Financial Planners need to be clear about what they want to achieve on social media before questioning its returns says Phil Calvert from LifeTalk.
Mr Calvert was speaking at the Institute of Financial Planning's social media conference held in London today.
Asked a question by delegate David Crozier CFP^CM on what the return on investment was for using social media, Mr Calvert said the majority of social media was used for networking purposes.
He said: "It depends on the plan in the first place. Many people get business via social media by accident. People think social media is all about marketing but that's just one of the many many ways to benefit from social media. The biggest potential benefit is networking and professional connections."
Fellow panellist Dennis Hall, director at Yellowtail Financial Planning, said: "I've spent lots of time and money attending networking lunches to meet people who everyone else also wants to meet. I've had more success engaging with people on Twitter and then arranging lunch with them, especially from a time and money perspective."
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The panel then spoke about blogs following a question from delegate John Fachiri CFP^CM who asked for recommendations on how to set up a blog.
Mr Calvert said: "A blog on your website shows you're busy, you're trading and you're human. Some IFAs websites haven't been updated for years. You can put a blog on your website or use a blogging website such as Wordpress but it doesn't necessarily matter where you put the blog rather the content in it and how often it is updated."
Speaker Graham Jones, who had given a session earlier in the day, then added that the size of the blog was less important, it was the quality of the content. He recommended blogs were posted weekly, if not daily or even twice a day.
However, journalist Ali Steed warned delegates not to copy or rewrite anyone elses content as this would be recognised and penalised by Google.
Financial Planner has been covering the conference all day with stories on financialplanneronline.co.uk and tweets via @FPM_Online.

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