Morgan Stanley breaks the Wall Street social media gagging order
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“This is my personal twitter, my tweets are my own and not my employer’s”.
You may have seen a message like this on many Twitter accounts; it’s meant to give Twitter users a little freedom to not be taken so seriously. Chances are, if they’ve listed their employer in their bio, they’re going to be cautious about dropping controversial tweets anyway. But even this disclaimer hasn’t been enough to allow most Wall Street powers to let any of their employees go near social media. No Facebook, no Twitter.
We’ve seen the rapid pace information can cross the world at via social media, and blocking it means employees have got fewer avenues to let slip something they shouldn’t and make a mistake they could regret forever.
Massive financial services firm Morgan Stanley is loosening up, however, and has announced it is opening the social media floodgates, if only a little bit.
Launching a highly regulated social media program, Morgan Stanley’s marketing department will first approve all Twitter posts from all tweeting employees. That's if they don’t want to choose from a preapproved selection of status updates, relating to market updates, economic and investment insights and wealth management topics.
Morgan Stanley’s director of social media Lauren Boyman says the finance giant is getting involved in social media as a way to generate business.
“The crux of social networking is building relationships,” she says. “That’s what financial advisors do, build relationships, build trust with their clients. This is a tool for them to do that in a more effective way.”
Employees will also be able to use LinkedIn.