“Advisors are developing ways to use social media and, as a result, have seen significantly more growth and expansion of their client bases.”

This conclusion is from a new independent study commissioned by Pershing Advisor Solutions LLC, a BNY Mellon company, developed in conjunction with Aite Group. This is the first study we’ve seen that links financial advisors’ use of social media with the growth of their firms.

Creating Growth: The Increased Use of Social Media by Independent Advisors reports on results from 144 U.S.-based registered investment advisors (RIAs). One-third of the respondents were employed at firms with more than $1 billion in assets under management and 37% work for firms with less than $100 million under management. Naturally, we wish the sample had been larger but trust that Pershing and Aite have confidence in their report.

Read the press release and be sure to see RIABiz‘s expanded coverage, including charts and reaction interviews.

Twitter always comes in third behind LinkedIn and Facebook in advisor adoption surveys. In one of our comments to RIABiz, we likened joining Twitter to walking into a bar where there are conversations underway and it takes some time to acclimate. In building the AdvisorTweets database, we see advisors joining Twitter, giving it a go and then abandoning their accounts.

To be sure, some abandonment may be related Compliance issues but most abandoned advisor accounts have few followers and appear on few Twitter lists. We’re sorry about this, given the success that other advisors have. And, we happen to think that Twitter is the social networking platform most appropriate for advisor marketing purposes.

We’ve commented on this before and do our best to support new recruits by forwarding their tweets and adding them to our JustAdded Twitter list. A few other ideas are in the works, as well.

Do you have any suggestions about how to give advisor Twitter newbies a lift up? All are welcome below!