Key research from Carol Rozwell of Gartner last year identified that 20 percent of enterprises that employ social media beyond marketing will lead their industries in revenue growth by 2015. With a growing number of progressive financial services firms already using social media to stay in touch with their customers, not entering the fray now could mean losing out in the future.

One of the elements that makes social so effective is that you are using your personal contacts to carry your message to a larger audience. Therefore it makes no sense to limit conversations to just a few key employees, indeed with the increasingly expanding reach of networks it’s important to empower a wide range of departments to spread your message socially.

Organizations that are already outdistancing the competition have educated their marketing, sales and distributed teams about the optimal approaches to social media, how to improve engagement with clients online and measure the results to refine their programs. It’s working for them because both the employee and the business understand the value of their connections that rely on them as a trusted resource to provide interesting information or content worth reading and regularly pass it on to the wider network. Making your client’s network your next best set of connections.

The concept of the trusted network adds an authority of voice that if managed correctly makes others want to be part of your “inner circle”. But being social isn’t just about joining in the conversation. As a business tool you need to be able to measure engagement and connect it to other internal processes to maximise its potential. Mapping your contacts’ social media activities to Salesforce.com records, for example, gives you a history of a prospect or client, including personal milestones. Connecting your interactions to your book of business gives a unique insight into influence.

Compliance and security must play an important part of any social strategy, particularly in heavily regulated industries such as financial services. However, it needn’t be the show stopper that some organizations turn it into and can be implemented in such a way that provides the business with the measurement to understand the company’s level of engagement and the benefit social media is delivering.

It’s clear that those financial organizations that are already integrating social into their corporate culture and finding a way to make social seamless are increasing brand awareness, customer engagement and most importantly - business. If you’re still deciding what to do about social media, it’s time to get off the fence.