Social media isn't just about tweeting and flashy profiles - monitoring engagement rates and comments, as well as trends and competitor activity, are all key parts of a winning social media strategy, according to a report launched today.

The concept of social media once jarred with the more “traditional” values defining wealth management and has, therefore, to at least some degree been ignored by the industry globally. But wealth managers today can and should catch up with technology after years of underestimation, says Emma Haffenden of MyPrivateBanking Research, which has launched a new report, entitled Social Media for Wealth Management 2016 – Learning from the Best.

MyPrivateBanking Research analysed the social media performance of over 200 wealth managers globally and said the shift from traditional advertising to cross-platform content marketing is “still a significant challenge facing many wealth managers around the globe.” The study focused on four platforms: Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Facebook, plus the growing networks on Pinterest and Instagram.

Wealth managers in the US have built the most popular (in terms of followers or equivalent metric) social media presences compared to their global peers, with players such as Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs proving particularly successful, according to the research.

The US is likely leading the pack because it is home to the highest concentration of high net worth individuals, as well as having been an early adopter of technology and social media, Haffenden, a senior analyst at MyPrivateBanking, told this publication. “It will be interesting to see how this develops over the next couple of years given that some countries are reaching their saturation point in terms of users, and other countries are rapidly catching up.”

Indeed, MyPrivateBanking said it also found “excellent features” offered by other wealth managers who “do not achieve the big numbers.” In Europe, Barclays Wealth and Investment Management, for example, and smaller companies such as Belgium-based BNP Paribas Fortis Belgique, had “outstanding profiles that trigger relatively high engagement rates.”

Turning to Asia, the Swiss firm did a survey in 2014 and found that social media in China is of great importance for HNW clients, particularly for those with assets in international booking centers, Haffenden noted. In its latest report, MyPrivateBanking took a closer look at Asian countries and found popular social media networks such as WeChat to be highly functional today, she said.

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Based on its findings, MyPrivateBanking said the wealth management industry as a whole needs to include more visuals and interactions when it comes to social media, as many players' profiles still only feature basic text-based posts such as articles, or simple statements with the odd link.

By implementing a well thought-out social media strategy, wealth managers can really boost their businesses in a number of ways including through online reputation management, client support, personalisation and trend scouting, it said.

“The reputation of wealth managers – and all firms – is an asset which is exposed differently now compared to, say, ten years ago,” Haffenden said. “In the client’s sense, all wealth managers are on social media (even if they do not actively participate themselves). As we mention in our report, social media can impact both the market and investors’ perceptions, hence it is crucial that wealth managers master their own online persona. Negative (as well as positive or constructive) feedback must be responded to in a timely and professional manner, and content must reflect the wealth manager’s brand and values at all times.” (Haffenden noted that MyPrivateBanking found it difficult, in a few cases, to find the wealth management business’ social media profile due to discrepancies in the names.)

On the topic of personalisation, wealth managers can show their “human face” by presenting high-value content through key employees such as the CIO, but should also encourage client-facing experts to build their own social media profiles and offer clients investment insights and economic analysis, Haffenden said.

Trend scouting, meanwhile, refers to the process of following trends on platforms that use hashtags and have strong search functions. “Wealth managers can monitor trends in the market and from their competitors to ensure they tap into the conversations their clients care about the most, whilst presenting themselves as trend-setters and influencers at the same time,” Haffenden said.

Indeed, MyPrivateBanking acknowledged that while it can be difficult for some firms to justify spend on outcomes that may be hard to measure, social media management tools have emerged that aim to streamline the process of maintaining accounts, as well as offer insights into user behaviour.

“One of the key tasks is to organise the supply of original content that can be posted on social media from across the organisation,” Haffenden said. “Hence, at the beginning, it is time-intensive, but if done right, costs and labour input can be minimised.”