Investment advisors in the Bay State aren't exactly social media savvy when it comes to communicating with their clients. So the state of Massachusetts is stepping in by issuing new guidelines and best practices standards in the next year.

A survey conducted by the Securities Division of the State Secretary of Massachusetts shows of the 44 percent of investment advisors in the state using social media platforms to communicate with their clients, only 30 percent have written record retention policies for social media content and only 4 in 10 retain all online content posted by the firm.

"Up until now, most states and other regulatory bodies have relied on FINRA's regulation (10-06) to provide guidelines to advisors and companies on proper use of social media in their marketing activities," says Stephen Selby, director of LIMRA Regulatory Services. "Now with more financial advisors using social media to communicate with their customers, we are seeing state regulators take a closer look at how and what they are communicating. We expect a number of states to follow Massachusetts' lead."