitter, for Facebook, etc.) that you have on the ready for various questions or circumstances.

   Consider this from the September 20, 2010 article, “Social Media: Rules For Jittery Execs” in Forbes:

“It may not feel like it at first blush, but you do actually have a lot of control over what you talk about and where you talk about it. Pick safe topics around which to engage key stakeholders. Progressive companies, for instance, are creating websites around disease awareness and cause marketing. Look for shared interests or opportunities for thought leadership. Feel free to screen posts to your company blog or website and to turn off the comment function if you're in dicey territory. Tell real stories about real people, but produce them yourselves instead of allowing user-generated content. In our research, we've found that 55% of highly regulated companies are already on Facebook, 55% are on YouTube and 45% are on Twitter. Just because you can't be as fun and flexible as more carefree industries, it doesn't mean you can't find a nice middle ground.

No one represents you like your employees, and they can be among your most powerful advocates. Progressive companies are giving basic, legal-appeasing training to their employees on how to appropriately talk about their relationship with the company. At the very least, if you're struggling under an organization-wide Internet gag order, talk to your IT team about granting the PR or marketing groups access to social media sites at work.”

Key takeaway - if you are a part of a highly regulated company, your hands aren’t completely tied. There are plenty of ways to still engage in social media – like other companies, it’s a matter of knowing your goals and figuring out the best way to execute your strategy based on who you are speaking to and any boundaries that may exist.

What’s holding you back?   

Additional Resources:

• Social Media Today: “Social Media: A Challenge for Regulated Industries,” May 2, 2011
• Just In Case You Were Wondering: “8 ways to beat social media skepticism in regulated industries,” June 13, 2011
• Technorati: “Implications of Social Media in Regulated Industries,” July 20, 2011