Some 73% of Intelliflo’s adviser software users engage in some sort of social media activity for business purposes, up from 58% in 2014 when Intelliflo’s survey began and 70% in 2016.

This year’s survey found:
• LinkedIn remains the most popular social platform for business, with 59% actively using it in 2017, down slightly from 60% in 2016.
• Facebook has increased in popularity, with 41% using this for business compared to 36% in 2016.
• Twitter usage is up slightly: 43% are using it in 2017 compared to 40% in 2016.
• Other social media platforms, such as Google+ are static at 6%, the same as when the survey first ran in 2014.

Asked why their company gets involved in social media, the top answer (60%) was ‘to attract new clients’ (down slightly from 62% in 2016). Other reasons in order of rank include:
• Being seen to be keeping up with modern communications systems (56% compared to 54% in 2016).
• To communicate with existing clients (46%, the same as in 2016).
• To keep up to date with financial news and events (44%, compared to 42% in 2016).
• To help with search engine optimisation (43% compared to 50% in 2016).
• To see what competitors are doing (12%, compared to 14% in 2016).
• Not sure, seems like we should be doing something (10%, compared to 16% in 2016).
• No idea (2%, compared to 4% in 2016).

For the 27% who do not currently engage in social media, lack of knowledge and understanding about how to engage with it to provide business benefits remains a barrier for almost a third (31%).

However, lack of time and resources is becoming less of a factor, with just 38% highlighting this in 2017 compared to over half last year (51%).

Governance continues to be an issue. Less than half (48%) have formal written policies for using social media that all employees must follow. This is an improvement on 2014, when just a quarter (25%) had policies in place and over half (52%) had no idea if they had or not.

Nick Eatock, Intelliflo’s executive chairman, said: “It’s good to see that governance is increasing for social media usage but there are still too many adviser firms who are trusting to luck and not putting in place formal social media policies.”
Intelliflo has prepared a free social media tool that is free to download for advisers to download.

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