Presentation: Four Truths About Social Media and Finance Presented by: Ben Cathers, Social Media Manager, Lightspeed Financial It's where your customers are: Every single day, your customers are on some type of social media. And chances are, they are doing something finance related. From asking for advice on financial social media sites, to sharing the latest good and bad news about your company to their friends, your customers are connected more to your brand more than you think It's where your customers research you: Your customers are getting smarter - social media enables them to be. Every day, your customers are researching your brand on social media sites and using that information as a definitive way to make a decision. Your presence on these sites is more important than ever. It's what your customers want: Your customers want to interact with you via social media. Whether its through Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin or Youtube, or your own internal user community, your customers allow your brand into their personal inbox. They want to interact with your brand. They will allow you into their personal social inbox. Embrace it! Its where your employees are: Your employees are on facebook. And that brings up a whole host of legal and regulatory issues. Ever have an employee talk about a stock on their personal facebook or twitter page? That could lead to potential issue. Having a social media policy is no longer a "nice to have". It's now as standard as any other legal document. www.bdionline.com

1. Four Truths About Social Media and Finance
June 17th, 2010
Ben Cathers
Social Media Manager
Lightspeed Financial Inc
http://www.lightspeed.com

2. Introduction to Lightspeed
• Lightspeed Financial is one of the largest providers of direct market access
trading technology to retail active traders and institutions.
• Founded in 2006 when Lightspeed’s management team acquired E*Trade
Professional Trading LLC.
• Headquartered in New York City with offices in Houston, TX and Sacramento,
CA .
• Lightspeed maintains an active presence on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter
and also manages its own online community, Lightspeed Spotlight, which
provides exclusive trading webinars and educational events for customers.
Youtube.com/lightspeedtrader
facebook.com/lightspeedtrading
twitter.com/lightspeedtrade

3. Truth #1
It’s where your customers are
Every day your customers are utilizing social media, and chances are, some of it
is finance-related. Your customers connect to your brand using social media --
they can ask for advice about you, share headlines about you, send information
to their friends, and communicate with you directly, and that’s just the beginning.
3

4. The numbers on social media are astronomical
• Facebook has more than 400 million users and 50% of them sign in every day.
• That’s 200 million people on Facebook EVERY DAY.
• And more than 60 million people a day use Facebook mobile.
• 3.5 billion pieces of content are shared every week on Facebook.
• Twitter has more than 75 million accounts.
• There are 1.3 million tweets per hour.
• Wikipedia has 14 million user generated articles.
• 70% of bloggers organically talk about brands on blogs.
• 25% of all U.S. pageviews came from the top social networking sites.
• One in 10 people worldwide went to a social networking site in Dec 2009.
And the finance numbers are just as impressive…
Source: http://econsultancy.com/blog/5324-20+-mind-blowing-social-media-statistics-revisited

5. Finance Information

6. And on top of all of that
More than 5,000 members share stock news every day.
Every day there are 75 member-driven reviews of financial
products.
More than 20,000 member-driven posts a month.

7. Truth #2
It's where your customers
research you
Your customers are becoming more savvy thanks to social media. Every day,
they research your brand on social media sites and use that information to
decide whether to accept or reject your product, become your client or become a
client of your competitor. Having a presence on these sites is more important
than ever.

8. Investimonials
Since its launch 6 months ago, the site has had more than 5,000 user-driven
reviews of every type of financial product available. In fact, 75 new reviews are
being posted every day.

9. SEO and review sites
• “Lightspeed Trading Review” is a top ten source
of keyword traffic for Lightspeed.com.
• Comparebroker.com and Investimonials are top
ten referrers of site traffic for Lightspeed.com.
• Most search results for broker name + review do
not feature the online broker’s website in the first
ten results.
• “Online broker review” and “Online bank review”
are trending keywords on Google Insights.
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is now more
important than ever.

10. Truth #3
It's what your customers want
Your customers want to interact with you via social media. Whether it’s
through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or YouTube, or your own internal user
community, your customers allow your brand into their personal inboxes.
They want to interact with your brand.
This is no longer a one way channel – don't just send information to them –
they want to discuss this information with you. Embrace it!

11. Popular finance brands on social media
• Almost 2,000,000 Facebook fans.
• More than 760,000 Twitter followers.
• Visa’s fanpage is the 160th most popular on Facebook and
has more Facebook fans than MLB and Maxim Magazine.
• Lightspeed’s online community, Lightspeed Spotlight, has
now become a selling tool for new accounts.
Source: http://www.wallstreetandtech.com/career-management/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=221600444

12. Truth #4
It’s where your employees are
Your employees are on Facebook. This raises a host of legal and
regulatory issues. Ever have an employee talk about a stock on their
personal Facebook or Twitter page? That could lead to potential issue.
Having a social media policy is no longer a "nice to have." It's now a
standard component of a firm's supervisory procedures.

13. Social Media and Compliance Issues
• FINRA formed Social Networking Task Force in September 2009.
• FINRA issued regulatory notice 10-06. Key facts include:
• Every firm that allows associated persons to communicate through
social media sites must ensure it can retain records of those
communications.
• When a firm recommends a security on a social media site, NASD
Rule 2310 is triggered.
• Static company blogs constitute “advertisements” under Rule 2210.
“Firms must adopt policies and procedures reasonably designed to ensure that their associated persons who
participate in social media sites for business purposes are appropriately supervised, have the necessary
training and background to engage in such activities, and do not present undue risks to investors. Firms must
have a general policy prohibiting any associated person from engaging in business communications in a
social media site that is not subject to the firm’s supervision. Firms also must require that only those
associated persons who have received appropriate training on the firm’s policies and procedures regarding
interactive electronic communications may engage in such communications.”
Source: http://www.finra.org/web/groups/industry/@ip/@reg/@notice/documents/notices/p120779.pdf

14. Social Media Policy
Because of the ever-changing landscape of social media, Lightspeed has
adopted a conservative, easy to understand social media policy:
• You may not, under any circumstances, mention anything work-related
on your personal social media profiles. Violation of this policy can
result in termination of employment.
• Only the Social Media Manager can post content on Lightspeed’s
social media products. Only the Social Media Manager can update
blogs on the Lightspeed.com site.
• Every piece of content posted on Lightspeed’s social media products
must be approved by the compliance department prior to posting.

15. Thank you!
Here’s to unfair advantages
Please feel free to ask any questions!
Feel free to contact me: Ben Cathers – Social Media Manager-
bcathers@lightspeed.com
Twitter: @bencathers
Personal Blog: http://www.bencathers.com