Wealth managers shun social media to reach HNW clients
Many wealth managers are failing to communicate with high net worth clients via social media.
That was the conclusion of a report by Verdict Financial, which found 37% of wealth managers have not been engaging through such means.
The company’s research found that while the majority of investors were active on social media daily, generating opportunities for wealth managers to promote their brands, a large portion were not taking the opportunity.
According to the survey, the most often cited reason for shunning social media use is that company policy prevents it (51.3% of respondents), with concerns that it is too public also important (41.2%).
Katri Tuomainen, analyst for wealth management at Verdict Financial, said: “According to our 2015 Global Wealth Managers Survey, 37% of wealth managers do not use a social media channel to communicate with HNW clients, despite the fact that 78% of consumers with investments log into their social media profiles on a daily basis.
“When wealth managers are active on social media, it is typically restricted to high-level marketing activity and thought leadership promotion. Indeed, many of the larger players that use social media do so under their general brands rather than via the wealth management division, which can limit the impact and reach of their social media activities in targeting wealth management clients.”
She said: “Besides raising brand awareness and promoting thought leadership, wealth management companies can use social media to target a younger audience, as well as servicing customers. Relationship managers can also individually leverage social media to find and reach out to prospective clients, nurturing client relationships, and building their personal brands.
“Verdict Financial believes that not having a presence on social media gives an inevitable edge to those wealth managers that do have social media embedded within their marketing and communications strategies, while companies with a policy prohibiting social media use stand to lose out in the long run.”