The social media challenge for wealth managers

Social media has now grown to be a fundamental part of the fabric of our lives: the way we communicate, consume, engage in politics, the environment and work are just a few of the ways we are impacted. Yet UK wealth managers in general are slow to engage in any meaningful way.

There is overall a rudimentary and passive presence in the social media – widely limited to a use of the channels to link to information distributed in other ways. The stock response is “our clients are not great users of social media” – but is this a dangerous view to take?

The risk in this approach lies in ignoring that the next generation of wealth clients is already being tempted away by online and digital offerings, where social media engagement is “built in”.  An imaginative and forward-looking use of social media (while keeping data collected safe and proportionate) as well as access to “traditional” information through digital channels is needed now to grow the client base for the future. The risk of appearing staid and unappealing to the next generation of clients is one of the single most potent risks faced by today’s wealth manager.

Now is not a time to be cautious – it is a time to engage with the future.

Note: This opinion piece was first published by Knadel Limited prior to the Catalyst-Sionic merger