Asset managers use LinkedIn - but forget the rest

July 04, 2011

LinkedIn is the only social network that British asset managers have truly embraced, according to newly-published figures that show an astonishing apathy from the UK's financial services operatives towards social networking.

The MHP Asset Management Social Media Survey 2011 - which sought the opinions of 100 asset managers working in the UK - showed that just 35 per cent of them are active on Twitter. Only 29 per cent of them had a presence on YouTube while a mere 11 per cent of them were active on Facebook.

In complete contrast to these figures, some 96 per cent of the managers polled said they had a LinkedIn profile or kept some kind of presence on the business-orientated networking site.

Martin Forrest, director, asset management and author of the MHP Asset Management Social Media Survey, said that it was imperative for asset managers to do more to embrace social media - or else risk being left behind by their clients.

He warned that their stakeholders - whether clients, or future employees, or suppliers - were already incorporating Twitter and Facebook into their everyday operations and firmly establishing themselves as members of the iPad generation.

"In social media, there is not any separation between employees' work and private lives. As such, most asset managers unwittingly have a social media presence," he said. "The challenge now is for asset managers to acknowledge this and actively manage their reputation through social media."