LinkedIn is favoured news source for finance professionals

Finance industry professionals using social media as a source for industry news have a strong preference for LinkedIn over facebook or Twitter.

A survey commissioned by Shed Social and Wealth Know How found that social media is becoming an important news source in the financial services industry. Eleven per cent of respondents said social media was their principal source of financial information, while 72 per cent said online media was their principal source and 17 per cent said offline (traditional) media.

LinkedIn was the principle source of information for seven per cent, Facebook was the principal source for two per cent and Twitter two per cent.

Finance industry trade press dominated in the online category, with 58 per cent saying they got financial information from "trade and industry media" and 23 per cent saying it was their principal source of information.

Bloomberg was listed by ten per cent of respondents as their principal source and the Australian Financial Review by nine per cent.

Metropolitan newspapers were cited as a principal online source by only five per cent of respondents.

The head of Wealth Know How, George Lucas, said: "The mainstream media has been marginalised in the rapidly evolving digital landscape."

Eighty per cent of respondents said they accessed financial information online several times a day. Nine per cent said they went online looking for information once a day, eight per cent said several times a week and two per cent said once a week.