Social Media Support from Fidelity Clearing and Custody

Two services launched by Fidelity Clearing and Custody provide retirement specialist advisers with “effective social media strategies and compelling videos” to drive online marketing and relationship management.

Clearing and Custody is a Fidelity business unit supporting registered investment advisers, retirement plan recordkeepers and broker/dealers. The firm says it developed the new services in response to research finding affluent investors and other key investment market segments increasingly turn to the Internet and social media to search for new advisers and service providers.

The video production service is delivered through a new strategic alliance with GuideVine, a digital platform which features a website for investors who are looking for a financial adviser online. The tool gives would-be clients the the ability to “meet” advisers by watching videos, viewing the firm’s profile and otherwise digitally interacting with a potential adviser. Through the partnership, adviser clients of Fidelity Clearing and Custom gain support with video production, search engine optimization and other areas.

Fidelity Clearing and Custody also announced expansions to the Fidelity Video Lab, which now features “all of the components an adviser needs to create videos for their firm’s website, social media channels and client communications.” The lab is part of Fidelity’s “Office of the Future,” which is a physical space on the Smithfield, Rhode Island, campus, as well as an online interactive experience, through which financial advisers can “experiment with some of the latest technologies poised to transform the financial advice industry.”

David Canter, executive vice president for practice management and consulting, Fidelity Clearing and Custody, says the new services should make it easy for advisers to reinvigorate their Web presence. He points to recent Fidelity research findings that affluent investors have a significantly more positive impression of financial advisers who have a good website and are accessible and responsive online (see “Relationship Trumps Performance”).

“Advisers need to know that if their firm doesn’t have an online presence and isn’t communicating with clients and prospects through video and social media, they could risk becoming irrelevant because they’re not connecting to the next generation of investors,” Canter concludes.