Financial trade press dominates the mainstream media as the principal online source for news amongst financial professionals, according a new Wealth Know How-Shed Social survey.
The ascendancy of trade media as the main financial news destination underlines the value of specialist publications, says Alex McGregor, Director, Shed Social.
“Financial professionals are looking to focus on the news and content that best fits their speciality,” he said. “For instance, the superannuation or investment management sector are well catered for with specialist publications in the trade media.”
According to the new Wealth Know How-Shed Social survey, the principal sources of financial information for professionals are:
- Online – 72 per cent
- Offline which includes traditional media such as print, radio, television – 17 per cent
- Social media – 11 per cent
“When we break down the numbers we see that the mainstream media has been marginalized in the rapidly evolving digital landscape,” said George Lucas from Wealth Know How.
- Trade press – 23 per cent
- Bloomberg – 10 per cent.
- AFR – 9 per cent
- Metro newspapers (eg. SMH., Aust., Telegraph) – 5 per cent
“The strong Bloomberg numbers would suggest a desire to go outside local sources for global economic and market news, particularly if access is free,” he said.
The exclusive Wealth Know How-Shed Social survey canvassed the top end of Australia’s financial services professionals – with singular focus on financial managers, financial planners and institutional investment industry professionals – to investigate their sources of their financial information.
The Wealth Know How-Shed Social survey was conducted by the independent polling company, McGregor Tan Research, and 644 financial professionals responded.
“When 80 per cent of financial professionals say they access financial news online ‘several times a day’, it is important to know where they are looking,” he said. “In the Funds management sector the number was 87 per cent.”
“Whatever the platform or the source, this survey shows there is a genuine hunger amongst financial professionals for regular, up-to-the-minute financial intelligence and commentary.”
Lucas said a significant survey result was that smartphones already equalled desktops as the main source for news – 64 per cent said that they use smartphones to seek out their financial information.
“The easy, real time, access of smartphones is changing how people do business,” he said. “Consumers can now demand greater transparency and quicker access in their dealings with the financial funds and advisers.”
“The increased use of mobiles – or other portable tablets, such as the Apple watch – to access news and information will only increase as the mobile technology becomes more sophisticated and the financial industry adapts its digital distribution of their data.”
The use of social media use by financial professionals was also remarkable, said Lucas. While 41% said they use social media in search of financial information, 11% use Social Media as their principal source for financial news. The main sources were:
- LinkedIn – 7 per cent
- Facebook – 2 per cent
- Twitter – 2 per cent
“While Facebook is the global dominant social media platform, financial professionals prefer to use LinkedIn as their principal social media source for news and information,” McGregor said.
“Financial professionals have traditionally taken a conservative approach in their adoption of new media but I think we are seeing a major turning up point in their shift from old media to the digital media,” he said.
“This will increase as we see generational shift in management and as traditional media brands increasingly use social media, in particular Facebook, to distribute their content.”
“The evolving technology of analytics – as in who visited your page, and for how long – will change not only media but also marketing of products, including financial services.”
Source: Shed Media
