Alibaba pushes into amicable networking with Weibo investment

By Sayantani Ghosh and Sruthi Ramakrishnan

Mon Apr 29, 2013 11:41am EDT

(Reuters) – Chinese e-commerce organisation Alibaba Group acquired an 18 percent interest in web portal Sina Corp’s microblogging use Weibo in a initial large pierce into offering promotion on China’s rarely opposition amicable networks.

Sina’s U.S.-listed shares surged 21 percent to $60.81 in early trading, before easing behind to $56.90.

The $586 million deal, that values Weibo during over $3 billion, will yield some-more promotion income to Weibo as Sina tries to monetize a use and boost a lead over opposition Tencent Holdings’ amicable messaging product, WeChat.

The deal, seen by analysts as easily priced, should expostulate some-more web trade to Alibaba’s Taobao Marketplace, China’s largest e-commerce website with a consumer focus.

Alibaba is sloping to go open within a subsequent year.

Weibo, China’s chronicle of Twitter, has grown during a quick shave given a launch in 2009 and has gained from a blockage of Twitter by a Chinese government.

More than 500 million Chinese use Weibo to opine on all from Korean soap operas to China’s latest domestic intrigue.

“(The interest purchase) is as an publicity from Alibaba … of a value of Sina’s Weibo platform,” Morningstar researcher Dan Su said.

“This indicates a extensive value of a information that is benefaction on a Weibo height that can be mined for a lot of activities, such as ecommerce.”

Unlisted Alibaba, tranquil by charismatic Chinese internet businessman Jack Ma, also runs Alibaba.com, a country’s largest business-to-business commerce platform, and Alipay, a PayPal-like online remuneration platform.

Ma, one of China’s best famous corporate leaders, reckoned to be value $3.4 billion by Forbes late final year, built his e-commerce sovereignty from scratch.

He skeleton to step down as CEO on May 10 and turn executive chairman. Alibaba is approaching to go open in a inventory in Hong Kong that could value a association during about $100 billion, according to attention sources.

Alibaba has kept silent about a IPO plans, though a inventory will approaching be a asset for Yahoo Inc, that owns scarcely a entertain of a company.

GENEROUS FOR SINA

Some analysts, who had valued Weibo between $600 million and $2.5 billion, pronounced a understanding offering by Alibaba was generous.

“We trust this understanding is really certain for Sina. It now gives pricing to Sina Weibo with a gratefulness of $3.26 billion; a per share bottom could be $48,” T.H. Capital Research researcher Tian Hou said.

“Sina’s apparatus converging with Alibaba Group, that has a outrageous widespread position in China’s e-commerce, can expand Weibo’s development,” she said.

Sina, that creates many of a income from online promotion both on a website and Weibo, has had investors disturbed as a expansion rate of Chinese online promotion slows. Its shares have slipped 15 percent in a final 12 months.

Maxim Group researcher Echo He pronounced a Alibaba understanding would assistance Sina in a longer term, though giving Sina money would not solve a problems and a gratefulness would still count on a possess profitability.

This is not a initial time Sina has tied adult with a vital Chinese association to find new streams of revenue.

Sina associated with Baidu Inc final year, integrating Baidu hunt in a mobile website, while Baidu pronounced a cloud beginning would come with a Weibo app preinstalled.

The analysts pronounced Sina could potentially group adult with many other companies, while Morningstar’s Su pronounced a understanding ruled out any near-term skeleton for another such vital alliance.

Sina has also postulated Alibaba a choice to boost a interest in Weibo to 30 percent within a stipulated time, that it did not specify.

The fondness is approaching to beget about $380 million in promotion and amicable commerce services income for Weibo over a subsequent 3 years, Sina pronounced in a statement.

(Additional stating by Supantha Mukherjee; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

Enterprise Social Networking Platforms: Think Amazon, Not Facebook

amazon.com (Photo credit: soumit)

“This is only Facebook for a Enterprise” is a many common approach many people report craving amicable networking platforms. After all, a demeanour and feel of those platforms steal a lot from a Facebook interface: standing updates, @mentioning, groups, walls, form pictures, approach messages, and so on. However, when implementing a amicable networking height during your workplace, you’ll shortly find that a similarity with Facebook flattering most stops there: even yet a building blocks are really similar, a altogether playbook is really different. If we are perplexing to find a anxiety to beam we by a tour of origination your craving amicable networking successful, cruise going behind in a timeline 10 years before Facebook, and set your eyes on another Internet titan: Amazon.com. we child we not: even yet Amazon predated a whole Web 2.0 and online amicable networking concepts, their expansion from an online bookstore to turn a world’s largest online tradesman is a most softened denote for craving amicable platforms to follow. Read on to know why.

In a essence, Facebook plays an eyeball game: get as many users as we can, make them revisit your site often, give them reasons for any revisit to final longer, and during a finish of a day those volumes will expostulate ad revenues. So a success is contingent on volumes of users and views, though not approach income entrance from those users. Having Facebook’s volume metrics as your measuring hang for success within a craving creates no clarity during all: if all your employees are spending their whole operative hours within your amicable platform, you’ll get lots of page views, lots of user adoption and will approaching be out of business really soon. Enterprise amicable networks need vicious mass, though their ultimate magnitude of success is not how many users they have or how mostly they revisit or how prolonged they stay any time.

dOf course, we need to beget adequate trade and use to support your other objectives, though trade and use are not what we are perplexing to accomplish. The reason we are implementing an inner social business height is to urge inner communications, collaboration, rendezvous and a upsurge of information from where it is combined to where it is needed.

A prolonged time ago, write and email were a collection introduced during a workplace to grasp a same objectives. How crazy would it be to magnitude a success of write or email during your classification formed on a series of calls or messages we accept per day? Never receiving any calls or emails substantially suggests a disaster of those systems, though receiving a outrageous volume of them is also an denote that something not operative well.

Think now about Amazon in a early days. Jeff Bezos’ concentration during a commencement was not to beget increase immediately. It was to grow quick – so that it could be as vast as a Amazon stream for a online sell world. Inc.com profiled Bezos in a Great Leader Series behind in 2009, and a mention next gives us a glance of that plan and a results:

After mouth-watering 300 friends and acquaintances to exam his creation, Bezos took a site live and, within a month, a association had sole books in all 50 states and in 45 countries. Within dual months, sales surfaced $20,000 a week. As Amazon’s expansion accelerated, however, skeptics approaching that brick-and-mortar retailers like Barnes Noble or Borders would shortly shoulder a immature start-up out of a online book market. Others pronounced a association was blazing by a income too quickly. But Bezos did not behind down. ‘We’re going to be unprofitable for a prolonged time. And that’s a strategy,’ Bezos told Inc. in 1997.

The doom-and-gloom predictions incited out to be wrong. Amazon warranted a initial full-year distinction in 2003 and, by 2008, a company’s income had reached $4 billion. The association succeeded in vast partial since it quick embraced e-commerce innovations that softened a customer experience. Such customary handling procedures one-click shopping, e-mail corroboration of orders, and patron product reviews were not on a radar until Amazon adopted them.

Following a Amazon model, when implementing your inner amicable networking, here are a things to keep in mind:

• Grow fast, and equivocate fragmentation. It’s unavoidable that several craving program vendors will come adult with their possess essence of amicable platforms. But carrying half a dozen amicable platforms within your classification helps nobody. Make certain we set a transparent vision, select one height to deposit on, and hang to it. Having all your users on a same craving height will compensate off in a prolonged run.
• Open discourse and clarity is key. Bezos pronounced a following in a recent talk to HBR.org: “One wrote to me and said, ‘You don’t know your business. You make income when we sell things. Why do we concede these disastrous patron reviews?’ And when we review that letter, we thought, we don’t make income when we sell things. We make income when we assistance business make squeeze decisions.” Be open and straightforward about what we know and what we don’t know. Listen to doubters. Understand their concerns. You’ll learn most some-more from those doubtful about your prophesy than from those who drank a Kool-Aid.
• Critical mass is important, though a series of contributing users is not a tough currency. You need adequate activity to keep a round bouncing and a calm fresh, though we don’t need 100% participation. Your tangible tough banking is cashed each time a business need is met, generally when met during a speed not probable though a amicable business platform, not when we strech a record series of users. For example, whenever people find a right information they need for their jobs in a timely manner, a group can finish a deliverable faster since information flows turn some-more efficient. You competence even see a routine streamlined as a noise-to-signal ratio shrinks due to contextual information being digitized. You can roughly hear that obvious cash register sound.
• Business value is your profit, though know what to magnitude when. At a really beginning, your “profit” will be as medium as those by Amazon. They will come in a form of anecdotal stories, initial really timidly, afterwards some-more mostly and broadly, and finally they will turn self-evident. That’s since a metrics that matter during a commencement are success stories and opinion surveys. As extended adoption of a new communication indication requires behavioral changes, it will take time for a tough metrics to interpret into undoubted justification of value, though that time will come in a prolonged run. There’s a good quote by Bezos in that same Inc.com talk about how a batch marketplace determines value in a short-term and in a long-term: “I caring really most about a share owners, and so we caring really most about a prolonged tenure share price. we do not follow a batch on a daily basis, and we don’t consider there’s any information in it. Benjamin Graham said, ‘In a brief term, a batch marketplace is a voting machine. In a prolonged term, it’s a weighing machine.’ And we try to build a association that wants to be weighed and not voted upon.”
• Keep reinventing your platform. Amazon has regularly cannibalized their possess income streams, relocating from Amazon stores to a marketplace model, from earthy books to ebooks, and from online products to online services. If they don’t do it themselves, somebody else will do it opposite them. Likewise, your amicable height contingency keep gait with a changes in technology, demographics, and tellurian behavior. What works for your users currently might not work as good for them tomorrow, so safeguard your handling denote allows we to keep a height engaging and fresh.

Of course, this post’s vigilant is not to gamble on a long-term viability of Amazon or Facebook. Maybe conjunction of them will be here in 5 or 10 years, though during this indicate in time, Amazon’s denote offers a most some-more strong horizon to follow for a amicable business height than Facebook. After all, inside a firewall, a concentration is most some-more about business than it’s about social.

This essay creatively seemed on Biznology and has been republished with permission.

Find out how to associate your calm with Business 2 Community.

Students invited to Internet safety, amicable networking display during Flint … – Mlive

Kevin Honeycutt

FLINT, MI – The Flint School District will offer a giveaway display for relatives and students about how they use online and amicable networking to their benefit.

Kevin Honeycutt’s display is best for students in fourth class and up, along with relatives and students, a district pronounced in a statement.

The display will be from 5 to 7 p.m., May 7, during a Northern High School Auditorium, 3284 Mackin Road.

Honeycutt also will plead online safety, digital citizenship and cyber bullying in hopes of carrying critical conversations between teenagers and parents.

There also will be prizes and giveaway refreshments to a initial 200 people who RSVP to 373-2026 by May 2.

Honeycutt is a consultant and propagandize house member in Kansas.

Dominic Adams is a contributor for MLive-Flint Journal. Contact him during dadams5@mlive.com or 810-241-8803. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.

Report: Social networking sites play some-more distinguished purpose in politics

A new news by a Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project found an bomb expansion in domestic activity on amicable networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter from 2008 to 2012.

In 2008, 26 percent of American adults used amicable networking sites of any kind. Four years later, 39 percent of Americans used amicable networking sites privately for domestic activity, from following candidates, enlivening friends to opinion or posting and pity domestic stories and articles.

“More people used amicable networking sites for domestic activity in 2012 than used it during all in 2008,” pronounced Aaron Smith, a comparison researcher during Pew and author “Civic Engagement in a Digital Age,” a 61-page report. “There was huge expansion in altogether use for domestic activity.”

One example: in 2008, only 3 percent of adults posted domestic stories or links on amicable networking sites. By 2012, that had jumped to 17 percent, a sixfold increase.

The blast in online domestic activity comes as a flourishing series of adults use amicable media. Pew has found that 60 percent of all U.S. adults now use some arrange of amicable networking platform, adult from 26 percent in 2008. That’s a conspicuous burst given that San Francisco-based Twitter didn’t exist until 2006. During President Barack Obama’s Feb State of a Union address, Twitter reported that there were 1.36 million tweets, with many of a gibberish focusing on a center category and smallest wage, gun control

and education.

Previously, Pew has found that 81 percent of American adults are Internet users — that means that roughly 20 percent, or 1 in 5, are still not online during all. Its latest news found that a digital order is still stark, quite along category and preparation lines. Many hoped that a arise of Internet-connected smartphones, as good as a recognition of fast-growing sites such as Twitter and Facebook, would assistance palliate that gap.

But those with high incomes and college or graduate-level educations are consistently some-more expected than those with low income and preparation levels to take partial in county or domestic activities, either online or offline.

High-income Americans — including professionals who have regular, arguable entrance to a Internet both during work and during home — are some-more expected to use amicable networking sites in a initial place, while college-educated adults are significantly some-more expected than those with only a high propagandize preparation to take partial in amicable networking sites. The news found that those during a reduce finish of a socio-economic spectrum are reduction concerned with a day-to-day outreach, gibberish and contention around domestic issues.

“It’s a digital order issue, though it’s a domestic equity emanate as well,” Smith said. “One of a questions we were seeking to residence is: To what border are these new venues for domestic countenance bringing new voices into a process? In many ways a long-standing groups still stand.”

The news found that among people earning reduction than $10,000 a year who are active on amicable networking sites, 39 percent reported deliberating politics or open affairs online. For those with incomes above $150,000, it was 56 percent.

Jen Schradie, a doctoral claimant in sociology during a UC Berkeley who researches amicable media, amicable movements and amicable class, records that amicable networking sites tend to amplify a category inequalities that are deeply confirmed in society.

“People assume that a digital order is over, though it’s really persistent,” Schradie said. “Social networking sites are really good during mobilizing people who are already politically intent though not during organizing a politically unorganized.”

Pew has been tracking a approach that Americans use a Internet and a digital mutation of American life given 2000. The news was formed on a nationally deputy phone consult of 2,253 adults conducted between Jul 16 and Aug. 7, 2012, during a tallness of a hotly contested presidential campaign. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish and on landline and cellphones.

Contact Dana Hull during 408-920-2706. Follow her during Twitter.com/danahull.

Highlights from a bank report

There was vital expansion in domestic activity on amicable networking sites between 2008 and 2012.

39 percent of adults surveyed took partial in some arrange of domestic activity on a amicable networking site like Facebook or Twitter.

Online normal domestic activities are many renouned among a well-educated and a financially well-off.

To review a full report, go to www.pewinternet.org.

Social networking sites play some-more distinguished purpose in politics

A new news by a Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project found an bomb expansion in domestic activity on amicable networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter from 2008 to 2012.

In 2008, 26 percent of American adults used amicable networking sites of any kind. Four years later, 39 percent of Americans used amicable networking sites privately for domestic activity, from following candidates, enlivening friends to opinion or posting and pity domestic stories and articles.

“More people used amicable networking sites for domestic activity in 2012 than used it during all in 2008,” pronounced Aaron Smith, a comparison researcher during Pew and author “Civic Engagement in a Digital Age,” a 61-page report. “There was huge expansion in altogether use for domestic activity.”

One example: in 2008, only 3 percent of adults posted domestic stories or links on amicable networking sites. By 2012, that had jumped to 17 percent, a sixfold increase.

The blast in online domestic activity comes as a flourishing series of adults use amicable media. Pew has found that 60 percent of all U.S. adults now use some arrange of amicable networking platform, adult from 26 percent in 2008. That’s a conspicuous burst given that San Francisco-based Twitter didn’t exist until 2006. During President Barack Obama’s Feb State of a Union address, Twitter

reported that there were 1.36 million tweets, with many of a gibberish focusing on a center category and smallest wage, gun control and education.

Previously, Pew has found that 81 percent of American adults are Internet users — that means that roughly 20 percent, or 1 in 5, are still not online during all. Its latest news found that a digital order is still stark, quite along category and preparation lines. Many hoped that a arise of Internet-connected smartphones, as good as a recognition of fast-growing sites such as Twitter and Facebook, would assistance palliate that gap.

But those with high incomes and college or graduate-level educations are consistently some-more expected than those with low income and preparation levels to take partial in county or domestic activities, either online or offline.

High-income Americans — including professionals who have regular, arguable entrance to a Internet both during work and during home — are some-more expected to use amicable networking sites in a initial place, while college-educated adults are significantly some-more expected than those with only a high propagandize preparation to take partial in amicable networking sites. The news found that those during a reduce finish of a socio-economic spectrum are reduction concerned with a day-to-day outreach, gibberish and contention around domestic issues.

“It’s a digital order issue, though it’s a domestic equity emanate as well,” Smith said. “One of a questions we were seeking to residence is: To what border are these new venues for domestic countenance bringing new voices into a process? In many ways a long-standing groups still stand.”

The news found that among people earning reduction than $10,000 a year who are active on amicable networking sites, 39 percent reported deliberating politics or open affairs online. For those with incomes above $150,000, it was 56 percent.

Jen Schradie, a doctoral claimant in sociology during a UC Berkeley who researches amicable media, amicable movements and amicable class, records that amicable networking sites tend to amplify a category inequalities that are deeply confirmed in society.

“People assume that a digital order is over, though it’s really persistent,” Schradie said. “Social networking sites are really good during mobilizing people who are already politically intent though not during organizing a politically unorganized.”

Pew has been tracking a approach that Americans use a Internet and a digital mutation of American life given 2000. The news was formed on a nationally deputy phone consult of 2,253 adults conducted between Jul 16 and Aug. 7, 2012, during a tallness of a hotly contested presidential campaign. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish and on landline and cellphones.

Contact Dana Hull during 408-920-2706. Follow her during Twitter.com/danahull.

Highlights from a bank report

There was vital expansion in domestic activity on amicable networking sites between 2008 and 2012.
39 percent of adults surveyed took partial in some arrange of domestic activity on a amicable networking site like Facebook or Twitter.
Online normal domestic activities are many renouned among a well-educated and a financially well-off.
To review a full report, go to www.pewinternet.org.

Karnataka Assembly Elections 2013: Political leaders bond to electorate around …

Zee Media Bureau

Bangalore: With a Karnataka polls quick approaching, domestic leaders seem to be going tech-savvy and are now regulating amicable networking websites to bond with their voters.

Both immature leaders and brave politicians like Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, Deputy Chief Minister R Ashoka and Health Minister Aravind Limbavali have non-stop accounts of renouned amicable networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, as per a journal report.

Some of them have even left to a border of employing professionals to conduct these accounts, a news states.

The domestic leaders are regulating these Facebook and Twitter accounts to strech out to their supporters by reportedly posting cinema of choosing campaigns, highlighting benefaction and past achievements and grant to some amicable cause.

Don’t Tell The Kids: U.K. Social Networking Growth Strongest Among Middle …

New investigate expelled by a U.K.’s telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has flagged adult poignant expansion in amicable networking among comparison Internet users — that is assisting to equivalent reduce rates of expansion opposite younger age groups.  Ofcom’s latest Adult media uses and attitudes report, that examines 2012 U.K. data, indicates that some-more than a third (35%) of 55 to 64 year-old Internet users combined a amicable networking form final year — adult by half in usually one year (24% in 2011).

Ofcom records that it’s a usually age-group with a “significant increase” in amicable networking expansion yet a investigate also found that a quarter (25%) of Internet users aged 65+ also set adult a amicable network form final year.

As we competence expect, younger  age-groups saw many some-more extrinsic expansion (see draft below) — presumably since a infancy of those users would be expected to have a amicable networking form already. There have also been some suggestions that younger age groups might be apropos reduction meddlesome in amicable networking, also fuelled by a arise in use of choice messaging and communications apps, such as Snapchat. Lots some-more comparison users flocking to mainstream amicable network sites could serve inspire younger users to take some-more of their gibberish elsewhere.

Overall Ofcom pronounced that about two-thirds (64%) of all a U.K.’s adult Internet users had a amicable networking participation in 2012, adult from 59% in 2011.

According to Ofcom’s findings, comparison amicable networkers are following in a footsteps of their younger counterparts, with many a same forms of use — primarily regulating amicable networking as a approach of gripping in hold with friends and family, with 6 in 10 (64%) of those aged over 55 who have a amicable network form regulating it to hit friends and family they frequency see.

The investigate also found that younger amicable networkers are generally expected to have some-more friends on their categorical amicable network form than comparison users. Ofcom found the normal U.K. adult with a amicable networking comment has 237 friends on their categorical profile, such as Facebook, yet younger adults have some-more online connectors — with a normal 16-24 year-old amicable networker claiming 352 friends, that it pronounced was roughly 3 times as many as those aged over 45 (126 friends).

Far from Brits removing sleepy of amicable networking, Ofcom found that half of U.K. adults with a amicable network form revisit it some-more than once a day, adult from a third (35%) who pronounced they did so in 2011. Almost one in 10 (9%) is an generally zealous user, checking their form some-more than 10 times a day. Those aged 16-24 are a many expected to tumble into a ‘avid’ difficulty — suggesting those younger users who still consider Facebook is cold sojourn heavily intent with it —  while roughly a fifth (17%) pronounced they check for updates some-more than 10 times daily.

It seems likely, yet is not privately remarkable by Ofcom, that a arise in smartphone use and mobile amicable networking is expected to be assisting to energy visit daily visits to amicable networking sites such as Facebook. Research by Flurry progressing this month showed Facebook in sold holding adult a large cube of mobile users’ day. Ofcom’s information found that 16-24s sojourn a many expected to use a smartphone (86%).

Looking during specific amicable networking site users, Ofcom’s information shows a transparent askance towards messaging communication — that underlines because Facebook is augmenting the concentration on messaging, adding new comms facilities to the Messenger app and rising Facebook Home: a smartphone skin that includes a dedicated messaging covering called Chat Heads:

Toledo glow dialect augmenting participation on amicable media sites

The Toledo Fire and Rescue Department wants to bond with a people it serves, and is perplexing to do so with a new participation on amicable networking Web sites.

The dialect launched a Facebook page on Mar 20 with a post thanking Hanson, Inc., a association that set adult a page and designed a department’s new Web site, toledofirerescue.com.

The Maumee-based digital association supposing a pattern services giveaway of charge, pronounced glow Lt. Matthew Hertzfeld, who will be in assign of a amicable sites.

The Facebook page, found by searching, “Toledo Fire Rescue Department” has some-more than 560 “likes” in a month it has been online.

On it, Lieutenant Hertzfeld, a department’s open information officer, has posted photos and videos from glow scenes.

The many renouned post — about a lady discovered from a blazing residence — went adult Wednesday and, as of about 10 a.m. today, had 12,204 views, 41 “shares,” 283 likes, and 30 comments.

The pull to be some-more amicable is to boost clarity and correlate with a public, pronounced glow Chief Luis Santiago. Doing both of those things will assistance teach a open on all a glow dialect does, he added.

Wall Street vs. Its Employees’ Privacy

By JEAN EAGLESHAM and MICHAEL ROTHFELD

State efforts to block companies from monitoring employees’ personal Facebook

and Twitter accounts are under fire from a new front—securities regulators.

State efforts to block companies monitoring employees’ personal Facebook and Twitter accounts are under fire from a new front—securities regulators, Jean Eaglesham reports. Photo: AP Images.

An unlikely alliance of regulators and industry groups is seeking to carve out exemptions in state laws that would allow certain financial firms to sidestep bans on looking at the personal social-media accounts of employees.

Wall Street’s self-regulator, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, says financial firms need a way to follow up on “red flags” suggesting misuse of a personal account, according to a spokesman. Finra has asked lawmakers in about 10 states to make changes to proposed legislation, the spokesman said.

Enlarge Image

Associated Press

California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a social-media privacy law.

Securities regulators worry that the raft of new laws aimed at protecting employees’ privacy puts investors at risk. They say the fast spread of financial advice on social networks such as Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. could create new channels for Ponzi schemes and other frauds, and that fighting those frauds will be harder if state lawmakers snarl efforts by companies to monitor what employees are pitching to investors.

California, Illinois, Maryland and Michigan adopted social-media privacy laws last year, and a similar new law in Utah takes effect in May. Social-media privacy legislation has been introduced or is under way in 35 states since the start of 2013, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Supporters of the new laws say they are needed to protect employees, even when their employer may be the subject of tweets or other messages made using an employee’s personal account on a social-networking website.

“We’d balk if an employer said, ‘I want to look at your photo albums once a week or listen in on your dinner party conversation,’” said Allie Bohm, an advocacy and policy strategist at the American Civil Liberties Union. “By allowing them to monitor your social-media presence, that’s what they might be doing.”

The split shows how financial firms and regulators are struggling to change their ways in the Facebook era. Earlier this month, the SEC issued new guidance that lets companies use social media to disseminate market-moving news. Companies must tell investors which ways they intend to communicate, such as by tweets or Facebook posts.

California’s social-media privacy law went into effect Jan. 1. Before that, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, a trade group, made a request to California Gov. Jerry Brown to veto the bill. Sifma says some employee-privacy provisions are at odds with existing rules that brokerage firms police investment advice tweeted and posted by their employees. California’s employee-privacy protections would place firms in the “untenable position of having to violate either state law or their Finra obligations,” the group wrote in a letter to Mr. Brown.

California lawmakers rebuffed requests by Finra and securities-industry groups for a carve-out clause in the state’s new law.

A spokesman for Mr. Brown, a Democrat, referred to a comment he made after signing the bill. California’s move will “protect all Californians from unwarranted invasions of their personal social-media accounts,” Mr. Brown said.

Legislation often includes narrow language that allows employers to conduct legitimate checks, such as during a formal investigation into alleged misconduct by an employee.

Sifma said such a change in the California law is “helpful,” but fails to address the legitimate need for general monitoring and recording of any business-related tweets and postings. The new law “puts customers at risk, as it will be much harder for firms to detect serious problems,” the trade group added.

The Financial Services Institute, which represents independent broker-dealer operations, believes the state laws and pending legislation could place “investors at risk, as well as creating a significant headache for brokerage firms,” according to David Bellaire, the group’s general counsel. Most financial firms use specialized software to keep track of what their employees are tweeting and posting on business issues, a spokesman added.

A Securities and Exchange Commission spokesman said the U.S. agency is “monitoring developments” in states. More than 65 social-media privacy bills have been introduced so far this year, according to Sifma. Much of the proposed legislation will die if it isn’t passed by lawmakers before their current sessions end in late May or June, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Financial advisers are keen about the potential of social networks to interact with investors and lure new business. More than a one-third of financial advisers use social media for business purposes several times a week, according to an April survey by American Century Investments, a fund firm.

For several years, criminal authorities have wrestled with challenges caused by communication about illicit activities, from securities fraud to drug dealing to terrorism, through messaging tools in social networks, videogame systems and other digital platforms.

Providers of such services generally aren’t required to build capabilities for law-enforcement surveillance into their systems. Telephone companies must do so under a 1994 federal law.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and other agencies have approached some technology companies to request that they erect monitoring systems or let the U.S. government use its own systems, people familiar with the efforts say. The tools can be complicated and costly, though the government sometimes reimburses companies.

Some companies comply with the government’s requests, but other firms have refused. “These negotiations can take a long time. They can take years,” said Michael Sussmann, a former Justice Department official who now is a lawyer at Perkins Coie LLP and has represented companies that got such requests.

Finra has taken some action to crack down on rogue tweets. Jenny Quyen Ta

, founder of Titan Securities, a broker-dealer in Dallas, was disciplined in 2010 for alleged misconduct that included using her Twitter account to tout stock in Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

Examples of allegedly “unbalanced” and “overwhelmingly positive” tweets included one from September 2009 that said, “Keep an i on AMD ppl!” and predicted its share price would double.

Ms. Ta agreed to pay a $10,000 fine to settle the case, without admitting or denying the allegations. A spokeswoman for Titan declined to comment.

Courts haven’t ruled on whether the state laws or Finra rules should take precedence on employee privacy. “It may be that the Finra rules will pre-empt the state ban, but that’s not been tested,” said Scott Rahn, a lawyer at Greenberg Traurig LLP.

Brian Rubin, a partner at law firm Sutherland Asbill Brennan LLP, said the continuing uncertainty “can become serious” because “firms can be caught between a rock and a hard place.”

Write to Jean Eaglesham at jean.eaglesham@wsj.com and Michael Rothfeld at michael.rothfeld@wsj.com

A version of this article appeared April 22, 2013, on page A1 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Wall Street vs. Its Employees’ Privacy.

Five Ways to Improve Your Enterprise Social Networking Strategy