GIVEN THAT THIS ISSUE OF THE ANALYST is devoted to the evolving role of media in finance and investment, I thought I’d outline some of the ways in which we at CFA Society Toronto are now using the many media platforms available to us. To start, we officially launched our Twitter account this past August to help engage with our membership and promote our online presence to key stakeholders within the financial community and media. We began by dipping our toes into the water at the Pension Conference this past spring with our very first hashtag #CFAPension and since then have continued to dive further into the pools of social media. We also have over 3,000 members on our LinkedIn Group, which has been operational for the past two years.

At this year’s Annual Forecast Dinner in October, CFA Society Toronto hosted special guest David Larrabee, director of Member and Corporate Products, CFA Institute, to live-tweet the event and provide additional commentary on CFA Institute’s Enterprising Investor blog. Recently, CFA Institute was ranked sixth in social media effectiveness among more than 340 industry and professional associations and first in the finance category (Association TRENDS’ Association Social Media Report, 2014).

In April of this year, CFA Institute launched a campaign with the @CFAWealth Twitter handle, followed by a series of promotional tweet campaigns that has generated over 48K followers! The @CFAWealth handle is currently the centrepiece of a media campaign on Twitter designed to drive awareness and adoption of the Statement of Investor Rights within the private wealth community, and it has become a highly effective platform from which to communicate the foundational messages of the Future of Finance initiative.

As we move into 2015, we’ll look forward to hearing feedback from our members via the Member Survey results on their preferences and suggestions on how best to use these platforms in communicating member services as well as promoting the value of the charter. We invite you to follow us on Twitter @CFAToronto as well as CFA Institute @CFAInstitute.

I would like to wish everyone an enjoyable holiday season with family, friends, and colleagues. I’ll look forward to seeing you when we restart the busy programming season in January of 2015. This will include our inaugural event for both women and men entitled “Getting to Alpha: The Competitive Advantage of Gender Strategy.” We have lined up a number of global experts to share their research and experiences on a topic that is becoming a focus for many corporations as they fine-tune their own performance strategies and goals.

Sincerely,

Sue