Independents have upper hand in social media boom

Speaking to ifa, Humble Financial Services director Colin Williams said that independent planners have the ability to personalise their websites much more readily than big players can, in order to further engage prospective clients.

“Corporates really struggle to personalise their information, whereas individuals don't, so people really identify with their financial planner and the business just through the personalisation of what they’re doing,” Williams said.

“Most people would find it hard to communicate with a big bank, but they would find it very easy to communicate with someone in their local areas who is obviously a part of the community.

“That is to be by far the biggest opportunity that they have.”

Williams said that many financial planners avoid using social media out of fear of saying the wrong thing in a large public domain, not dissimilar to “stage fright”.

However, he said that social media is tailor-made for planners, aligning to many of the strengths of those in the advice industry.

“Most financial planners are good talkers, they know how to ask the right questions, they know how to listen, so a large part of social media I think is really made for planners” Williams said.

“It’s the way of the world and an online presence now effectively means whether you’re going to be relevant or not in the years ahead.”