Advisers embrace social media at a rapid pace
The growing use of mobile devices has resulted in financial advisers embracing social media faster than ever — and at a more rapid pace than the overall community.
Zurich launched a new infographic called Financial Advisers and Social Media, which was based on a phone survey of 200 advisers conducted by Beaton Research and Consulting.
The survey found there was a staggering 123 per cent growth in advisers' use of Twitter since December 2011 and a 74 per cent growth in the use of LinkedIn, both well in excess of the growth seen in the community over the same period, which was measured at 20 per cent and 34 per cent respectively.
However, these figures might be indicative of advisers' late adoption of social media, in view of the fact that Twitter has been around since 2006 and LinkedIn was launched in 2003.
"Since late 2011, we have seen extraordinary growth in advisers using social media, especially the more business- and news-related platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube", said Philip Kewin, general manager of retail life and investments at Zurich.
"These latest figures show the extent to which advisers are embedding social media into their everyday business operating model, from lead generation to customer care strategies," he said.
Other findings included a 56 per cent growth in the use of YouTube and 36 per cent growth in Facebook usage over that period. Furthermore, women are more likely to use Facebook than men.
Kewin said the acceleration in usage was matched by corresponding growth in usage of mobile devices, especially tablets.
"Historically there have been many barriers to the uptake of social media, including the amount of time needed to monitor and create content, but the widespread adoption of tablets, especially the iPad, has made it quicker and easier to access social platforms", Kewin said.
"Our own research from late 2012 estimated that over one third of advisers were already actively using tablets as a client engagement tool," he added.
"We are very close to that tipping point where more online activity will be conducted from a mobile device than from desktops, and advisers should consider adopting the ‘mobile first' philosophy already seen in other industries reliant on online channels", said Kewin.
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