No Excuse After FG15/4 – Time to Nail Your Social Media Strategy

Have compliance concerns stopped you using Social Media?

Back in 2010 the FCA raised concerns about using Facebook and Twitter to promote products. Many interpreted this as a wider concern about using Social Media in general.

The result. Some companies don’t use social media. Others set up such draconian approval processes that they may as well not use social media.

The FCA’s just published guidance paper, FG15/4:Social media and customer communications: The FCA’s supervisory approach to financial promotions in social media, means there are no excuses now for not developing a social media strategy.

Yes a social media post could be a financial promotion if it plugs the features of a specific product and its performance and needs balance and the usual warnings (quite difficult on channels with character limits). But this was true before the guidance so nothing has changed.

Social media posts could also point to compliant content elsewhere or offer comments on current issues. They are mainly about engagement.

At a high level I’ve always believed the way to stay compliant on social media is to adopt the following approach.

Don’t Push Product – Point to Great Content.

The FCA’s guidance says the same in a well written 20 page PDF with plenty of examples and illustrations.

So that’s it.

If compliance concerns held you back before, it’s now time to look at your social media strategy.

It’s time to ditch the 48 hour SLA’s for Tweet approvals. It’s time to start creating great content and using social media to find potential customers, engage them, and point to your great content.

Now it’s your turn:

What do you think of the FCA’s guidance on social media and customer communications? Please leave a comment.

If you are looking to put together a social media strategy I can help you. Please get in touch.