Although about 73% of Certified Financial Planner professionals say they use social media, only about 45% use it for professional purposes, according to a recent survey of 3,532 CFP designation holders by the CFP Board.
CFPs cited three main reasons for not using social media for professional purposes:
- Compliance prohibitions and limitations (mentioned by 37%)
- Uncertainty over compliance and regulatory requirements (33%)
- Lack of time (20%).
The CFP Board also released a new Social Media Guide for CFP® Professionals. The guide is intended to help the nation’s 67,000 CFP professionals promote their designations through social media. The document can be found here and on CFP Board’s website.
The survey also revealed that:
- LinkedIn is the most popular social media channel for professional use (81.9%), followed by blogs (71.8%), Twitter (45.9%), Google+ (34.5%) and Facebook (19.6%).
- CFP professionals’ compliance departments prohibit them most often from using:
- Facebook (33%)
- Twitter (29.4%)
- YouTube (28.7%)
- Planners use social media professionally to:
- Network with other planners (44.8%)
- Follow professional news and trends (43.1%)
- Marketing and business promotion (33.1%)
- 61.2% of CFP® professionals post to social media channels “infrequently”
- 70% said their firm or company has a formal social media policy that addresses compliance procedures, restrictions and requirements for prior approval.
- 41% of respondents use “CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional” to describe themselves to clients. They also use the terms “financial advisor” and “financial planner.”
