[...] disturbing email I received from a friend of mine in the financial sector that was being forced to delete their LinkedIn profile because it was considered an individual, professional [...]

There is no good reason for a firm to force its employees to take down their LinkedIn pages, and the FINRA release explicitly PERMITS the use of LinkedIn. As you said, if the firm can't trust their employees to maintain a LinkedIn profile, they have the wrong employees, or the employees are working for the wrong firm. Are these firms going to ban email next? My analysis of LinkedIn and Advisers is online at http://seclaw.blogspot.com/2010/02/brokers-advi…

[...] Read more from the original source: Company Forces Employee to Delete LinkedIn Profile [...]

Yeah it must be a pretty horrible interpretation of the ruling. I can't imagine that it will hold up.

I agree very much with Mr Astarita. Technology that makes it easier to communicate is not going away. Just as email completely changed the way financial advisors communicate, social media will do the same. There will always those who push the envelope, but firms must lay out their guidelines and trust that their financial advisors will abide by the rules. Those who abuse the policies should be reprimanded, but a policy of 'no participation' harms everyone. Financial firms can't indefinitely deny financial advisors what the rest of the world has and expect to be competitive in today's marketplace. Those who close the door on social media will be left behind!
http://www.wiredadvisor.com

I agree very much with Mr Astarita. Technology that makes it easier to communicate is not going away. Just as email completely changed the way financial advisors communicate, social media will do the same. There will always those who push the envelope, but firms must lay out their guidelines and trust that their financial advisors will abide by the rules. Those who abuse the policies should be reprimanded, but a policy of 'no participation' harms everyone. Financial firms can't indefinitely deny financial advisors what the rest of the world has and expect to be competitive in today's marketplace. Those who close the door on social media will be left behind!
http://www.wiredadvisor.com

Completely agree. Just like it seems idiotic to not give an employee email, in a few years we'll look back at these kind of moves as the idiocy that they are. The companies that get it and empower their employees to use these tools responsibly will be the companies that win.

Rather than implement appropriate policies and procedures to supervise social media use by representatives, this firm decided (poorly) that the easiest thing to do is prohibit social media use altogether.

It's a shame that the firm does not encourage representatives to communicate with clients or maintain a professional profile to support their business. Instead, the firm would rather save a few dollars by not having to set up systems to supervise such activity.

If I were the rep, I'd look for another firm that wanted to help me grow my business, not lay down barriers to growth.

Bill @ FPPad.com

This is unfortunate. Just as we were making forward progress some firms take two steps back. As many have already stated it sounds like this firm misinterpreted the guidelines. There are aspects of a LinkedIn profile that need to be pre-approved by the firm. Specifically it is the static content (the content that is not intended to be interacted with). Examples would be your work history, hobbies, summary blurb, etc. However, status updates on LinkedIn are considered interactive content and do not require pre-approval. These are a great way to stay top of mind with your the people in your network.

And let's not forget how valuable LinkedIn is purely from a networking tool. You can track the moves people are making in the industry, identify prospects, find new recruits, collaborate with others and more.

My recommendation to this firm is:
1. Commit to using these social sites - you are literally throwing away money by not participating.
2. Dive into the details of FINRA's guidelines and make sure you understand how they apply in the world of social. This guide is a good place to start http://bit.ly/8xT73y.
3. Develop your specific policy
4. Implement a system to manage social networking compliance. Here is one example: http://bit.ly/bMoUQo

Good to know about this issue. We had it on our t0-do list to review or add LinkedIn profiles for our wealth managment consultant client. I guess if you are a regulatory agency and don't fully comprehend something, or cannot figuere out how to control it, it is just easier to impede or outlaw it altogether

Dan Christopherson, APR
Christopherson & Co. Communications.

This is why organizations need Social Media Policies approved by legal (but NOT WRITTEN BY LEGAL) and then locked down.

[...] Company Forces Employee to Delete LinkedIn Profile This kind of paranoia and suppression of free speech drives me bonkers. When any company claims the right to basically control your online identity — by, say, forbidding you from blogging or using social media — they are actively depriving you of future opportunities and income. Maintaining and controlling your own online identity is crucial to having almost any kind of career these days. It makes you findable, it gives you a chance to show people what you're like, what you can do, what your interests and strengths are. It makes you easily recommendable. [...]

[...] recent post titled “Company Forces Employee to Delete LinkedIn Profile” reminded me of the reality of the corporate mindset.  The post describes the reaction to [...]

It's easy to blame FINRA, but their rules were in place before these sites became popular. The Regulatory Notice merely pointed out the FINRA rules apply to these sites.

FINRA is correct to not apply specific rules to specific sites because the functionality changes so quickly. Even users have trouble keeping up. (Hello new Facebook interface.) In the end these are communication tools and they are going to be regulated like any other communication tool.

The sites need to face the reality of regulatory compliance and offer tools for helping that happen.

The rules are there to protect investors from bad advice and bad people. The tools need to allow that to happen.

As others have said, banning LinkedIn is going too far. But the questions section of LinkedIn is place where an investment professional can get in lots of trouble. LinkedIn recommendations are also another function that is troublesome.

I am a long-time user of LinkedIN and I have been using Twitter for about 1 year. Please consider me a fan of both.

I am certain the majority of responses will be against the firms decision to forbid the use LinkedIN. I winced when I first saw the Tweet.

After reading your post, I can sum up the firm's response: Risk Management.

Yes, the firm (as other firms must do) could have taken other steps to mitigate the risk. But risk mitigation costs money and unless the risk is transferred, all the mitigation in the world does not necessarily eliminate the risk.

This firms approach eliminates the risk. Now it is a matter of the impact and cost of the resulting or residual problems fostered by their decision. I hope they are monitoring and measuring the fallout.

Steve Romero, IT Governance Evangelist
http://community.ca.com/blogs/theitgovernanceev…

Well there is “some” evidence that the senior managers in the financial industry are not be the brightest kids on the block (although they think they are) . The statements are further evidence of group think and lack of personal accountability in the financial industry that has gotten us into this mess. FWIW I was a Senior banker with several large financial companies.

This is absolutely crazy, but completely believable unfortunately. FINRA recently also decreed that a group of FINRA licensed professionals who had created a fan group on Facebook would have to remove that to!

These guys are so 20th century!

- follow me on twitter — @brettking

[...] professional presence and activities online. In one case, someone has been told that they have to delete their LinkedIn profile as it is clearly professional communications, but Facebook’s OK as it’s seen as [...]

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linkedFA supports financial and insurance industry professionals in the most comprehensive manner available today, blending best-of-breed social networking with role-specific features: First, linkedFA gives its financial and insurance industry professionals approval authority over any comments made on any of their shared content prior to the system posting it, which gives these members full control over what their entire networks of colleagues and investors can see about them. Secondly, linkedFA provides recording and storage of all communications and content, supporting financial professional’s unique requirements in meeting regulatory bodies’ legal mandates. The linkedFA professional can run a communications export under the Compliance feature at any time. There are many other unique features designed specifically with the FA in mind. Please check us out at http://www.linkedfa.com

[...] Company Forces Employee to Delete LinkedIn Profile – How would you feel if the company you work for make you delete one or all of your social [...]

[...] recent post titled “Company Forces Employee to Delete LinkedIn Profile” reminded me of the reality of the corporate mindset.  The post describes the reaction to the [...]

well sometimes its better not to have a social media networking access in your place of work because most of the employees will just use their time in browsing those social networking sites.

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I think that these companies/businesses are afraid that either their employees will say or do something that in turn will make them look bad and/or the employees will just spend “office” time surfing facebook or Linkedin. I feel the same way as you do. Why hire someone that you can't trust? I have regulated the way the internet is used for my company but my employees are encouraged to connect through facebook as well as linkedin. I found that it really helps not only promote my work, but also helps all the employees stay connected with each other as well as myself.

I had to delete my entire set of blogs/sn sites if I wanted to keep my job. I was called in to HR one morning, presented with a cryptavault printout (saves everything) and given one option - delete them or find another job. I don’t work in securities or any other regulated financial industry, but the firm said my behaviour ‘could’ be dangerous to the company. The main problem they had was that I was updating on the firm’s dime.

I elected to keep my job!

That’s a tough decision Nick. It’s sad that companies can’t be more progressive but it’s going to be a problem for a while.

Many sites purposefully make it difficult to permanently delete or unsubscribe from their services. If you need help deleting any profiles or accounts, DeleteMe is a company that will do it for you securely. It’s cheap.

http://www.getabine.com/deleteme

[...] - Company Forces Employee to Delete LinkedIn Profile: I was glad to see this one get some pickup because it raises an important issue that affected a [...]

[...] Company Forces Employee to Delete LinkedIn Profile – How would you feel if the company you work for make you delete one or all of your social [...]