Hearsay Social says it is rolling out a clientengagement platform that helps advisors reach clients and prospectsmore easily and more quickly via social media, their websites,email and text messages.

The tool, Hearsay360, also lets broker-dealers see which advisors are mostsuccessful in using social media and other methods ofcommunication, so the firms can share these best practices acrosstheir advisor force.

Given the rising popularity of robo-advisors and clients’growing requirement for advisors to respond quickly to theircommunications, Hearsay expects that the platform should provepopular with clients.

Modernize or risk becoming irrelevant

“Google, Amazon and Facebook have set customer expectations forevery industry, as evidenced by the rise of robo-advisors anddirect-to-consumer online options in financial services,” said CEOClara Shih, in a statement. “Advisors know they must modernize orrisk becoming irrelevant, but they feel underserved or overwhelmedby existing digital marketing programs. Hearsay 360 makes it easyfor even the most tech-averse advisors to be findable, proactiveand responsive wherever their clients are, including on social,web, text and email.”

The platform gathers data on how clients are communicating withadvisors on social media, advisor websites, email and textmessaging, which gives advisors “a holistic view of clients’digital behaviors,” according to the firm. The platform’s“predictive analytics [then] will suggest which client oractivities an advisor should react to via an automated list ofrecommendations on what … is likely to be most effective.”

The tool works in conjunction with firms’ core enterprisesystems, including compliance archives and corporate CRM systems.It can save advisors time and get rid of “guesswork,” for instance,by letting them know when clients have reacted or posted commentsabout the advisors’ social media content and then suggesting thebest method of response, such as sending a personalized email.

“It’s proactive in the sense that an alert goes out for theadvisor to act quickly, when a client comments on the advisor’sFacebook page,” said Meagan Hency, vice president ofmarketing for San Francisco-based Hearsay Social, in aninterview.

Web-based application with dashboard

Hearsay 360 is a web-based application, she explains, that alsocompiles all the alerts and prioritizes them: “Advisors can getalerts via emails, but generally they will pick them up on the[Hearsay] dashboard.”

Over the past year, the social media services firm has launchedtools for advisor websites, text messaging and email.

The new platform pulls all the pieces together, according toHency. “It lets all the apps speak to each other and prioritizetasks. In other words, it unites all the information on clients’communications and channels … and gives the advisor a to-do list,”the executive explained.

For broker-dealers, the platform “gives them valuable and robustreporting, so they can see what advisors are doing acrosschannels,” she adds. Firms can then focus on what theirtop-performing reps are up to and use this information to establishand share best practices.

“Our clients expect to be able to seamlessly communicate withtheir advisors across digital channels, but with a distributedadvisor force in a highly regulated industry, this omnichannelclient experience isn’t always easy,” said Janney MontgomeryScott President & CEO Timothy Scheve in a statement.“Thankfully, Hearsay Social delivers unique technology that makesdigital easy for advisors, while providing the robust complianceand field management functionality that our firm needs.”

Related: 9 ways to unleash the power of social media ininsurance