This morning we took the opportunity to drop in on an Ignites webinar called “Social Media’s Role for Mutual Funds.” While the presentation did not focus specifically on the fund industry, it offered a number of useful takeaways for any financial services firm looking to dip their toe into the social media waters.The panelists, TIAA-CREF’s Anne Detmer, VP, Enterprise Marketing and JP Morgan’s Daniel Durst, Head of Institutions Marketing, talked about their respective companies’ forays into the social media universe and commented on what they hoped to achieve by using this “cutting edge” technology. Ms. Detmer was the more enthusiastic of the two presenters and clearly seemed excited about the possibilities of social media. She described the thought process behind the launch of CREF’s myretirement.org online community and their Facebook page and outlined some of the objectives of these services - participant retention, brand awareness among younger audience, joining the existing conversation about TIAA-CREF, etc. She also referred to social media as an educational tool that encourages conversation - a view we heartily endorse and a subject we address in depth in our new study, Consumer Financial Education Today: Best Practices.

Mr. Durst appeared to be a bit more skeptical. He described social media as an “opportunity and liability” and spent a good amount of time talking about compliance issues. He positioned social media as an addition to, but not a replacement for, traditional marketing initiatives and cautioned that bad news seems to travel much faster than good news in this medium. On the plus side, Mr. Durst did talk about the value of webcasts in organizing open discussions over the web and the ease in which companies can respond to complaints from clients and prospects using this technology.

The last few minutes of the conversation was dedicated to Q&A. While compliance once again came up, the panelists were also asked how they managed feedback and staffed positions that deal with social media. It appears that roles are not yet defined at either company, but people from all levels of the organization play a part in developing and fine tuning these applications.

Overall, it was an interesting exchange on a topic that continues to be top of mind for industry professionals.