Bluerating | October 2021
Chiara Ferragni, one of the best-known Italian influencers with millions of followers, has recently signed a long-term agreement with Safilo for the production and distribution of her first glasses collection. She has also recently joined Tod’s board of directors, causing the price of the company’s stock to skyrocket.
Almost all professionals consider social networks an essential tool for their activity. In fact, today everyone has the chance to have a sender, an audience, and an editorial line.
LinkedIn is the most used social network by the professionals of asset management: 89% of financial advisors use LinkedIn, and the percentage reaches 92% among the giants of the industry.
Private Bankers stand out among bank employees with 85% of use for work, as compared to 25% among Bank Managers dedicated to the affluent segment.
Facebook records much lower percentages: 43% among financial advisors, 35% among top managers, 24% among Private Bankers and only 8% among Bank managers.
At the moment, Twitter and Instagram have unimportant percentages of use, well below 10%.
Why are social networks being employed? 71% of financial advisors use social networks mainly for “visibility among current and potential clients”, a percentage which decreases to 49% and 37% respectively among bank employees dedicated to private and affluent clients.
Bank employees believe that social networks are also a “valuable tool to keep up to date” (72%), a use valued less by financial advisors (54%).
Bank employees trust social networks to “gain information on acquired clients” (44%) or to “acquire new ones” (39%): once more, this use tends to be valued less by financial advisors (21% and 17% respectively), maybe because they have a well-established client portfolio.
From these data, it is possible to draw some conclusions.
Social networks are fundamental for any professional who wants to nourish his/her reputation and visibility on the market.
However, the mere presence on LinkedIn or Facebook is not in itself a guarantee of success or, especially in the complex world of asset management, a tool able to ensure the acquisition of new clients or the loyalty of old clients.
A professional’s reputation is built day after day by assisting clients in the best way possible. Clients, in turn, contribute to pave the way to success through personal recommendation.
After all, 74% of millennial HNWIs use social networks (LinkedIn 69%, Facebook 56%, Instagram 14%) to check their reputation as Private Bankers, Financial Advisors, and banks.
The key concept is not online presence, which by now tends to be taken for granted. It is, instead, the quality and the content of connections: however present, if a professional is not well-connected, s/he remains alone. Chiara Ferragni docet.
Nicola Ronchetti