Facebook and financial advisors

Facebook and financial advisors

Advisors who use Facebook as their primary social network and who attribute asset gains to social media activity represent only 18% of the total advisor population. But, on average, they outperformed advisors concentrating on all other social networks — including LinkedIn — when it came to gathering new assets attributable to social media activity.

On average, the “Facebook Advisor” attributed nearly double the assets ($4.31M) to social media activity than the advisor focusing primarily on LinkedIn. This is one of the findings of the Putnam Investments Survey of Financial Advisors’ Use of Social Media (2014).

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Top-performing advisors: A closer look at those with $10M+ in new assets

Fifty advisors reported asset gains of $10 million or more attributable to social media. What distinguishes the “Facebook Superhero” from his or her counterpart using LinkedIn as their primary network?

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Habits of successful Facebook advisors

Have a presence. Whether using a personal or professional Facebook page, advisors have to be on the network to expect success.

Post frequently. On average, the Facebook Advisor is active on the network 21 days out of every month.

Diversify. Top-performing Facebook Advisors use 4 or more social networks.

Blend the personal and professional. Advisors cited reconnecting with old friends or colleagues and posting content about work as well as personal interests as effective ways of finding new clients on Facebook.

Nurture. Facebook can be a long-term, ongoing effort. “Clients and CIOs refer people to “friend” me on Facebook, and this eventually results in a face-to-face meeting.”

View these results in Tableau and filter by Channel, Gender, Age, Tenure, and other variables.

All data is from the 2014 Putnam Investments Survey of Financial Advisors’ Use of Social Media, which was conducted in partnership with Brightwork Partners LLC, and surveyed 729 advisors nationally who have been advising retail clients for at least two years. The online study was conducted in late July 2014.

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