Thinking Social: Benjamin Edwards Debuts Twitter, Blog and YouTube Presence

Brokerage firm Benjamin F. Edwards & Co. is expanding its virtual presence as it continues to hire new financial advisors, adding a new Twitter presence, corporate blog and YouTube channel.

The social media expansion comes as Benjamin Edwards has just entered the Pacific Northwest market with its first branch in the Portland, Ore., area that is staffed by an advisory team recruited from Wells Fargo, the firm said this week.

The new Twitter handle, @GrowWithBFEC, combined with a blog on the company’s website and a YouTube channel, are aimed at providing more regular firm updates on content that was formerly mostly in press releases on the firm’s website, Chris Keller, senior vice president and chief information officer at Benjamin Edwards said in an interview.

The Twitter feed and blog posts will focus on meaningful news for the firm and the industry, according to Keller. The videos, which will also appear on the firm’s site, will educate financial advisors on the firm’s identity and mission. The new content will also offer more opportunity for the firm’s financial advisors to engage with the content.

“I think our corporate presence through social media is a team sport,” Keller said. “I think the ideas that we are going to communicate about are going to come from everywhere in the firm. Through that approach, most definitely the advisors are going to have some ideas that we’re going to think are great ideas.”

St. Louis-based Benjamin Edwards, which was founded in 2008, began allowing its financial advisors to set up individual accounts on LinkedIn about a year ago, Keller said. Their LinkedIn use has some restrictions in keeping with current regulatory standards, including forbidding advisors from making investment recommendations or accepting recommendations of their work. The monitoring of those communications has come from both the firm internally and a third-party technology company, Keller said.