Putnam Survey Shows Nearly 80% of Advisors Gained New Clients Using Social Media

For the third year in a row, Putnam Investments released the results of its latest Social Advisor survey, which looks at the social media usage habits of over 800 financial advisors, comprising all business models, geographies, ages and gender. The survey, performed by BrightWork Partners on Putnam’s behalf, revealed some interesting data around four key areas: social media usage, demographics, social networks, and business goals.
According to the 2015 Putnam Investments Social Advisor survey, 79% of advisors who use social media gained new clients through social networks and of those, 29% gained over $1 million in new assets. That’s up from 66% in 2014 and just 49% in 2013. These numbers clearly show that social media use among advisors — and ROI — are on the rise.

And just who is the “social advisor”? According to the study, the typical financial advisor who uses social media and has acquired clients as a result of it possesses the following characteristics:

44-year-old male wirehouse advisor with 10 years of experience
Active on five social networks
Runs a book of business worth $80 million (median)
Gained an average of $1.8 million of client assets using social media

In the survey, advisors were asked how they are leveraging their primary social networks for business. The survey revealed that LinkedIn has by far the highest advisor adoption rate (70%), followed by Facebook (47%) and Twitter (42%).

To learn more insights about the survey, read the press release or check out the full 2015 infographic, now available for download.
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Nicole Johnson