Asset managers have been slow to adopt social media, according to the MHP Asset Management Social Media Survey 2011, the first survey of 100 asset managers on the issue by
MHP Asset Management.

The survey found that only 35 per cent of asset managers were active on Twitter, 29 per cent on YouTube and 11 per cent on Facebook, although 96 per cent of asset managers have a presence on LinkedIn.

“Asset managers have been slow to use social media. However, their stakeholders, particularly their current and future employees and clients are already tweeting and on Facebook, reading news on iPads rather than hardcopy newspapers, consuming information in very different ways,” said Martin Forrest, director, asset management and author of the survey.

“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. The challenge now is for asset managers to acknowledge this and actively manage their reputation through social media. Asset managers should take heed of the words of Eirik Solheim of Norwegian broadcaster NRK, who said in an interview about sharing content on new media channels that ‘the only way to control your content is to be the best provider of it,’” Forrest said.

The asset managers who do use Twitter tweet about a whole range of issues, including broad economic/investment views, marketing events and recruitment, according to the survey commentary. Meanwhile, 19 per cent of asset managers (19 of 65 asset managers that are “not active”) seem to be hesitant, “sitting on  the Twitter fence” – while they have secured their corporate name as a Twitter account to protect their brands, they have not been active, nor have they tweeted.

The 29 per cent of asset managers that have a YouTube channel use it to show short films on such things as investment views, educational topics, employee recruitment and training and marketing events.

Although globally the biggest social network, Facebook is the least used form of social media among asset managers. Only 11 per cent of asset managers have an active Facebook page including a “wall”.

On LinkedIn, the most used form of social media, Ameriprise Financial, Fidelity Investments and State Street Global Advisors have over 10,000 employees.

The geographical spread of the 100 asset managers surveyed was: North America – 42 asset managers; UK – 31; rest of Europe – 22; and rest of the world – 5.