NAIFA Blog

Financial professionals have yet to fully embrace the likes of Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube and MySpace as business tools, but recent surveys show that social media may be gaining a toe-hold in the industry. A poll of U.S and Canadian financial planners, brokers and registered investment advisors by American Century Investments found that 73% use social media, either professionally or socially. And while only 26% say social media is valuable to their businesses right now, 44% recognize it as a growing trend with business potential.

Almost half of the advisors who responded to the poll said regulatory or compliance worries may be the biggest obstacles to increased social media use. Additionally, 21% cited privacy concerns and 14% cited home office restrictions as potential limiting factors.

Additional Notes:

• In a separate study, 94% of financial advisors polled have Linkedin accounts.
• NAIFA maintains a social media presence using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr, Ning and, of course, the NAIFA Blog.
• NAIFA's Advisor Today magazine has released a new podcast, "15 Minutes a Day to Social Media Success."