For advisers, it’s more like social notworking

Despite all the hype about social media, it’s been a big bust for most advisers so far.

“I think to a certain extent, the hype around social media has been overplayed,” said Ron Shevlin, senior analyst with Aite Group LLC. “For many advisers, especially those who were not good marketers to begin with, they keep hearing ‘You gotta be on Facebook and Twitter,’ but they get on and it doesn’t produce any results.”

As evidence, he points to a survey Aite conducted of 437 financial advisers earlier this year. Social-media use has increased from 2009, with just under half of advisers saying they use some form of social media professionally, but far fewer advisers said that it did them any good.

Only 19% said they reached new prospects, down from 36% two years ago, and only 6% said it helped increase revenue, down from 16% two years ago.

The stories about an adviser gaining a client from an insightful tweet or blog post are anecdotal, and probably have more to do with good marketing than the social media involved, he said. “Those are the exceptions to the rule,” he said.

Some advisers are stymied by compliance rules that require they get every tweet and blog post approved, a process than can take days or weeks, a lifetime in social media, said Mr. Shevlin. It isn’t much of a help to stick to bland statements to avoid compliance issues, he said.

Mr. Shevlin discounts the stories of investors surfing the Internet to find their advisers. He believes that most still find their advisers the old-fashioned way: by asking friends or relatives for a referral.

It is probably a good idea to have a Facebook page, particularly for current clients who may look you up, but even that is not a great prospecting tool, he said. That situation will likely change as the youngest generation of adults, called Millennials or Generation Y, start accumulating wealth. But that’s at least several years away, he said.

“That generation is so reliant on social media, they will look to see if advisers are on Facebook and Twitter,” he said. “But we are not there yet.”