U.S. asset managers in the dark on social media

San Francisco-based Hearsay Social Inc. has launched a new service that will bring advisors’ digital communications with clients onto one platform that will then use those communications to determine the next steps of client engagement.

The social media management company’s new “Hearsay 360” gathers the data that are exchanged through text, social media, advisors’ websites and email and analyzes that information in order to suggest to an advisor what he or she can do compliantly next to interact with that client.

For example, if a client “likes” or comments on an advisor’s Facebook post, that advisor will be alerted by Hearsay 360, which will also suggest an action that the program deems to be the most effective. This may include sending that client a personalized email that has already been pre-approved by the advisor’s compliance department.

The entire process should be completed by the advisor in a matter of a few clicks, according to the firm’s announcement, released on Wednesday.

The program is designed to help advisors keep up with a shifting technological landscape that’s having a dramatic effect on consumer expectations, according to Clara Shih, CEO and founder of Hearsay Social.

“Google, Amazon and Facebook have set customer expectations for every industry, as evidenced by the rise of robo-advisors and direct-to-consumer online options in financial services,” says Shih in a statement. “Hearsay 360 makes it easy for even the most tech-averse advisors to be findable, proactive and responsive wherever their clients are, including on social, web, text and email.”

The program is also designed to work in conjunction with financial services firms’ core enterprise systems, such as compliance archives and corporate client relationship management systems. The analytics the program produces will be available to corporate teams as well as individual advisors.

“Hearsay 360 allows firms to begin measuring large data sets of digital interactions across their entire field organization, laying an important foundation for efficient and effective advisor outreach and optimization down the road,” says Mark Gilbert, global vice president of product at Hearsay Social, in a statement.

The product is available to Hearsay Social’s Canadian clients.

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