In January 2010 FINRA issued Regulatory Notice 10-06, its latest guidance in a series on electronic communications specifically related to social media web sites. There are currently 519 million Facebook users, 65 million members on LinkedIn and 190 million Twitterers. The growth in social networking sites is huge, not least because of the variety of ways it offers for people to communicate, but also the speed, allowing for deals to be closed quickly and information to be relayed without delay.

However, when considering the results of a recent survey conducted by FaceTime Communications which showed that web based chat was used in 95% of organizations and file sharing tools were found to be present in 74% of locations, it is clear that Regulatory Notice 10-06 should not just be taken in isolation when meeting FINRA compliance. Enterprises must consider a wider remit that includes Unified Communications, IM and Web 2.0 applications alongside Social Media to remain in compliance.