According to a recent Investment News poll of financial advisors, 58.3% of those surveyed indicated that “uncertainty over compliance and regulatory rules” was the primary challenge when it came to their social networking activities.   This finding certainly comes as no surprise to anyone that has followed the financial service industry’s cautionary adoption of social media marketing over the last several years. 

A recent survey on Advisor use of social media by The Rep. “A Day in the Life of a Financial Advisor: Current and Future Social Media Trends Revealed” yielded some interesting insights.  Unfortunately, some financial services industry publications, reporting on the survey results have jumped to the erroneous conclusion that social networking isn’t working as well as it once did. 

Love him or hate him, everyone in the financial services industry is certainly aware of Jim Cramer, the high energy, opinionated author and host of CNBC’s Mad Money and co-anchor of Squawk on the Street.  Whether you agree with Mr. Cramer’s investment philosophy, stock picks, perspective on investor education or not is of little importance, there is much advisors can learn from his marketing acumen.