Social media tends to be pretty casual, so it's no surprise that many people don't think it's essential. How could something so informal make or break an industry, particularly the traditionally formal financial industry? Financial advisors need to discard that way of thinking and embrace social media for financial advisors. It exists, and the numbers support that it could be an incredible and changing force in the business. What are those numbers? Here are a few that could change the way financial advisors look at social media. These numbers are only based on Canada.
1. 2 of 3 adults with investment accounts have social profiles
Imagine this worldwide. It's not far from the truth. In fact, the numbers may even be higher outside of Canada. If that many adults who partake in financial services have social media profiles, that means that more than 60% of potential customers are online and checking social media. That's 60% of potentials that could be missing out if financial advisors aren't actively promoting on social media.
2. LinkedIn statistics
LinkedIn is a popular social media site for professionals and businesses. Based on that alone, it has high networking potential. Then consider this: 9 out of 10 financial advisors currently use LinkedIn to network. Of those, 3 in every 5 have already acquired clients directly from LinkedIn, and a third of the advisors on LinkedIn have earned over $1 million in new assets under management through that platform. LinkedIn boasts 4.8 million Canadians alone. That doesn't even take other nations' populations into account. 75% of users on LinkedIn use it to research and engage with brands and the average salary of someone on LinkedIn is $110,000. Clients and prospects are using LinkedIn and Canadian advisors have used it with some success. Why not give it a try? And if that doesn't convince you...
3. Facebook statistics
So LinkedIn did pretty well. If the percentage of the population using LinkedIn is significant, however, Facebook is astronomical. Facebook boasts a grand total of 18.6 million Canadians using it. To put that in perspective, that would be like more than 3.5 billion people worldwide using Facebook. Half the population of Canada is on Facebook and at least some are ready to interact with financial advertising. 77% of business-to-consumer companies have reported acquiring clients via Facebook. Isn't that worth looking into?
On top of that, in Canada alone, Twitter use has skyrocketed by more than 2000% in the last two years. That's 20% of the Canadian population on Twitter. This information makes it pretty clear that as time goes on social media is becoming more and more important. The question advisors need to ask themselves during uncertain financial times is this: Are they being heard? If that large a portion of potentials is online and on social media, it seems essential to be sure that one is active and growing on social media. For more information on financial advisor marketing, have a look at this page dedicated specifically to financial advisors, and then look into what marketing automation can do to help social media marketing.
