Recently, we have spoken to numerous advisors and industry insiders to get their take on social media and how it's impacted their business. While results are mixed at this point, one issue keeps coming up about the subject: compliance.

Earlier this week, Senior Market Advisor Managing Editor Andy Stonehouse sat down with marketing expert Maribeth Kuzmeski to get her take on the topic. Following are highlights from that conversation. If you have thoughts on social media and what it means to your business, send me a note at dwilliams@sbmedia.com.

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Avid Internet news and social media readers have come to love (or loathe) the ability to comment on nearly everything they see online. But those largely no-holds-barred comments could get you and your advisor business in a heap of regulatory trouble, says marketing expert Maribeth Kuzmeski, author of the new book "… And the Clients Went Wild: How Savvy Professionals Win All the Business They Want."

"Social media has been very beneficial to many advisors and is a great recruiting tool to bring younger people into our industry, but it can also be dangerous for compliance issues," she says.

That's not to say that advisors should avoid the use of Facebook, Twitter and other informal social media sites; Kuzmeski agrees that they're great tools, but they need to be approached carefully.

"My simplest suggestion for anyone who's using Facebook or Twitter to talk about their business is to shut off the comment features, as they can be a little dangerous," she adds. "And not even for the negative comments – people who post comments about the positive returns you've made for their investments can actually create the biggest compliance problems."

Instead, Kuzmeski suggests using social media as a more informal way of letting people know more about you and your business personality, rather than strict marketing messages.

"A Facebook fan page is easy to set up and can be a great place to post short videos or photos from things such as your client appreciation events, the kind of stuff you'd never normally put on your own business website."

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