Asset managers posted less on social media but engagement improved

ESG, expert views and market continue to be the most frequently posted about on LinkedIn, data by Fundamental Media shows

Key points:

• Asset managers posted 4,425 times on social media during Q2 2023, with an average sentiment of 0.91 and an average engagement of 46.3 per post
• Average engagement levels for LinkedIn were quite stable, while they varied greatly for YouTube
• Asset managers continue to post most frequently about expert views, ESG and market on LinkedIn

Asset managers posted less on social media during Q2 compared to a quarter earlier but were more positive and received a higher average engagement, according to data by Fundamental Media.

We analysed a total of 4,425 social media posts of 44 leading asset managers during Q2, including 3,567 LinkedIn posts, and compared them to Q1 of 2023. In the first quarter, asset managers posted 5,416 times on social media, including 3,459 times on LinkedIn.

In Q2, the posts had an average sentiment of 0.91, while the average engagement was 46.3 per post. This compares to an average sentiment of 0.59 and average engagement of 42.1 in Q1. Sentiment is measured by looking at the number of negative and positive words used in the posts, while the engagement rate is the number of likes, clicks, video views, shares/retweets and comments a post has received.

The number of LinkedIn posts dropped from a high of 1,480 in March to only 966 in April, but then increased again later in Q2. Asset managers posted less on Facebook during Q2 compared to March as well, but the number of YouTube videos posted remained relatively stable throughout the first half of 2023. Due to the changes made at Twitter following Elon Musk’s takeover, we have no Q2 figures on the number of tweets, engagement levels or sentiment for that social media platform.

The average engagement on LinkedIn dropped slightly, from 54.68 in Q1 to 50.11 in Q2, but was relatively stable over the three months of the second quarter. On the other hand, engagement levels for YouTube varied greatly across the first half of 2023. Following the high of 80.37 seen in January, average engagement dropped in February and March to then increase again in the two following months. In May, the average engagement on YouTube stood at 44.5, but dropped in June to 13.34. The average engagement on Facebook showed a similar pattern in Q2 as it had in Q1, with a higher level at the start of the quarter and then a subsequent drop.

Asset managers have become more positive during Q2, especially on LinkedIn, while sentiment on Facebook improved since March, but saw another dip in May.

LinkedIn engagement

When we only focus on asset managers’ LinkedIn posts, we see that expert views, ESG and market continue to be the topics managers most often post about. During Q1 2023, most posts focused on expert views, followed by market and ESG, but during Q2 ESG was the most popular topic, followed by expert views and market.

The topic that received the most engagement during Q2 is ETFs at an average engagement of 30.81 versus the mean engagement by asset manager and month, with 60 posts on this topic. This was followed by conflict (average engagement of 25.53 across 21 posts). The topics receiving the least engagement were tax (average engagement of -33.67 across 29 posts) and Africa (average engagement of -26.77 across 12 posts). All these topics have been excluded from the above chart for legibility reasons.

ESG was the most popular topic in Q2 on average, but when we look at specific months we see that expert views were more often posted about in April and May. The expert views post with the highest engagement levels was a post by Vanguard regarding an interview with the CEO at Target about the importance of company culture and how Target keeps the customer at the centre of every decision.

May and June saw a significant increase in posts on the topic Europe. Within that topic, the post that saw the highest engagement levels was from BlackRock about its acquisition of Kreos Capital, a provider of growth and venture debt financing to pan-European companies.