Wedbush Green Lights Advisors' Social Media Activity

Wedbush Securities has launched a new social media initiative for financial advisors, investment bankers and equity traders that encourages them to use Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook to boost their respective books of business.

While many advisory and financial services firms have been slow to embrace social media for a variety of regulatory and technological reasons, Wedbush wants its advisors and traders to engage in conversational dialogue with clients and prospective clients rather than defaulting to “canned” responses that might keep the compliance officer happy but don’t take full advantage of all that social media can offer.

“We want our team to be truly ‘social’ with their networking. By offering a more organic approach, their personalities will show and allow them to truly connect with people,” said Natalie Taylor, Wedbush’s vice president of marketing, said in a statement. “Each area of our firm markets a different service to a different audience.”

“Limiting customization only prevents the Wedbush brand from accelerating into a market with a communication reach that spreads faster and further than we’ve ever seen,” she added.

Wedbush is working with Socialware, an Austin, Texas-based developer of social media middleware that provides advisors with a framework for using these sites in a compliant manner and offers tips to help them take full advantage of this new communications channel within the bounds of industry regulations.

In 2010, the firm launched a Private Shares Trading Group that focuses on the research and trading of social media companies for accredited investors.