Fund Firms Cautiously Tweet Their Way Into a New World

A growing number of mutual-fund companies are finding their digital voices.

Though they were initially slow to join the social-media party, these firms increasingly are using Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to build brand loyalty, educate investors and help with customer service.

“It’s an initial attempt to plug into what’s happening in society and technology,” says James McGovern, vice president for consulting services at Corporate Insight, which recently reported that some 46 percent of the asset-management firms it regularly analyzes are now communicating via social media. While Corporate Insight says that’s up from “zero involvement” in 2008, it’s still less than the 76 percent usage rate reported among the banks and credit-card issuers it tracks.

Fund firms have been cautious about social media partly because of compliance concerns—they can’t post or “tweet” anything that regulators could construe as misleading or unsuitable for the intended audience. Delivering somewhat serious messages via a casual communication forum also can be challenging. Some firms say they strive for an approach that isn’t too serious (avoiding data overload, for instance) or too silly (trying not to use too many exclamation points).

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