Social media is becoming the biggest source of new business, says Carolyn Gowen
Historically, financial advice firms have sworn by word of mouth. But, predicts Carolyn Gowen, social media is becoming a much bigger source of new business.
Carolyn is Branch Principal at Bloomsbury Wealth in London. In the latest Intelligent Adviser podcast, she explains how one of the key changes in the advice profession in the UK over the next ten years “will be the rise of social media as the biggest source of new clients for firms.
“Already in the US that’s happening,” she says. “It makes sense because they can read your blogs, they can see what you’re saying on Twitter, they can get a feel for who you are as a person.”
However Carolyn admits that she used to be very sceptical about the idea of advisers being on social media.
“I have to say, before I launched (my blog) The Financial Bodyguard, I went on record as saying that Twitter was a waste of time and that I couldn’t see the point of it,” she says.
“The reason for that was that, when I was looking at Twitter, I was following UK financial advisers and I didn’t know anyone else. I honestly couldn’t see that it benefited me in any way. It was people just stating things, whining or arguing.
“But then I started reading Tadas Viskanta’s Abnormal Returns, where he curates the most amazing amount of content. Through that, I found some absolutely brilliant writers and, through them, I discovered Financial Twitter.
“I think what’s great about the FinTwit community is that it’s people from all aspects of the investment industry — quant managers, hedge fund managers, active investors, passive investors. It’s a broad church, but everybody is so polite: there’s no sniping or back-biting or attacking people. I can’t tell you how much I’ve learned from some of the people.”
You can listen to the podcast here:
The Intelligent Adviser Podcast is on both SoundCloud and iTunes. Please support our work by leaving a review, and by sharing these podcasts with colleagues, as well as on social media.
Carolyn Gowen blogs as The Financial Bodyguard. You can follow her on Twitter at @CarolynGowen.