Why Advisers Like LinkedIn
Atlanta Retirement Partners, a financial services firm in Georgia’s capital, and the 2019 PLANSPONSOR Retirement Plan Adviser Small Team of the Year, heavily relies on LinkedIn for research and prospecting, says David Griffin, founder of the firm.
Whether searching for background details on prospective clients, deciphering who has the real authority when it comes to potential benefits decisions, or figuring out who may have a working relationship with a client or center of influence, LinkedIn is very powerful, he says.
“We do almost everything through LinkedIn; it’s the easiest way to target those people who are decisionmakers for institutional-type plans,” Griffin says. “We find that this preparation strengthens your relationship with your prospects and customers. You can talk about things that are important to them or their business.”
LinkedIn InMail has proved to be particularly effective for his firm, Griffin says.
“If you look at your LinkedIn and you see you have a message, you feel fairly compelled to respond to it,” he notes.
Data from the Putnam Investments Social Advisor 2020 Study suggest that nearly three-quarters of advisers (74%) now rely on direct messaging through social network platforms to communicate with clients and prospects. Of this group, 94% report gaining new assets.
The survey demonstrates that 50% of advisers now use direct messaging on LinkedIn, with 92% gaining assets; 38% use Facebook for direct messaging, with 98% gaining assets; 33% use Twitter for direct messaging, with 98% gaining assets; and 26% use direct messaging on Instagram, with 98% gaining assets.
Advisers Use Direct Messaging On Social Media to Gain Assets
with 92%
gaining assets
with 98%
gaining assets
with 98%
gaining assets
with 98%
gaining assets
with 92%
gaining assets
with 98%
gaining assets
with 98%
gaining assets
with 98%
gaining assets
with 92%
gaining assets
with 98%
gaining assets
with 98%
gaining assets
with 98%
gaining assets
with 92%
gaining assets
with 98%
gaining assets
with 98%
gaining assets
with 98%
gaining assets
Source: Putnam Investments Social Advisor 2020 Study
Mark McKenna, Putnam’s head of global marketing, and Rene Taber, the firm’s research director, say the 2020 survey reveals that a sea change has occurred when it comes to advisers’ social media outreach.
“Our research shows that many of the changes advisers have made to how they use social media during the pandemic will become foundational for their communications with clients on a go-forward basis,” McKenna says.
“This is an interesting development because there had, for a while, been this idea that social media is a place to build your brand and get your name out there, but increasingly it’s a direct communication platform for advisers to reach their clients and prospects,” Taber says.
The Putnam sources say that advisers who have taken the extra step of paying for LinkedIn’s premium services have become big advocates of the platform. Their success building referral networks and sourcing prospects cannot be ignored, McKenna and Taber observe.
“A significant number of advisers have really embraced InMail messaging via LinkedIn,” McKenna says. “With so many people experiencing some degree of email clutter or even email fatigue, advisers see this direct communication pathway as being highly effective in terms of reaching clients and prospects. They can also use Facebook messenger for this purposes, but that’s not as common or effective.”
Taber and McKenna speculate that LinkedIn is the preferred platform for a number of reasons, some more obvious than others. Particularly important has been its focus on helping people build networks defined in terms of “layers” or “levels” of connection.
“To its credit, LinkedIn provides a robust and evolving set of tools and services, including Sales Navigator, which is very popular among successful and growing advisers,” McKenna says. “You can use its paid services to really look at all of your second- and third-level connections and strategically build out a network of potential clients, referrals, prospects, etc.”
The Putnam data underscore all of these points. Nearly half of advisers (48%) who initiated new relationships during the pandemic used LinkedIn’s InMail feature to contact out-of-network prospects. At the same time, 36% said they have hosted or participated in a LinkedIn Live session. Additionally, 80% of advisers who initiated new relationships since late February used a premium membership.