It is not breaking news for anybody that people love to talk on the internet. Thousands of discussions are happening every minute through different social channels and messaging apps. Reddit and Quora is run by questions or pieces of content that are posted, which then allows any user to comment on these posts in order to discuss aspects of the content. The topic can range from the health of glaciers in the North Pole to the future of cryptocurrencies for financial advisors. The millennial generation in particular are flooding to these sites, with over 1.65 billion people accessing Reddit in March 2018. These forums are being labelled as the most intense form of word-of-mouth in the modern age. Businesses are becoming aware of this and have created company pages and participate in discussions often. Financial advisors are finding it harder and harder to reach the younger generations; these forum pages could be the key to accessing a new market.

Reddit

Reddit was founded in June 2005 by two 22-year-old university graduates in Bedford, Massachusetts. Reddit grew as a primarily news sharing site and gained traffic from 2008 to 2010. This lead to the introduction of the Reddit Gold subscription which added new features for a $29.99 fee per month. In July 2017, Reddit had 230 employees and is the 6th most visited site on the internet to this day.

A big reason why businesses are involving themselves in this community is because of the feature called a sub-Reddit. These are separate pages that gather individuals of similar interests into one page for discussions on a specific topic. Examples of these sub-Reddit pages are r/Soccer, r/CanadaPolitics and r/PersonalFinance. The personal finance page contains 12.9 million individuals asking for advice on how to spend their money correctly and where to invest in the stock market. These opportunities are perfect for an advisor to participate and build relationships through online communities.

Quora

Quora was launched in 2009 by former Facebook employees and grew to 190 million monthly unique visitors by April 2017. Quora takes a slightly different approach to Reddit where it is all question based. Anyone can ask a question to the forum, which can also be answered by anyone with the required knowledge. Specific filters and regulations are applied to these questions and answers, which is how Quora has gained its credibility.

Quora is another great way to interact with individuals in the wealth management industry and seek out prospects. Providing valuable answers about mutual bonds to curious young adults is a way of building a presence on the platform. Asking the right questions is also a way of gaining vital information about a certain target market. For example, you could adjust your marketing strategy after asking, “If you are in our late 20’s or early 30’s, what are you looking for in a financial advisor?” Millennials seek out advice from people with a title and experience. That combined with an active presence on a social networking channel, like Quora, could significantly boost a financial advisor’s leads and client base.

The world of lead generation is constantly evolving and online communities are emerging as a cheap and effective way to tap into a whole new market. The mass reach of Reddit and Quora provides exciting opportunities to interact with thousands, even millions of users online through your keyboard. Due to online forums being based off word of mouth, respected sources are greatly appreciated and welcomed. As financial advisors, there is an advantage waiting in these online communities where one can build a presence and gain a following based off sound advice.