No Finance On Facebook - Survey Finds Wealthy Don't Want Social Media Offerings

Anna Hallissey

21 July 2014

Despite a large uptake in social media amongst high net worth individuals in the past year, the wealthy do not want to use this medium for their finances.

While 57 per cent of millionaires asked in a study by Spectrem Group's Millionaire Corner use Facebook, only 1 per cent of respondents used it to contact their financial advisor.

Instead, half of the respondents to the Using Social Media and Mobile Technology in Financial Decisions survey communicate with their advisor using a video-chat platform.

This indicates a desire for the wealthy to continue face-to-face discussions with their advisors, but in a manner that does not require the time and travel required when meetings are conducted in person.

As well as this, only 13 per cent of mass affluent, 12 per cent of millionaires and 11 per cent of ultra high net worth individuals want to communicate with their advisor over text.

Despite recent demand for apps and a strong mobile interface, the study found that most of the wealth participants asked used a computer or a laptop for their financial activities rather than smartphones and tablets.

Participants asked were more likely to use their advisor’s website rather than their LinkedIn page as a vehicle to read financial blogs. On a sliding scale from 0 to 100 of likeliness, LinkedIn totted up 21 points while websites came in over twice as high at 52.06. Similarly, CNBC and Forbes ranked 50.81.

Other methods of digital communication that the survey’s participants spurned include financial or educational videos, with 60 per cent ignoring this medium. 83 per cent would opt for articles when gathering financial information compared to 5 per cent who wanted video presentation. Nevertheless, videos were more popular amongst younger demographics, with 57 per cent of the 36-44 age bracket using this medium.

The findings contradict frequent calls in the wealth management space for firms to improve their social media offerings on networks such as Twitter and LinkedIn. Instead it appears that while social media rises in popularity in the high net worth space, social media strategy must be implemented in the right way for a firm’s clients.

Rating advisors online

The survey also found that younger investors are more likely to want to access an online advisor rating system than their older peers.

On average, roughly a quarter of respondents wanted to access professional advisor ratings profiles using a smartphone or tablet. However, among millionaire investors under 35, popularity rose to 57 per cent.

The proposed system was also more popular among millionaires with a net worth of $1-2 billion than the mass affluent and ultra high net worths, with 30 per cent interested.

The Spectrem study examined investors in three wealth segments: mass affluent , millionaire and ultra high net worth .