Social Media in Wealth Management; Reaching clients and prospects on social media.

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The majority of investors are now active on social media on a daily basis, and wealth managers should embrace this both on the company-level and on the relationship manager-level. Social media adds value in a number of ways. Companies can benefit from social media in promoting their brand, enhancing thought leadership and investment opportunities, reaching out to a younger target audience, as well as servicing customers. Relationship managers can leverage social media in researching and reaching out to prospective clients, nurturing client relationships, and building their personal brands.

Scope

• While the majority of consumers are now active on social media on a daily basis, the frequency of social media use decreases with age: 94.2% of investors aged 18–24 use social media at least daily, while just 44.1% of those aged 65+ log in daily.

• Company policy and the feeling that social media is too public are the most often cited reasons for wealth managers not being active on social media channels.

• The most popular activity companies undertake on social media is brand promotion, at 72.6% of respondents, followed by the promotion of new investment opportunities, thought leadership, and services.

• Client servicing is not yet among the activities wealth management companies regularly practice via social media. Only 31.7% of firms respond to client queries via social media – a very low percentage given the amount of time customers spend on social media.

• For relationship managers contacting prospects, the leading use of social media is the opportunity to build their personal brand followed by the opportunities to research and contact prospects.

Reasons to Buy

Review your current social media strategy and benchmark your social media activities against competitors.

Understand how to tailor content and social media strategy to fit each platform and benefit from competitor examples across different platforms and use cases.

Proactively shape social media activities in light of emerging platforms and social media trends.

Broaden the use of social media from mere marketing or brand-building activities.

Facebook
Instagram
Snapchat
LinkedIn
Google+
Pinterest
Vine
Tumblr
Deutsche Bank
Goldman Sachs
Morgan Stanley
Klout
Credit Suisse
UBS
Julius Baer
Flickr
CreditEase
Deutsche Bank
JPMorgan
Nutmeg
Standard Bank
WeChat
Fidelity Investments
AJ Bell Youinvest
American Century Investments
Salesforce
Vouched For
LinkedIn ProFinder
Socialware
Hearsay Social
Coutts
Ritholtz Wealth Management
GremIn
Financial Conduct Authority
FCA
FINRA
Hong Kong Monetary Authority

Table of Contents

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Key findings

Critical success factors

DEMONSTRATING THE VALUE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media can add value across the client value chain

Wealth management companies can reap a variety of benefits from social media

Relationship managers benefit from the vast amount of information on social media

SOCIAL MEDIA IN CONTEXT

Social media is now ubiquitous among investors

Young investors are the most prolific users of social media

Asian investors tend to be heavy users of social media

Retail investors are the most prolific users of social media, reflecting their younger composition

Facebook is the leading platform in terms of audience penetration and engagement

While Facebook is the clear leader, Instagram and Snapchat also clock in strong engagement figures among millennials

Of the social networks, Facebook and LinkedIn have the oldest average user bases

Not all relationship managers have realized the social media opportunity

37% of wealth management companies do not engage with HNW clients via social media

Company policy prevents wealth managers from using social media

USING SOCIAL MEDIA FOR MARKETING AND BRAND PROMOTION

Brand promotion and thought leadership are the primary drivers for social media use among wealth management companies

The use of social media as a brand promotion platform will increase

Wealth managers are employing a range of social media tactics for brand promotion

Globally Facebook is the preferred platform for brand promotion

The largest wealth managers dominate the top social media influencer list

Thought leadership efforts should not be limited to a single platform

Start by sharing existing content via different platforms

Thought leadership is mainly distributed through regional platforms and on LinkedIn

Social media allows for targeting the young as the audience is already there

Facebook is the preferred channel for targeting the young

Target a younger audience by picking the right content tailored for the platform

Increase awareness of new investment opportunities on social media

Factoring life events into marketing can make promotions more engaging

Facebook and LinkedIn are the main channels for promoting opportunities and services

SERVICING CLIENTS ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Uptake of social media in client servicing remains modest

Looking forward use is expected to pick up

The preferred channel for responding to client queries varies by region

Clients can be serviced through a variety of platforms

While relationship managers use social media for multiple purposes, it is not utilized enough

Information shared on social media will help in tailoring service offerings

Relationship managers will increasingly extend their personal brands to social media

Relationship managers rely on LinkedIn and regional platforms for client interaction

Researching and contacting prospects: social media offers vast amounts of information

Social media is a key aid in researching prospective clients

Investors also turn to social media when researching

Maintaining client relationships: relationship managers should take advantage of the information on social media

Software solutions can help in picking out relevant information

Company-led social networks could also help relationship managers build on client relationships

Building a personal brand: relationship managers can develop this by providing thoughtful commentaries

LinkedIn is an excellent platform for sharing insights, while Twitter lends itself to shorter market commentary

NAVIGATING SOCIAL MEDIA COMPLIANCE

Most companies have social media compliance teams in place

Only a fraction of wealth managers have no social media compliance guidelines

Collaborating with software providers can offer efficiency gains

Regulators have responded to the growing social media activity by updating their rules

The FCA published its social media guidelines in 2015

FINRA regulates advertisements and online communications in the US

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has noted the risks of online banking via social media

APPENDIX

Abbreviations and acronyms

Definitions

Emerging affluent

HNW

Mass affluent

Retail market

Methodology

Verdict Financial's 2015 Global Wealth Managers Survey

Verdict Financial's 2015 RBI Survey

Bibliography

Further reading

About Verdict Financial

Disclaimer

Table

N/A

Figures

Figure 1: Social media can be a valuable tool for building business and creating value

Figure 2: The majority of investors under 65 use social media daily

Figure 3: Across all age segments Asian investors use social media more than the global average

Figure 4: Most investors now log on to social media daily

Figure 5: Over 90% of US adults aged over 35 use Facebook

Figure 6: Snapchat and Instagram trail Facebook in terms of social media engagement among millenials

Figure 7: Nearly half of Snapchat users are under 25

Figure 8: Not all relationship managers have seized the social media opportunity

Figure 9: Wealth managers cite company policy as the main hurdle to taking up social media

Figure 10: The leading use of social media is brand promotion

Figure 11: The use of social media as a brand promotion tool is expected to increase the most

Figure 12: Facebook and LinkedIn are the leading platforms for brand promotion

Figure 13: Deutsche Bank has an impressive Twitter following

Figure 14: CreditEase targets clients through WeChat's Moments

Figure 15: North Americans rely on LinkedIn in when sharing thought leadership

Figure 16: Deutsche Bank tweets market views under #DrStephan

Figure 17: Wealth managers reach out to the younger target audience on Facebook

Figure 18: UBS has a number of accounts on Instagram

Figure 19: JPMorgan ran a Snapchat ad and a geo-filter targeting graduates

Figure 20: Western European wealth management companies prefer LinkedIn for promoting investment opportunities

Figure 21: Nutmeg takes note of the FCA's guidelines when promoting its LISA 333 or Lifetime ISA products

Figure 22: Only a third of companies use social media to respond to client queries

Figure 23: Facebook and LinkedIn are the leading platforms for handling client queries

Figure 24: The "Need help?" tab on Fidelity's Facebook page illustrates to users that the company can be reached through multiple channels

Figure 25: AJ Bell has demoed a live share on Facebook Messenger

Figure 26: Brand building is the leading activity taken by relationship managers in social media

Figure 27: Use of social media in building relationship managers' brands will increase

Figure 28: LinkedIn and regional platforms are the main social media platforms used by wealth managers to target clients

Figure 29: Financial professionals find that LinkedIn helps them to strengthen their profile, enhance their business opportunities, and improve referrals

Figure 30: US millennials find online reviews as important as peer recommendations when selecting a financial advisor

Figure 31: Vouched For allows clients to review their advisors online

Figure 32: LinkedIn ProFinder links customers to professionals

Figure 33: Social Content Recommendation pulls news articles from different sources and matches them with clients' interests

Figure 34: Hearsay Social automatically notifies advisors of their network's life events

Figure 35: Josh Brown, the CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management, boasts more than 144,000 Twitter followers

Figure 36: In-house compliance teams are the most common social media control

Figure 37: Gremln makes sure that messaging is compliant with set guidelines

Figure 38: The FCA's Finalised Guidance offers clear examples of compliant and non-compliant promotional tweets and other social media promotions

Frequently asked questions

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