Participants Active on Social Media and Mobile Apps

Retirement plan participants are very active on social media, Spectrem Group found in its second quarter survey of 1,135 participants in defined contribution plans.

Seventy-eight percent use Facebook, 49% use LinkedIn, 39% use YouTube, and 28% use Instagram. Only 11% do not use any social media platform.

Twenty-five percent view videos on websites. As far as their interest level in what they would like to accomplish on websites, 67% want to access their account information, 47% want account aggregation, 34% want advice from financial experts, 29% want information about financial topics and products, and 22% want videos about financial topics.

Spectrem says that retirement plan providers and advisers that utilize social media and digital technology to communicate with participants will have a significant advantage over their competitors in building long-term relationships with participants.