Financial Advisors Need to Be Social

Financial services companies can use social media as more than just a way to broadcast messages to their customers and potential clientele. They can leverage it to attract top talent, create new businesses, fill their sales pipelines, and position themselves as industry thought leaders.

That’s the word in a recent blog by JMRConnect, which cites studies from Putnam Investments. In the posting, Mostafa Razzak, CEO and principal of public relations and strategic digital communications firm JMRConnect, writes that “if you’re not leveraging social media in a way that goes beyond the occasional Facebook post of retweeted news item, you’re missing out on a major opportunity to grow your business.”

He quotes results from a recent Putnam Social Advisor Survey, which found that 85 percent of financial advisors actively use social media. And he adds that LinkedIn is the favored social network by financial advisors, with 73 percent preferring it. Facebook comes in second, he says, noting it’s the favorite of 54 percent of financial advisors. And he adds that YouTube is a great medium through which financial advisors can position themselves as thought leaders by providing information about sometimes difficult to understand financial issues.

Meanwhile, an April blog by Hootsuite reminds us that nearly 80 percent of the U.S. population uses social media, so businesses that don’t use it as well should seriously think about moving forward on this front.

Amy Mcllwain of Financial Social Media in that blog comments that financial advisors initially had limited interest in social media because they didn’t believe their clients used it much. “But that has clearly changed,” she says. “Baby boomers are taking to Facebook and Instagram en masse. LinkedIn reported in 2014 that more than 5 million high net worth people in North America were likely to use social media to assist with financial decision-making.”

And she notes that: “If financial advisors want to reach this audience where wealth transfer is occurring, they need to be reaching them through social channels.”