Now that Morgan Stanley has allowed itself to be the first major wealth manager to use social media for marketing purposes, Memphis marketing professional Amy Howell is encouraging other financial services companies to follow Morgan Stanley’s lead.

Banks, insurance companies, wealth managers and the like all operate in one of the most highly regulated fields in corporate America. But they can no longer use that as an excuse for shutting themselves out of the social media game and from outlets like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, says Howell, CEO of Howell Marketing Strategies LLC.

In fact, Howell is working with social media advocate Glen Gilmore – a lawyer, professor and former mayor of Hamilton, N.J., who boasts more than 100,000 followers on Twitter – to help ease such companies into the world of “likes,” retweets and LinkedIn connections.

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney made a big splash last month when word was made public that the retail brokerage would be the first major wealth manager to let its brokers use social media. This month, a small group of the company’s advisers will be allowed wide usage of LinkedIn and partial usage of Twitter.

The company will monitor how its social media experiment plays out and expects to encourage its entire base of employees to participate in the months ahead. It also will capture and maintain communications on the varied social networks it participates in.

That’s important, because companies dragging their feet on the social media issue may be worried about unintended consequences. Those include employee retweets of information that a user may think friends would want to talk about but which could be misconstrued as evidence of support for the retweeted message.

“It’s important for financial companies that are looking at this to do it right the first time,” said Howell, who is one of the staunchest advocates in the city for the power of Twitter, the micro-blogging service she says can help companies unlock major potential if done right.

At the end of last year, Howell was ranked No. 4 on The Huffington Post’s list of “16 Brilliant Business Minds on Twitter.” Her Twitter handle is @HowellMarketing. She’s working with Gilmore to help local and national financial companies think through how to begin to leverage social media if they aren’t already.

“What I’m excited about is through our affiliation with Glen Gilmore, and his background as a lawyer and as a social media consultant, he understands all these different laws governing regulated industries,” Howell said. “And we’re able to go in and strategically help a lot of companies who have said this is not for us. And now they’re saying maybe it should be.

“So we’re trying to get that word out and be the go-to firm that can help local and national companies set up strategies for how they’re going to get into the social media game.”

Gilmore, whose Twitter handle is @GlenGilmore, said he and Howell have a strong friendship that goes back years and was solidified via social media. So, in more than one way, it’s fitting they’re working together on this latest project.

“This is a huge opportunity for the financial services sector,” Gilmore said. “What Morgan Stanley’s endorsement of social media does is give encouragement to the entire industry that social media is worth the investment.

“Morgan Stanley has said it unequivocally, that participation in social media is, in their words, a ‘significant competitive advantage.’ And those three words will be picked up by financial services firms big and small, not just across the country but across the world.”