The CFA Institute made me do it: A social media tale

I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want to develop a business presence on Facebook. LinkedIn, Twitter, and my blog kept me busy enough.

But then I heard that the CFA Institute had way more followers on Facebook than LinkedIn. How many? I forget the numbers I heard at the institute’s 2010 annual conference, but more recent statistics include

Facebook – more than 40,000 fans
LinkedIn member group – almost 14,000 (and 27,000 in candidate group)
Twitter – more than 8,000
LinkedIn company page – almost 3,800

I found these stats in “The CFA Network” in CFA Magazine. The big gap between Facebook and other social media made me think seriously about Facebook.

I’m not saying that 40,000 fans on Facebook are worth more than 14,000 group members on LinkedIn. It seems as if the CFA Institute’s LinkedIn members are more engaged than its Facebook members. I enjoy my conversations on the group very much.

However, the Facebook numbers made me think about delivering content the way my readers want. I’ve blogged about this in “Great blog posts don’t matter…” Eventually I started an Investment Writing Facebook page. The Facebook page has become another way for me to share my blog posts and to experiment with starting conversations.

My Facebook page is still evolving. I haven’t found the right formula yet. But I’ve had fun experimenting. Thank you, CFA Institute!

Robyn Bradley says:

August 30, 2011 at 4:28 pm

FB and LinkedIn are SO different. I find it interesting that CFA has more FB fans. How engaged are those fans, that’s the question (what’s the percentage of likes and comments to the number of fans)?

I much prefer FB to LI and Twitter…there’s room to have more of a conversation, I find. (It’s also where more of my audience hangs out.)