It’s been one year almost to the day since the top executives from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, LPL and Fidelity Institutional expressed their interest in social media at an Investment Company Institute general membership meeting. The remarks were part of a May 6, 2010, general discussion on the advice business and they were immediately overshadowed by the “flash crash,” which was happening at the same time as the session.

I was reflecting on that last night as I read Registered Rep’s report that Raymond James CEO Dick Averitt said Raymond James advisors will soon be “actively participating.” The firm itself has had a Twitter account since late 2009 and has permitted advisors to do their own limited social static updating since last year.

The signing of an archiving deal by the end of May will enable “FAs to actively participate in conversations on these Websites just as your 10-year-old does,” according to this choice quote from Averitt yesterday at the firm’s annual conference.

Take this news from Raymond James and comparable announcements from Commonwealth Financial and Cambridge Investment Research (discussed in the Registered Rep article as well as elsewhere) and an optimist might expect to start seeing more FINRA-regulated advisors on Twitter and other social sites. Oh and also, LPL advisors are getting out there, too. The aggregated view we provide on AdvisorTweets.com includes tweets of more than 40 LPL advisors.

By now, wouldn’t you think that somebody would be keeping a list of broker-dealers that allow their representatives to participate? Me too—which is why I was delighted to discover that the broker-dealer rankings in the InvestmentNews B-D Data Center includes a “Social media permitted Y/N” search option. This is a subscription service, but signing up for a free trial provides one-week access to the complete rankings. Sweet.

InvestmentNews’ copyright keeps me from showing you any of the data but I’m hoping they won’t mind this screenshot of how to run the search.

A search this morning produced a list of 54 firms—or almost half—that evidently told IN (I couldn’t find the data methodology), “Yes, we permit social media.” They include six of the top 10 firms as ranked by number of reps—LPL, Ameriprise Financial, MetLife Securities, Northwestern Mutual, Raymond James and Princor Financial.

2010 is the first year for which this data is being reported. Financial advisors on the move, broker-dealers, asset managers, the media, regulators all would find value in this list. It’s a good start but a scan of the list suggests that many firms are stretching the definitions of social media. I can almost hear the eyes rolling of advisors that I’ve talked to from a few of these companies.

To provide maximum value, InvestmentNews might consider breaking down exactly what social media activities are allowed (a moving target, to be sure), increasing the frequency of reporting this dimension from more than annually and exposing the list on their site as opposed to containing it within the data center.