Nearly 90% of Affluent Consumers Use Social Media [Study]

About 90 percent of mass affluent consumers use social media, according to a recent LinkedIn study.

The study, Influencing the Mass Affluent, classifies the mass affluent as consumers who have investable assets between $100,000 and $1 million. LinkedIn says that this group is active on social media and could prove a key market for financial institutions.

Of that 90 percent of the mass affluent that use social media, 44 percent engage with financial institutions on social media. LinkedIn reports that another 34 percent actively engage with financial institutions' content through social networking.

LinkedIn found that the mass affluent use social media primarily for professional reasons. The firm's study reported that one out of every two surveyed use social media to connect with other professionals. While one in three use social media to engage with professional content.

"Members on our platform have a value exchange and sense of trust with the platform. Because of that we have seen financial firms really adopt [LinkedIn] beyond just display advertising," said LinkedIn's lead executive in financial services, Jennifer Grazel.

According to the report, 36 percent of the mass affluent use social media for discovery and consideration. LinkedIn classifies discovery as learning about trends, products, and services, while the firm denotes that consideration as actively seeking advice on the things they've learned through social media.

LinkedIn classifies the mass affluent in three categories. The firm says that the mass affluent is either acquiring wealth, about to retire, or already retired. According to the research, financial institutions must tailor their social networking campaigns differently for each group.

"The key that struck a cord with us was the types of information mass affluents are getting through social media," Grazel saud.

For those accumulating wealth, relevant content is the most important factor for financial companies using social media. Those soon to retire find that timely updates are the most important factor when using social media. While retired consumers care more about strong customer support through social media.

Across all consumer types, information about new product information was found to be very important. Those surveyed said that they would like to see new product information posted on social media for both brokerage firms and credit/debit card companies.

LinkedIn also recommends that financial institutions must be mindful to drive conversation through social media. The company says that proper discussion on social media leads to greater influence and improved lead generation.

Twitter Ads Self-Serve Platform Opens to All U.S. Users

Twitter's self-serve ad platform is now available to all U.S. users, rather than just on an invitation-only basis.

The social media platform has also added enhancements designed to help advertisers better analyze and manage their ad campaigns.

In an online statement, Twitter said it has widened reporting on user engagement with Promoted Tweets – the sponsored tweets that appear at the top of its news feed – to include not just paid media but also earned media, or those that are voluntarily retweeted or commented on by other Twitter users.

"This change gives marketers more complete insight into the impact Promoted Tweets have in driving engagement and exposure on Twitter," the company said.

Twitter also made changes in its ads center that it claims gives advertisers more detail on audience segments, allowing them to view their audience, for example, by device, location, gender, and interest.

Twitter has been slowly phasing in Promoted Tweets and Promoted Accounts over the past few years, and in March announced the availability of a self-serve ad platform to a limited number of companies by invitation only. For some marketers, the wider availability of Twitter's ad platform comes none too soon.

"People have been salivating for an ad platform on Twitter for quite a while. If they had launched this one or two years ago, it would have been rolling along by now," says Maciej Fita, SEO director at Brandignity, a Naples, Florida-based agency that helps small-to-medium-sized companies with digital marketing efforts.

Fita, who said a few of his clients have tried out the platform in beta, welcomed the new analytics abilities but said that Twitter still had a long way to go in terms of offering a mature ad platform.

"I don't think the conversion tracking is that good and maneuvering though the ad platform is somewhat confusing," he said, noting that it would take Twitter a while to approach the level of Google AdWords or Facebook in allowing companies to see precisely where conversions were coming from.