The way compliance departments inhibit financial advisors from employing social media reminds me of another place and time. It was 1994 and many of us were learning about the "World Wide Web" at the regional brokerage firm where I then worked. There was a groundswell of interest from the younger staffers to get desktop connection to the Internet. But there was resistance to the idea from the top: How would anyone get any work done with the distraction of the Internet right there on their desk?

Fast-forward 15 years and the argument sounds familiar. Compliance has a point in objecting to the freedoms of social media. Giving financial advisors access to social media for a marketing vehicle presents a new set of questions. How difficult will it be to supervise any advice offered through social media? Can you track tweets? Will enterprising advisors use or perhaps abuse this channel to go beyond firm practices? Firm policies are still being formulated even as the medium becomes a runaway train.

Social media presents equal parts good and bad, but those who are registered are finding points of leverage and global reach in prospecting, networking and sharing their intellectual capital. LinkedIn-social media for business users-has 50 million users worldwide and about half of total membership is international. Facebook boasts more than 65 million users and, as recently as May, approximately 25% of them were over 45-years-old, and 20% had household incomes of more than $100,000.

It is not hard to imagine how social media has earned its place among our "Seven Trends Reshaping Financial Services." Just imagine another 10 years out, and I believe the evidence will be concrete: Clients come from anywhere and today's younger, texting generation will be established in their careers and confirmed in their business practices. What communications vehicles will the then-35 or 40-year-olds employ to reach out, arrange meetings and seek investment advice? If you guessed electronic devices and social media, then you are correct.

There is a great opportunity through all this noise of social media to get closer to your clients than ever before. Making geography irrelevant has huge advantages for your business. Social media can provide natural communities for niche marketing, so that you can attract like-minded triathletes, Penn Alumni or military pilots with common values and interests as your clients.

Social media can amplify the voices of consumers for you or against you. You can use it to start a conversation about topics that interest or intrigue you. You can educate or promulgate, engage and encourage followers. You can truly become a client-centric professional.

But back to the compliance departments. It may be time to check in and see where they stand in crafting your firm's policy on social media. Advise them that you are in good company-and in the mainstream-when you spend time and resources on social media.

Even as major companies report reductions in marketing spending, they are reallocating what's left to include social media. Some reports credit the recession with accelerating the trend toward "free" social media over paid media.

And a word of advice for those advisors out there who are admittedly "technology-challenged" and find the notion of social media a bit overwhelming: Get a younger partner or sales assistant to help set you up on LinkedIn, the best place to start. Or engage a college intern to work on your social media profile. Exploring social media is required to understanding the profound impact it will have as an operating force in the 21st century.

Gerri Leder is an industry marketing consultant and can be reached at leder@ledermark.com.