Richard Dunkerley

The number of financial advisers using mobile tablets as client engagement tools has quadrupled in just over two years, and one in ten advisers are active users of the rapidly growing Instagram platform.

These are the headline findings of the latest survey into usage of social media and mobile technology by Australian financial advisers.

The survey, conducted by Beaton Research and Consulting on behalf of Zurich Financial Services Australia Limited (Zurich), and the only survey of its kind, also found adviser usage of the main social media platforms has grown significantly, however a substantial proportion of advisers were still choosing not to incorporate social media into their client communication strategies.

The usage by tablet devices as a client engagement tool by financial advisers has increased significantly since this was last measured in 2012. According to the survey, 31% of advisers are now using mobile tablets with clients, compared to just 7% two years ago.

According to Mr Richard Dunkerley, Zurich’s Head of Marketing, Life and Investments, the increasing popularity of video is likely to be a key driver of this increase.

“We know from the popularity of our own YouTube channel that video is increasingly a preferred medium for advisers to demonstrate complex concepts to clients,’ he said.

“This is reinforced by our most recent survey, where advisers identified viewing online content and videos amongst the main reasons for using a tablet device in a client context.”

In terms of social media usage, LinkedIn, Skype and YouTube are the dominant platforms with advisers, with 61 per cent, 30.5 per cent and 19.5 per cent respectively using these platforms within their business. Overall usage (including non-business use of these platforms has also grown strongly since 2012, with LinkedIn increasing from 39.9 per cent to 65 per cent, Skype usage up from 33.9 per cent to 46 per cent, and YouTube up from 27.8% to 45.5 per cent.

The most significant growth however has been seen in usage of twitter, which increased by almost 80% since the previous survey, from 10.3 per cent to 18.5%. One in eight advisers said they were now using twitter as part of their client communication mix.

Notwithstanding the increasing role played by social media in client communication strategies, around one third of all advisers remain unconvinced, with lack of time and privacy concerns amongst the most common objections.

Alarmingly, when asked to estimate the proportion of their clients using social media, almost one quarter of those surveyed were unable to do so.

“Knowing your client shouldn’t just be about a financial fact find, it should be about understanding their service and communication preferences too, “said Mr Dunkerley.

“As demonstrated in our joint AFA/Beddoes whitepaper – Connecting with Clients – tailoring communication channels to client preferences is a key driver of client satisfaction and loyalty.

“Whilst social channels are not suited to every client in every situation, it is clear that an increasing number of consumers do prefer such channels, and whilst this is largely correlated with age it is not always the case; the starting point should always be to ask your clients, rather than make assumptions,” he said.

A full copy of the survey is available on request.

Notes:

1. Beaton Pulse Survey of 200 active financial advisers, conducted on behalf of Zurich, September 2014, Beaton Research and Consulting.
2. ‘Connecting with clients’, Association of Financial Advisers, Beddoes Institute and Zurich whitepaper, October 2013.

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The aim of the SLICE survey, which runs 3 times a year (each time on a different theme) is to provide financial planning practices with an opportunity to share their views and insights with their peers and build an understanding of the most effective approaches to a broad range of hot button topics that challenge practices’ efficiency, profitability and viability. The latest SLICE survey focuses on financial planners marketing strategies.

Survey authors, Peter Dawson of The Dawson Partnership and Susan Rochester of Balance at Work, say the latest survey provides data to confirm what they have observed among financial planning practices.

The vast majority of financial planners surveyed have a marketing plan (83%) with 73% of those with a plan saying they put the plan together either on their own or with their business partner(s) and 47% drawing on the resources of a practice development manager. 33% had input from a business coach.

‘Up until a few years ago our marketing plan was pretty rudimentary but as time has gone by we have adopted a more structured approach with regular marketing planning and review meetings that we hold each quarter. This has helped us keep a focus on our marketing campaign making sure it remains relevant to our business and helps us achieve our goals.’
Principal SME financial planning practice

Of those businesses with a marketing plan 53% said that having a plan in place has opened up new opportunities with 40% saying that they were unsure if having a marketing plan was responsible for new opportunities that arose for their businesses.

While most respondents don’t use an external source to assist them put together their marketing plan 50% said that they would be open to doing so as they felt that someone with the knowledge and experience could add value to their marketing planning.

‘I suppose it’s too easy to get bogged down in the day to day work in a one man practice and my approach to marketing is a bit hit and miss but I do recognize the value of having a marketing plan and would be willing to hire a marketing consultant.’
Sole practitioner

The main marketing strategy used by the most respondents was utilising formal business partnerships (33%) followed by direct referrals from existing clients (28%), while 11% use networking as their primary strategy.

‘We have traditionally gained most of our business from our clients but it got to the stage where we realised that to grow to where we wanted to be we would need to look at other means of growing the business. We had some relationships with local accounting firms and worked towards developing these. This strategy has led to an increase in revenue of 22% each year over the last three years.’
CEO SME Financial Planning group.

‘Although the majority of respondents say they track the effectiveness of their marketing via a range of means, there was a surprisingly wide variation in the sophistication of their processes. While some follow a process where all leads are tracked, monitored and the source identified, then report on results regularly to see what is working and what is a waste of time, others have very little in place.’
Susan Rochester

According to our respondents social media is not a major strategy in their current marketing plans and a number of respondents made comments including ‘Social media is just a lot of noise,’ ‘Social media maybe ok for an on line business but our firm is a people to people business and nothing can replace that’ and ‘My kids use Facebook and I just don’t get it’.

‘We expected to find one or two respondents reporting social media as their main marketing strategy. This was not the case in this sample, although comments indicated that practices are using social media to support other strategies, for example by sharing newsletter articles via social platforms.’
Peter Dawson

However social media wasn’t without some support with one respondent stating that she was open to using social media as ‘it’s all about connectivity and if I can interact with people at a professional level on social media that can only be good for my business’.

The practices that responded to this survey were mostly more than 10 years old (78%), with 17% who had been in business 6-10 years and only 6% for 5 years or less. The majority had fewer than 10 staff (72%) although 28% of respondents were from firms with 21 or more staff.

Concluding remarks

The Slice 3 survey has revealed a strong focus on financial planners developing structured marketing plans and that these are far from static documents as most reviewed their marketing plans on a regular basis. Respondents were focused on building their business by drawing on their relationships with their clients and through formal business relationships. Many are yet to embrace social media as a major part of their marketing plan, although this may change in time as attitudes shift.

For more information about the SLICE survey, contact Peter Dawson directly on 0418 601 245 or email peter@dawsonpartnership.com.au

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What happens to your social media accounts when you die?

As social media proliferates, dealing with a loved one’s digital footprint after their death will become an increasingly complicated issue, says Anna Hacker, wills and estates accredited specialist at Equity Trustees Limited (EQT).

“The treatment of physical assets in the estate planning process is well documented, but what about digital ones?” Ms Hacker asks.

“In the brave new world of FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram, Ebay, Paypal, LinkedIn, Kik, and the like, the process of shutting down a loved one’s social media account after death is not clear cut.

“What’s more, ownership of the material in the account, such as stored digital images, does not automatically pass to the estate beneficiaries.

“The issue for many is that they want to access photos that are stored on their deceased family members social media sites. In this digital age, when many of our photos are stored on social media sites, and nowhere else, it can be distressing to be denied access.”

Ms Hacker says social media aspects of estate planning are an emerging problem that will hit critical mass in the future.

“To date, social media hasn’t been a big issue in the estate planning process as the older generation is not as attuned to it. However, it will become a growing issue in the future, complicated by the fact that the legal treatment of digital assets after death is not clear cut.

“Social media assets, and how to account for them, is an issue we are increasingly raising with our clients when we are providing an estate planning service, to ensure they have thought through the implications.

“But the generation that really utilises social media heavily hasn’t been affected en mass yet.”

Ms Hacker says most social media sites do have policies on how a deceased person’s account can be closed by an executor, but the process depends completely on the terms and conditions of that entity.

“Being across what will happen with one social media account, is no guarantee that you are across the treatment that will apply for all of them,” Ms Hacker says.

“With Yahoo media, for example, the account is automatically closed in the event of the account holders death. With Facebook, the account can be converted to a memorial page. There is no uniformity of treatment.”

The issue can be further complicated by the different legal jurisdictions that these sites operate in.

“When you open a bank account with your local branch, you know that bank and you know that branch. But when you open an online account on social media, you could be anywhere.

“Most platforms are based in the US, and would have the relevant US law apply. In some circumstances you may need a court order to access the information, and often people won’t know this until it is too late.”

Ms Hacker says there are steps that can be taken in the estate planning and will drafting process that will assist

“The best approach is to ensure that you leave your social media details behind. In the same way that you might leave behind details for the code to a safe, you can leave a sealed document, stored with your will, containing all the information relating to your passwords and online accounts.

“Even this approach is problematic however, as online account passwords are often required to be updated regularly.

“Another issue to be considered is that by accessing an account after the account holder’s death, you could be acting illegally.

“The law hasn’t caught up with the implications of the treatment of digital assets on an account holder’s death, to properly deal with it. It is important that people are aware of this when completing their estate plan,” Ms Hacker concludes.

Ms Hacker’s tips for dealing with social media include:

• Keep a sealed record of the details of your digital accounts and passwords in a secure place
• Don’t only store your digital images on social media sites, and nowhere else
• Be aware that if you contact a social media site to inform about a family member’s death, the account may be immediately closed, and all information lost
• The laws related to social media are constantly evolving so if this is of relevance to you, make sure you keep updated as to changing rules
• Consider what might happen if you lose capacity and your attorney needs to deal with your social media access – this is almost unknown territory.

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Social media: learn the rules before you go online.

Remaining compliant as a financial adviser and not breaching any regulations, whether they concern the provision of best practice advice, privacy constraints, or legal responsibilities to remain within certain boundaries is actually a very simple thing to do.

Do not provide personal advice to clients in a public forum. Ever.  

….there…that was it…it is actually that simple.

The same rules, or guiding principles, that would apply to you when drafting a written advertisement in the local paper work for social media as well.  All the things that advisers are (or should be!) used to having to comply with apply when using social media.

This may seem to be simply stating the obvious, yet it is something that I have been asked about quite a bit.  It is something which is thrown up even more often as a barrier to using social media at all.  This fear of non-compliance for financial advisers is offered as a reason to ignore using the primary method of communication with other humans in the world today.

Here’s what I hear inside my head when I hear advisers offer this reasoning: “you’re saying you’ll stick with a musket thanks…because a rifle sounds dangerous”  

Voice inside my head goes on to say: The safety principles for both are the same…the purpose of the weapon is the same…but the difference in effectiveness is immense…what you are really saying is you haven’t familiarised yourself with the different extra features on the rifle or tried it in a safe environment…it is the learning that intimidates you, not the rifle itself”  

The reality is that all the customary things like not using bait advertising, or making false or misleading statements, or breaching privacy, simply extend to anyadvertising or marketing medium.  No matter whether that is digital marketing or print advertising  the same principles apply regardless.  Musket or rifle…the safety principles remain the same essentially.

To say that one doesn’t intend to use digital communications as a marketing method for fear of non-compliance is the same as saying I shall not run client appreciation events due to my fear of making a compliance slip whilst talking to my clients at a function.

The same principles of good behavior, ethics, and how one provides personalised advice apply regardless of the marketing medium used.

It really is that simple.

www.financialadvisercoach.com

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Turbo charge your social media to get great results.

For those advisers aspiring to greater things, two recent pieces of research may prove to contain the insights you need to drive your business further.

Shortly after revealing the extent to which advisers were adopting mobile technology and social media at a rate much faster than the overall community, we were excited when our latest partnership with the AFA and the Beddoes Institute bore fruit in the form of the ‘Trusted Adviser’ whitepaper.

This whitepaper, based on over 500 client interviews, quantified the extent to which Australia’s leading advisers are trusted by their clients, and more importantly quantified the business benefits of achieving such status.

The whitepaper also found that technical expertise, qualifications and experience are mere hygiene factors these days, and what clients truly value most in their adviser are their interpersonal skills; sometimes called ‘soft skills’ but in a modern context defined as ‘Emotional Intelligence’ (or EQ).

These superior interpersonal skills, identified by 82% of clients surveyed as the attributes they most value in their adviser, comprise: communication, rapport building, caring, understanding needs, listening and empathy.

Although these two studies were independent of each other, combining the insights from both makes for an extremely powerful competitive advantage. Put simply, these advisers who are able to harness the power of ‘new media’ to exhibit their EQ may well grab a head start over their peers as we head into a new era of consumer empowerment.

So how exactly can you demonstrate your EQ through social media platforms such as LinkedIn and Twitter and through the latest mobile technology such as smart phones and tablets?

1 Put yourself in your client shoes from the outset and think mobile first

The Yellow Pages is a product of a bygone era, today your prospects will find out about you via Google, and then in turn via your website and your social media presence.

We are almost at the tipping point of more online activity being done via mobile devices than via desk tops and laptops.

The implications of this? Think about employing the ‘mobile first’ philosophy when designing your online presence. At the time of writing very few advisers have optimised their website for smartphones. Doing so makes a massive positive difference to your accessibility and user experience. The first advisers to do this will steal a march on their peers.

2. Remember what is important to clients, every step of the way

Leading advisers all rate highly on technical expertise and experience; it’s why clients decide they need advice, but its not how they choose an adviser.

As the whitepaper proved, clients are interested in the ‘real you’; the person behind the desk. And yet the landing pages of most adviser websites focus on all the technical detail (qualifications, experience, services offered). This misses the point of what clients are looking for.

Think about this as your opportunity to ‘speed date’, and share content that focuses on the real you; why you do what you do, your interests outside of your business, your philosophy on life. Not all clients will suit all advisers (and vice versa). Cutting to the chase and focusing what’s important can make relationship building much more efficient.

If you are one of the 70% of advisers already using LinkedIn, this point is particularly crucial, as it has implications for the way you maintain your LinkedIn profile. What’s important to clients informs the way they search, meaning your profile should be keyword friendly and exhibit the real you, rather then just a laundry list of your job titles and qualifications.

3. How to show you care

The massive uptake in usage of social media has undoubtedly been fuelled by the growth in mobile technology which has made it easier than ever before to connect. But beware, many mobile versions of these social platforms short cut out some of the ‘niceties’. On LinkedIn for example, an invitation-to -connect sent from the mobile app will automatically use the default message ‘I’d like to connect’, which is about as personal as a bucket of cold water. If you care enough to connect, you should care enough to craft a personalised message about why you want to connect, which means using the full version of LinkedIn. Similarly, thank every new twitter follower you accumulate (at least every genuine one!), and open up your website to comments, to show the value you place on your client’s feedback.

4. Prove you are listening

One of the most basic listening skills involves playing back a conversation, perhaps asking questions that demonstrate you have been paying attention and are interested in what the other person has said. In a social media context this means engaging in two-way conversation, rather than simply using social as a one-way broadcast channel; think of it as a legitimate communication platform, the same as email or the telephone. Participate in group discussions, share content, share opinions.

When a well known social media guru and author spoke at this year’s MDRT meeting in Philadelphia he said the only metric that mattered to him was that 75% of his tweets were actually replies to tweets form his thousands of followers. It shows he’s listening, and cares enough to carry on the conversation.

5. Empathy

Empathy can mean a lot of things; in a social media context it can mean tailoring your content to your audience. In an ideal world, content would be totally personalised – to an individual level – and certainly the quality of smartphone video cameras these days makes it entirely practical to produce video content personalised to individual clients. Of course depending on your business this isn’t always practical, but thinking in terms of your client segments may well be.

6. Be there when you are needed

One of the most powerful case studies to come out of last year’s SMILEYS awards for social media best practice involved an adviser who followed his clients on social media, and through monitoring a conversation stream between his client and an airline, determined his client’s child was seriously ill. The adviser as able to get on the front foot and put the wheels in motion for a child trauma insurance claim, a demonstration of caring which was undoubtedly appreciated by his client who would have had other things on his mind at such a stressful time.

There is much skepticism about the business value of social media, but one way to break down the barrier to acceptance is to show how the secrets to success in this new world are actually the same fundamental ‘soft’ skills that have always driven success in the advice profession.

Indeed, as the famous New York Yankees pitcher – Peter ‘Yogi’ Berra – put it, “it’s déjà vu, all over again”.

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Speaking at the launch of a new Infographic – ‘Financial Advisers and Social Media’ – Mr Philip Kewin, GM Retail Life and Investments, said that the latest research proved beyond doubt that Australian financial advisers had recognised the importance of social media across the business value chain.

Financial advisers and social media

“Since late 2011, we have seen extraordinary growth in advisers using social media; especially the more business and news related platforms, such as Twitter, Linkedin and YouTube”, said Mr Kewin.

“These latest figures show the extent to which advisers are embedding social media into their everyday business operating model, from lead generation to customer care strategies” he said.

Highlights of the research – conducted on behalf of Zurich by Beaton Research and Consulting – include a staggering 123% growth in advisers’ usage of Twitter since December 2011 and a 74% growth in the use of Linkedin, both well in excess of the growth seen in the community over the same period, which was measured at 20% and 34% respectively.

Other findings included a 56% growth in the use of YouTube and 36% growth in Facebook usage over that period.

Commenting on the findings, Mr Kewin observed that the acceleration in usage was matched by corresponding growth in usage of mobile devices, especially tablets.

“Historically there have been many barriers to uptake of social media, including the amount of time needed to monitor and create content, but the widespread adoption of tablets, especially the iPad, has made it quicker and easier to access social platforms”, said Mr Kewin.

“Our own research from late 2012 estimated that over one third of advisers were already actively using tablets as a client engagement tool.

“We are very close to that tipping point where more online activity will be conducted from a mobile device than from desktops, and advisers should consider adopting the ‘mobile first’ philosophy already seen in other industries reliant on online channels”, said Mr Kewin.

To download the PDF infographic click here Financial Advisers and Social Media.

To see the previous survey results and Infographic by Zurich Financial Services Australia click here.

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