Thanks to a @BillWinterberg tweet this morning, we saw the SmartMoney.com article What Brokers Can and Can’t Say On Twitter, published today.

In the response we posted, we commented on two lines:

1. “But even if those “tweets” are just 140 characters, they are turning out to be a headache to regulate.”

Here’s our comment:
“I don’t know that it’s proven that tweets are ‘turning out to be a headache to regulate.’ All investment professionals, whether regulated by FINRA or the SEC, are aware of the care that needs to be taken with investment communications. In fact, our sense is that the FINRA guidance was received as a positive, in that it largely enables a firm’s Compliance department to establish parameters, including supervision. This involves more work, to be sure. Perhaps that’s a sign to investors how interested Twitter-adopting broker-dealers and registered investment advisory firms are in communicating via a channel that consumers and the media are gravitating toward.”

We haven’t seen any regulators comment on new headaches created by the need to address Twitter as a communication channel. Even if that were their feeling, isn’t it the regulators’ role to keep up with how communications evolve? As the recent FINRA Webinar made clear, Twitter adds to a firm’s Compliance burden, certainly. But we take the view that if the business believes Twitter is important, it’s an additional business requirement for Compliance to support.

We could see regulators having tweet-related headaches if there were communications abuses or investors were being duped in some way but, again, we have heard none of that. Have you? If so, please let us know below.

2. “…Experts say there’s nothing wrong with turning to a fund company or brokerage Web site for advice. But consider the source, says Seth Lipner, a law professor at Baruch College in New York. Even if that hot stock tip comes from a financial “pro,” investors should do their own research.”

Our comment:
“You and your readers are invited to stop over to AdvisorTweets.com to get a sense for the types of tweets advisors are sending. Investors who follow advisors’ tweets are likely to be better informed, thanks to the content being linked to and the observations being made about the markets, economy and personal finance. But, just to push back a tad on your last paragraph, what you won’t see in a tweet is investment advice. The advisors know better than that.”

This article wasn’t SmartMoney’s finest but by noon CDT it had been tweeted 25 times and it was one of the sixth most emailed articles.

If you’re inclined, you might consider commenting on it.