New Hearsay Social dashboard uses big data to help advisers prospect for clients

In a move that brings big data to advisers, Hearsay Social Inc. on Thursday announced the launch of a new dashboard designed to help advisers more effectively use social networks to find client prospects. According to Steve Garrity, co-founder and chief technology officer at Hearsay Social, the compliant social-business platform's dashboard will make it easier for advisers to learn more about social media and use LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Google+ as part of their daily work processes. “We see the business processes across firms, and our software guides them in the right direction,” he said. (Watch: How to best leverage Big Data) The key change to the dashboard that advisers will now see is a four-step social selling method that shows how to get found online, build a network, do research and act on social signals, Mr. Garrity said. Big data plays a part because it tracks how advisers and prospects use social media, thus providing information about where opportunities lie, Mr. Garrity said. For example, the dashboard will indicate when prospects within an adviser's network are most likely to read messages, he said. “You want to make sure that as you're posting your thought-leadership pieces, you're posting them at the right time of day for your network,” he said. Other announced improvements to Hearsay Social's platform include a new application programming interface from LinkedIn that allows for more seamless profile reviews and publishing, a “Social Signals” alert system that lets users know about important life events for people in their network and new enterprise APIs that will let advisers at large firms start using social media. At the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association's Private Client Conference on Thursday, Clara Shih, Hearsay Social's co-founder and chief executive officer, gave a presentation on the importance of social media and big data in advisers' lives. Human advisers can combat the growing threat of online robo-advisers by becoming “digital social advisers,” Ms. Shih said. Hearsay Social's new dashboard's big-data capability is designed to filter out unimportant information, she said, and alert advisers to the events they should know about clients and prospects. “If someone posts a cat video, we're not giving it to you. But we'll let you know about a divorce,” Ms. Shih said.