Fund companies are tweeting and finding it’s not easy — but does have its benefits.
Fidelity, Vanguard, Putnam and Charles Schwab are among those using Twitter for customer service and corporate marketing. “We view it as another tool in the chest, and a very important tool,” says Richard Blunck, executive vice president at Fidelity. Fidelity began tweeting in October, and has about 3,000 followers, Blunck says.
Vanguard, the largest U.S. fund company, has a half-dozen authorized tweeters from different divisions, says Amy Dobra, principal at the Valley Forge, Pa.-based company. The goal: to avoid just tweeting things already on Vanguard’s Web site.
“We went to the approach, ‘Who are people who have something to say, or who have interesting knowledge about, say, what’s going on in Washington as it pertains to investing,’ ” Dobra says. “We connect them to like-minded investors.”
Pimco, the San Diego-based bond giant, has about 5,000 followers on Twitter. The company uses Twitter to announce new online articles as well as television and radio interviews with its managers, such as Bill Gross, company founder.
“Bill Gross came to me and asked if I knew what Twitter and Facebook were,” says Mark Porterfield, Pimco’s head of media relations. “I said yes, and he said, ‘The folks that use these platforms are our current and future clients — and they are comfortable with it — so we need to learn how to communicate with them today rather than 10 years from now.’ ”
USAA has one of the largest Twitter presences, claiming more than 10,000 followers since it started in September 2008. USAA markets mainly to the military, whose audience skews younger and is comfortable with technology.
But some companies haven’t uttered a single tweet. Capital Management and Research, which manages the American funds, doesn’t do Twitter or Facebook. Neither does T. Rowe Price.
Twittering isn’t…