Advisors understand that social media is one of the fastest growing communications channels in the world. Social networks improve the ability of financial advisors to increase the amount of clients under management as well as increase their interaction and visibility with them. Unfortunately financial advisors still struggle to adopt and maximize social media and its benefits. Our study points out many of the challenges faced by financial advisors in utilizing social media, but it also seeks to emphasize the reasons behind these struggles while offering advice to help the financial community succeed.

From July to November 2011, linkedFA asked 1,599 advisors* 12 questions that sought to answer:

1. How do advisors spend their time online?
2. What goals do advisors have for social media?
3. What social networking tools do advisors find to be the most successful?
4. What are the biggest stumbling blocks

Here are some of the highlights:

• Nearly 80% reported using LinkedIn
• Almost 40% are on Facebook
• Only 7.6% reported using no social media for business

ROI

• 43% reported seeing very little to no returns from social media
• 23% were unsure of their returns of using social media

GOALS

• 37% sought referrals from current clients and colleagues
• 24% sought to manage their online reputation
• 15% desired to register new clients

BIGGEST CONCERNS

According to nearly half of advisors surveyed, compliance is the biggest concern limiting their ability to effectively utilize social media. FINRA guidelines for social media require constant archiving and approval and the possibility of any failures can result in firms being hit with substantial fines.

SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE

• 34.3% reported only creating a social media account and responding reactively to contacts
• 31% reported logging on only once per week
• 10.96% reported logging on to a network daily to view and post information
• 70% reported spending more than half a day looking at news stories online (half reported spending over an hour per day viewing news)
• 73% reported their primary source of professional news was internet-based (with 49.64% reporting financial news sites as their primary resource)
• Almost 30% sought enhanced capabilities with regards to sharing news stories through social media

MOBILE USAGE

• Just under 40% reported using their mobile device for social networking as more or more than their desktop
• Only 27% reported using mobile social media for more than just browsing

You can download the executive summary and/or whitepaper by clicking here.

* Of those surveyed 34.43% reporting having over 200 clients, while more than 60.15% reported having over 100 clients. The survey reached a wide distribution of financial advisors, with 73.77% associated with independent broker-dealers and 13.73% at bulge-bracket firms.  Respondents had an average of $50.8 million of assets under management.

Related posts:

1. Socialware Survey: Social Media Use by Financial Advisors
2. The Impact of Financial Blogs on Investor Relations – Webinar Highlights
3. 60% of Financial Advisors in North America are Using Social Networks to Drive New Business: Study
4. Q4 Announces Financial Content & Social Media Widgets for Corporate Websites
5. Report reveals social networks becoming dominant platform for content creation and sharing

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