linkedFA, a social networking site for financial advisors and professionals, has boosted its content offerings thanks to a deal with press release distributor Businesswire.
The 10,000 registered users of linkedFA will now be able to access fresh corporate earnings releases, comment on them, and distribute them to clients, prospects and others through social networks in a compliant manner, according to Steve Prosser, linkedFA’s director of business development.
“Financial professionals often don’t have the time to generate their own social media content, but want to reap the benefits of using social media,” Prosser said. “The thought is…they can put this information in front of clients and potential clients and get their feedback on it.”
The Businesswire content will be available alongside content that has been available from Thomson Reuters as part of a deal announced in June, notes Prosser.
Miami-based linkedFA, which was started in 2009, touts itself as the leading fully compliant social networking site for financial professionals.
SEC regulations requires financial services firm to document and save any communications with clients for six years. linkedFA lets advisors to retrieve records of any online communication with clients.
They can also use the site to retrieve blog postings, comments and instant messages along with shared documents and other public or private correspondence.
The company’s new content agreement will enable members to access Businesswire’s database of content on Fortune 1,000 companies directly through the linkedFA site. Members will be able to share the earnings reports and other information simultaneously with their linkedFA, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook networks.
The industry has responded to the growth of social media ambivalently; many advisors see it as a valuable client communication and business development tool but are concerned about regulatory headaches.
“Right now the general atmosphere is tentative,” Prosser said, adding that linkedFA’s growth “goes through peaks and valleys.”
The company is still attracting users, Prosser said. That’s especially true in the independent market where advisors tend to have more freedom in choosing how to market themselves, he added.
Prior to the full launch of the site, linkedFA offered pre-launch registration for up to 1,500 early adopters, and it’s 5,000 users short of that number now. But CEO Jason Bishara recently predicted that the site would have 80,000 members by the end of the year.
