PeopleLinx, which trains companies how to make the most of social media, is partnering with compliant communications firm Actiance Inc. to bring LinkedIn and Twitter training to Socialite, Actiance's compliant social-media portal for advisers.
Announced Tuesday, the partnership is “a natural fit” because Actiance provides a platform that combines regulation-compliant social networks, archiving and secure communications and PeopleLinx helps ensure greater broker-dealer adoption of social media as a sales and referral tool, according to Michael Idinopulos, PeopleLinx's chief marketing officer.
“Our goal is to help Actiance customers achieve high levels of adoption and participation with their employees,” Mr. Idinopulos said.
Actiance will use PeopleLinx's one-on-one training services and videos on how to use social media, according to Phil Gerbyshak, Actiance's director of social strategy. The goal is to help advisers do a better job of getting referrals and taking on new clients, he said.
Jim Petty, Actiance's vice president of partnerships and corporate development, said the partnership is an unpaid alliance on both side.
The partnership signals that PeopleLinx is surviving the shock of having been expelled from LinkedIn's application programming interface.
PeopleLinx was one of many companies refused API access after LinkedIn decided that only a few select partners could use its software for hiring, marketing and sales. Companies that
have access to LinkedIn API software include compliance and archiving firms Erado Message Control Solutions, Global Relay Communications Inc., Smarsh Inc. and Socialware.com, as well as customer relationship management systems Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics. Actiance also continues to have access.
Mr. Idinopulos said that PeopleLinx is working around the LinkedIn loss by focusing on the social-media advantages of customer relationship management systems.
“We are going deeper on CRM integration in order to guide employees to take the right actions on social networks including LinkedIn and Twitter, and we can do that without the LinkedIn API. The data that we're leveraging now is CRM data rather than LinkedIn data,” he said.
Amy McIlwain, president of Financial Social Media, said adviser training is a big challenge for broker-dealers looking to increase sales via social-media channels.
“Education is key. The Actiance-PeopleLinx partnership makes sense, and they complement each other,” Ms. McIlwain said.
The privately held company had record revenue in the third quarter, Mr. Idinopulos said, though he declined to state a dollar figure. He said client renewal rates now exceed 80%.
