It starts with the LinkedIn profile -- once that profile is approved (easiest of the compliance steps), then all is good. Firms need to monitor and retain the activity such as status updates and profile changes.

At some firms, we do see policy constraints around genuine engagement and content creation and here there is a risk of reduced legitimacy in the long run (i.e., when a firm enables social and then allows its workforce to use only content the firm creates and distributes, without narrative or editorial freedom).

On the technology front, LinkedIn does have a more layered approach with their API from a technical perspective -- and many data points a financial advisor or a firm would want for discovery, compliance and reporting can be inaccessible. Connections data is one example where, with more recent moves by LinkedIn, a popular tool [Job Change Notifier, which advisors relied upon to surface 401(k) rollover opportunities as an example] is now shutting down.

However, the data needed specifically for compliance is largely present, but an advisor or a firm will need to use a technology solution to get it, which pushes the burden of jumping through hoops for the data from the firm to the provider.

One of the technology challenges of social media activity (and really, any of the modern digital actions that are not driven through a singular channel, such as Web site or e-mail communications, is that you have to juggle numerous mediums (audio, video, imagery, text et al) and multiple channels (first screen, second screen and now third screen -- as in computer, tablet and smartphone). This all has to be supported, captured and then normalized in a way any daily user can consume and interact with it.

This is no small effort. We’ve spent four years immersed in the integrations, data and finding ways to keep this as simple as possible and keep learning something new daily.

The other technical challenge is the pace. We track and adjust our solution weekly and monthly to pace the shifts on social platforms.

For a forward look, as APIs mature some with large development communities it becomes much easier to resolve the compliance and data management challenges. Contrary to some conventional wisdom, the Twitter API is one of the best to work with. I would set Google as second (including YouTube) and Facebook right after. We get expansive data footprints from those tools.

Engagement
On the engagement front, we see deeper engagement on Facebook than on LinkedIn – though LinkedIn activities are expanding, as we reflected above.

• For Facebook, our latest stats show one­ third of Facebook archive data is Facebook Mail -- people want to communicate and engage. Likewise, 25 percent of Facebook archived data is comments, a nice uptick in engagement with our customers.
• One quarter of Twitter archive data is Mentions of our users and RTs of their content -- a nice engagement ratio off the total.
• With Google+, also an approximate one­ quarter of Plus archive data is engagement we track -- +1s and Reshares of posts. Now that we've just added support for Business Pages (in July 2013) we will see that number tail up.
• As you might expect, photos continue to surge up on Facebook and now Google+ as it is just too easy to share photos there with the automation on smart phones and tablets.

Recommendations And Endorsements On LinkedIn
Endorsements are such a murky territory -- a client can endorse an advisor verbally or in writing (of their own accord) without issue. It is how business is done. It is simply the endorsement being visible to a wide, uncontrolled group that converts it into an advertisement. Those are clearly prohibited.