CorpComms Magazine

Financial advisors in North America are not seeing the benefits of using social media, according to a recent survey by Aite Group.

Just 19 per cent of respondents said that social media was a useful tool for reaching prospective clients, compared to double that amount two years ago.

Ron Shevlin, senior analyst at Aite Group, said: 'Social media has been over-hyped and the benefits just aren't there for a lot of advisors.'

Professional social network LinkedIn was found to be the only social media tool that saw an increase in use since 2009, up by ten per cent, while Facebook usage fell by ten per cent and Twitter by eight per cent during the same period.

The number of advisors who have seen an increase in revenue as a direct result of using social media has dropped by ten percentage points since 2009, to just six per cent.

Shevlin added: 'Many seem unwilling to admit that social media may be better suited to communicating with existing clients than to finding and acquiring new ones.'

The survey involved 437 American financial advisors.

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