Latest figures released by the Financial Planning Association (FPA) highlights that the peak professional body is delivering new benefits for its members through the use of social media platforms.
This week, the FPA reached a milestone exceeding 1,000 FPA members who have joined their exclusive LinkedIn Members Forum, launched in November last year. On average, 40 FPA members join the Forum each week, along with around 10 new discussions posted per week and over 30 comments per week.
While the LinkedIn Forum enables FPA members to discuss and debate issues that are important to them, Twitter provides an efficient and effective channel to keep members updated on news and developments. The FPA’s Twitter following has dramatically increased from a standing start in just over 6 weeks.
Mark Rantall, CEO of the FPA, believes that leveraging social media is another way the professional body goes the extra mile for its members.
“Our members’ interests are always at the heart of what we do. Social media is important to make sure that we are keeping in touch with our members across a range of communication channels and enabling them to engage with us in different ways of their choice.
“Communicating with our members is especially crucial in the current climate with so much industry reform and business change taking place. In the past few months, we’ve fully utilised all of the traditional and new media channels available to us to keep members up-to-date.” said Mr Rantall.
Lindy Jones, FPA’s Chief Marketing Officer, believes the FPA’s Twitter and LinkedIn channels have proved extremely successful in breaking new ground to communicate with FPA members.
“The LinkedIn Forum is only open to FPA members, and provides a means for them to discuss views and exchange opinions with each other on the issues that affect them as professionals. The subject matter, collegiate tone and calibre of insight distinguish this Forum from any other online media for financial planners,” said Ms Jones.
“We’ve also found the LinkedIn Forum has been very effective in testing the temperature of our membership on a range of issues, as well as gathering member views to develop our Government Policy submissions. For instance, the Federal Budget submission in January prompted a debate in the Forum about the hot topic of tax deductibility of advice fees. The Forum’s views were taken into account when we developed the Submission.
“While Investment Trends’ research tells us that only around one in ten financial planners use Twitter, we also know that FPA members who follow us on Twitter appreciated the minute-by-minute updates from January PJC inquiry and the February SEC hearings into FoFA. You simply can’t achieve the same level of immediacy with other media.”
In the coming weeks, the FPA will look to build on its social media strategy by including online forums on its website at www.fpabestpractice.com.au. The online forums will facilitate discussion about the Shadow Shopper report and members’ views before and after the exclusive FPA workshop events held throughout Australia in May with ASIC and FOS. The FPA will also be launching a new online knowledge hub and practical toolkits in the next month to deliver further value to its members.