Friday’s headlines: Financial Advisors Say Social Media is a Marketing Tool Bust

Despite the pressure to jump on Twitter and Facebook to promote their services, most financial advisors say social media did little to boost business, according to an Investment News article titled “For advisers, it’s more like social notworking.” In fact, the reported benefits of social media have plummeted over the past two years.

Aite Group conducted a survey of 437 financial advisors and found that while social media use has clearly increased since 2009, with about half saying they use some form of social media professionally. However, a mere 19 percent reported the media brought in new prospects, down from 36 percent two years ago, and just 6 percent said it helped increase revenue, down from 16 percent.

The story quotes Aite senior analyst Ron Shevlin: “I think to a certain extent, the hype around social media has been overplayed. For many advisors, especially those who were not good marketers to begin with, they keep hearing ‘You gotta be on Facebook and Twitter,’ but they get on and it doesn't produce any results.”

Compliance rules stifle some advisors. Also, the fact that most clients still find advisors by word-of-mouth may explain the findings.

Other News:

The justice department approved the merger of NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Borse. [Financial Times]

Institutional investors continue to pour money into hedge funds, despite performance. [NY Times]

A law-school grad, an MBA candidate and a master's in international affairs talk about why they're jobless. [Businessweek]

Citi raised a $415 million collateralized loan obligation, to be managed by the asset manager CIFC Corporation. [Bloomberg]

Lehman spinoff fund Trilantic is seeking $2 billion for a fund. [Businessweek]

Asian private equity firms are suffering at the hands of the European crisis. [Reuters]

South Korean IPOs on the rise. [Bloomberg]

DealBook parodies the classic holiday poem with its “‘Twas the Week After Layoffs.” [DealBook]