Vanguard's Guidelines for Social Media

PAICR hosted a webinar (using their terminology) last week on “Social Media and Financial Services: Good Partnership or Passing Fad?”. The webinar featured Amy Dobra, a principal at Vanguard who focuses on integrating the retail client experience across online, print and social media channels. Vanguard has been a recognized trailblazer for social media use in the financial world, so I was interested to hear from the woman who led these efforts.

Below are the guidelines that Vanguard created when they decided to enter the previously unknown world of social media, and my thoughts on each. For the record, I think these are brilliant—thanks to Amy Dobra for sharing them.

1. Have a plan
How often do organizations toss out a number of communication initiatives and just wait to see what sticks? Good communication requires as much strategic planning as any other business initiative.

2. Stay true to your brand
The primary rule for building and maintaining a strong brand is consistency. I edit for consistency in global message as closely as I edit for grammar and spelling mistakes.

3. Make a commitment: it’s another channel, not a project
Vanguard makes a great point here. I’ve written about the difference between a channel and a message—they take the distinction one step further. A new project is scary. A new channel—one of many—is much less so.

4. Get prepared to cede some control to the community
Once a message has been delivered—whether it’s a spoken statement, a press release, a newsletter or a tweet—it’s out of our hands. The more we realize this, the better we can prepare for unexpected results.

5. Match your approach to people’s expectations
I find this point intriguing. Financial companies didn’t have a presence in social media when Vanguard began its initiative. And I believe in companies establishing their own standards rather than defaulting to those of others. I take this point to be saying know the rules before you break them. And if you’re going to break them, be sure it’s for good reason.

6. Be open, transparent and authentic
Martin Kaste writes that privacy is increasingly impossible. Whether you agree with him or not, it’s a safer bet to err on the side of transparency.

7. Communicate, communicate, communicate
Whenever I launch a new initiative, I ask myself how much communication (training, follow-up, etc.) will be needed. Whatever my estimate, I double it and add two months to the change management calendar. This extra communication has yet to feel redundant.

8. Make it ok to “fail”
This guideline gave Vanguard's team permission to give their best efforts and accept the results. The flexibility clearly paid off.

These guidelines are an excellent starting point for any organization that is thinking about entering a new communication channel.