Financial Services Industry Social Media Compliance Guide

Editor's Note: This post was originally created by Lithium before the Spredfast + Lithium (now Khoros) merger.


What do you need to know in order to create a sound social media strategy for your financial institution, and navigate the labyrinth of regulations?

In this report, we provide some key insights drawn on the final guidance issued by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) to help you create a framework around your go-forward social strategy.

Find out what you should know about defining your social media intent, what your plans should be for disclosure, and how to approach social media risk management. Download this report and get smart on:

  • Privacy
  • Supervision and approval of content
  • Third party sites/posts
  • Record keeping and archiving

Each institution is responsible for carrying out an appropriate risk assessment and maintaining a risk management program that is appropriate and tailored to the particular institution's size, activities, and risk profile.

— FFIEC Guidance

Smart Social Media for Financial Services

In this report we distill some of the key compliance factors to consider when creating or enhancing your social media strategy.

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Intention Matters — Define It

Whether it's to increase brand exposure, attract new customers, improve brand loyalty or other points of business value, you need to document your strategic goals to meet the new FFIEC Guidance.

Social Media Risk Management

The loudest message to come out of the FFIEC Guidance is the emphasis placed on risk management—specifically as it relates to social media and the corresponding risk of harm to customers. You must assess and determine your level of risk based on the extent you use social media.

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Disclosure Recommendations

It is the FSI's responsibility to be aware of existing regulations and evaluate how they apply to social media, and of emerging social trends that could impact your risk. We outline some of the major regulations that affect social media and are referenced by the FFIEC.

Secrecy, Community, Privacy Regulations

The FFIEC Guidance also requires the extension of certain controls around training, record keeping and protection of privacy to social media activities. We describe them in this report.

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Content Regulations

When it comes to managing a real-time flow of social media content and conversations, FSIs face special challenges around the supervision and approval of content, management of third-party sites and posts, recordkeeping and archiving. Learn more in this in-depth report.

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