Facebook has become increasingly popular with financial advisers over the last year, a report suggests.

Research carried out by Intelliflo showed 36% of its Intelligent Office software users are using Facebook for business compared to 25% in 2015.

The third annual survey into social media usage found seven out of 10 engage in some sort of social media activity for business purposes, up from 58% in 2014 and 61% in 2015.

This year’s survey also found:

• LinkedIn has increased its ranking as the most popular social media platform for advisers, with 60% actively using it in 2016 compared to just 53% in 2015.
• Twitter usage was up: 40% have been using it in 2016 compared to 35% in 2015. However, it’s still down on 2014 when 41% were using it.
• Other social media platforms, such as Google+ are being used by 6%, which was up slightly compared to 4% in 2015 and the same as during 2014.

Asked why their company gets involved in social media, two thirds (62%) said it was to attract new clients - up from 59% in 2015.

Other reasons included:

• Being seen to be keeping up with modern communications systems - 54% compared to 69% in 2015
• To help with search engine optimisation - 50% compared to 41% in 2015
• To keep up to date with financial news and events - 42%, compared to 39% in 2015)
• To communicate with existing clients (46%, compared to 37% in 2015)
• To see what competitors are doing (14%, compared to 20% in 2015)

For those who don’t engage in social media, lack of knowledge and understanding about how to engage with it to provide business benefits was a barrier for almost a third (30%).

However, time was the biggest factor, with 51% saying they didn’t have the time or resources to devote to it.

Relevance to business is also questionable for some advisers, with 51% of those who don’t engage saying they don’t believe it is relevant for their business.

Nick Eatock, Intelliflo’s executive chairman said: “It’s interesting to see how use of social media is increasing with advisers year-on-year and there’s no doubt in my mind that, done correctly, there are tangible business benefits to be gained. However, it does require a strategy, governance and resources to be effective and that’s clearly a barrier for some businesses currently.”