Unlike their counterparts in the Western world, Indian advisors do not find social media a channel for business expansion. Most of the advisors feel that Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin haven’t helped them to expand their business or gain popularity among clients or prospects. “We have not initiated any social media page because we do not think that it is the right way to grow my business. The media mostly connects you to people you already know and does not even generate any business,” said Gajendra Kothari. His views are fairly representative of the IFA community in this regard.
In an opinion poll on social media done by Cafemutual a few months back, one out of two IFAs did not even know what social media was. Only 16% of the respondents said that they were using social media for business.
“Advisors have to be clear about what they want to achieve from social media. Most of the IFAs are unable to attain any goals whether it is popularity among clients or business expansion through social media,” said Sumeet Vaid, Founder, Ffreedom Wealth Solutions.
Kanak Jain, a Kolkata based advisor feel that social media should be used in a proper way to gain popularity. He accepts the fact that it does not help to generate business and there are negligible chances of turning social media prospects into clients. Kanak has launched an investor awareness page in Facebook four months ago. Earlier the page was popular among only 20 people but now 200 people are its members. He promotes his financial advisory service through this page.
He also constantly updates the page with facts that investors should be aware of. He also updates details of his fortnightly investor seminars on his page. Kanak has gained popularity among many new prospects through this page as members in these pages are constantly asking him to conduct investor awareness program.
Here is what the experts say about utilising social media:
- Advisors should be well aware about the nitty-gritty of social media before launching their own social media initiatives.
- They should also seek guidance from experts
- They should be prepared for constant engagement and be willing to devote ample time. They should be clear about what they seek to achieve through social media. In fact, they believe that IFAs should not use social media just because it is the trend.
