Twitter is not as professional a site as LinkedIn, but it is one of the more socially engaging sites where advisors can develop their relationships with their clients.

The social media platform has reported over 300 million monthly active users since 2015 (Omicore says about 20 percent of those were in the U.S. in 2017).

Financial advisors definitely have been making the most of social media, in general. In a Putnam Investments 2016 Social Media Survey Whitepaper, Twitter was the third most used social media platform (behind Facebook and LinkedIn) as a tool for marketing and learning.

Many advisors use the platform to tweet, like and follow in a repetitive cycle, but there are advisors who are leveraging Twitter beyond the basics.

#TweetChats

“A tweet chat is when a community comes together for a designated hour and, well, tweet specific things with a specific hashtag,” said Winnie Sun, co-founder and managing director at The Sun Group in Irvine, Calif.

Sun, who has more than 300,000 followers on Twitter, has been hosting weekly tweet chats for the past two years under the hashtag #winniesun.

“It’s very much like a conference where you know everybody… and I just so happen to be the host of the conference,” said Sun.

Sun said she was motivated to host her own tweet chat by being a guest panelist in other people’s tweet chats and by the desire to market her services to the public.

“The public perceives [the financial services industry] like we’re out there to get them,” explained Sun. “I knew that personality wise that wasn’t me and I knew my clients didn’t feel that way about me. … I needed to get the word out that I was available to handle [their] wealth.”

Over time, Sun built her own tweet chat by posing 16 questions for her friends and clients, some of who had large followings, to retweet and answer. Sun’s tweet chats feature expert panelist who fit certain financial topics such as author and radio personality Marsha Collier who writes the For Dummies series.

Artificial Intelligence (A.I.)

To meet clients where they are, TD Ameritrade launched an upgraded Twitter Direct Message chatbot for investors.

The broker-dealer subsidiary of TD Ameritrade Holding Corporation that has 106,000 Twitter followers announced in February that it is using artificial intelligence paired with live customer support to provide clients with financial market updates, education, social sentiment, and research and trading in Twitter Direct Message (a Twitter’s private chat feature).

TD Ameritrade clients had already had access to the firm through Twitter and other technology like Facebook Messenger and Amazon Alexa. However, this additional service marks TD Ameritrade’s effort to better connect with consumers and offer more convenience to clients.

“Twitter is a platform that investors are already using to chat with us and get breaking news that can impact the markets, especially during busy times like these,” said Sunaya Tuteja, TD Ameritrade’s director of emerging tech and innovation, in the company’s release. “Now, we’re taking their experience to a whole new level, further helping investors gather news, do their research, get real-time quotes, and take action — all without leaving the Twitter Direct Message platform.”

TD Ameritrade clients are able to access their TD Ameritrade accounts through the Twitter DM platform. According to communications representative, Christina Goethe, the new service provides information and access without making clients leave the Twitter platform.

Leveraging Positive Employee Sentiment To Support The Brand

“Twitter has been an interesting platform and experienced a variety of changes and uses over the years,” said Sheryl Brown, the director of social media development at Sigma Financial Corp./Parkland Securities, and a speaker at FA's Invest In Women conference.

According to Brown, who has over 7,000 Twitter followers, Sigma Financial/Parkland Securities uses Twitter to engage employees and display the company’s corporate culture.

“We are not using it to “check-up” on our reps; we are using it to engage our reps and show how fun we are as a brand in [financial services],” she explained.

Brown also guides employees on how to use Twitter. She advises that the utmost important thing for employees to remember is that Twitter is a visible conversation and to make it entertaining and meaningful.

“If you can take something fun and make it emotionally impactful or make someone laugh, that is just as important as sharing important financial-related matters,” says Brown. “Make your presence human.”

The company's social media policy is what David Banks, senior content marketing manager for Navex Global, would refer to as a permissive policy.

“Most organizations are leaning towards a permissive policy because they understand most of their employees are using social media,” said Banks.

When social media in its early years showed it could threaten a business’ image, many companies enforced a restrictive policy on their personnel, Banks said.

“I think it was more a knee-jerk reaction by corporate,” said Navex Global’s general counsel Shon Ramey. “Rather than prohibit something that’s going to happen, provide guidance on how to use them.”

Navex Global is a compliance program management software provider with over 3,500 Twitter followers. Banks and Ramey believe that brokerages and their registered reps should have codes of conduct that clearly outlines what employees should not share, especially for quiet periods.

“Make sure that you have an actual, explicit provision in your code of conduct so people are not guessing,” said Ramey.

Even after a provision has been created, employees may still feel hesitant about what they can and cannot share about their company. So, Navex Global provides their employees with a sample copy or pre-made content that is ready to share on social media. Banks said employee messaging should match what you want the company brand to be on social.

“Employees can feel confident that their message is approved by their organization,” added Banks. He also added that employees could exhibit an alignment and affirmation for what spokespeople are saying to the public.

Recent Twitter updates allow for practices to use live video, a feature that is becoming popular, according to the Cisco Visual Network Index.  Social media scheduler Hootsuite recommends using live video for product launches and important events. They also recommend using social media for social listening, a method that’s used to discover how the public perceives a company’s brand or an entire industry. Use the Twitter-force, Luke.