For all the hoopla over the current mini-boom in social media company IPOs, the fact remains that Wall Street is not yet super comfortable with the movement. Many firms still ban employees from using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other sites, for reasons that are entirely understandable.

Much was made of the fact that Goldman Sachs was making a massive bet on Facebook, even though it will not let its employees use it. But all that is changing fast, keeping the compliance folks extremely busy. Reuters reports that Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, has become the first major wealth manager to allow its brokers to use Twitter. It also is allowing advisors to use LinkedIn. The first step is to allow a group of 600 Morgan Stanley Smith Barney advisers (including Chairman's Club members) to get their feet wet. After that, all 17,800 advisers will be able to follow suit.

This is a massive undertaking in the Sarbanes-Oxley, e-discovery, Dodd Frank era. The compliance implications are deep and challenging. But at the same time, especially in the wealth management market, the prospecting and client-interaction upside is tremendous. Finra, to its credit, has been prepping the industry with guidelines and best practices. There is some concern that the spontaneity of social media outlets will be undercut by company policies. For example, recommendations about stock will most likely be restricted.

It remains to be seen how quickly this will develop. If you have to get approval for every Tweet--which Morgan Stanley plans to require initiall--you may be inclined to pass. But there will likely be value to maintaining static profile information on LinkedIn and other venues.

For more:
- here's the article

Related Article:
SOCIAL WORK? More Companies Permit Social Networking on the Job, Robert Half Technology Survey Reveals