However, every day we see firms that prohibit or limit social media, and yet their producers and advisors allow skills endorsements on their LinkedIn profiles. The murky part is that there is not a narrative endorsement -- in essence it is a "like" on the advisor, suggesting he or she is good at that skill (i.e., budget planning, financial planning, public speaking...whatever).
Several advisors who are independent RIAs have said to me, “We won't turn ours off until our wirehouse competitor down the street turns theirs off." A reasonable statement.
We urge folks to disable Recommendations on LinkedIn and for now, without further guidance, to turn off the Skills endorsements. Connections can still endorse—it just does not show who endorsed your skills. And as always, we recommend you send a thank you note to those who do recommend and endorse you. There you can show your appreciation and if needed, also explain why you cannot display them publicly.
In four years we have seen the industry and regulators move from the basics of social media to more intermediate and advanced topics. Surveys and anecdotes are helpful, but looking into actual social media usage of financial professionals provides much more perspective on how and where engagement happens. This insight will help shape and evolve the social media policies as usage patterns and technology changes.
Blane Warrene is senior vice president of customer communications at Reged.