The minute something goes wrong in my house I call my Dad for his advice, regardless of the fact I’ve owned a property for over five years and should probably know these things by now. Based on his advice I can then go and Google the most appropriate tradesperson and when I speak to them I will (attempt) to sound like I know what I'm talking about. We all have our first port of call for information, someone who we trust with their initial thoughts on a topic before we head off to do more research/discussing/reading. But is this trend to rely on peer-to-peer communications rising and are we turning away from traditional sources of information? 

When it comes to financial services and advice on money the simple answer seems to be yes, but it's more complicated than that.

Our latest annual Communications Revolution study into the trends on where people go for financial advice reveals that in a year of stock-market volatility and soaring utility prices, and with inflation eroding savings and pensions in turmoil, people are increasingly turning to numerous sources of information before making a decision – no longer just trusting one article, one website, one company or person.

Overall, the media remains the number one source for financial information (71 per cent), with TV remaining the number one source in 2011 (40 per cent of adults using it). However peer-to-peer, including social media, has risen to the second most used source of information (42 per cent).

Furthermore as the figures below reveal, higher-rate earners (anyone over the 40 per cent tax rate), consult information sources more than other members of the population and also rely on a range of different media – they are using multiple sources of information when it comes to looking after their wealth. Some examples include:

Information sources for an individuals wealth management:

  Higher-rate tax payers All respondents Reading newspaper websites 32% 20% Consulting business pages of national newspapers 27% 14% Personal finance or money pages of national newspapers 33% 22% Online commentary and reading financial blogs and Tweets 18% 9% 

In addition, when asked which three are the most trusted sources of information, then family and friends has risen to number one (12 per cent) ahead of national TV news (11 per cent). Adding together all media (newspapers, TV and websites, etc), this is still the top category with 61 per cent relying on it most, but a third of people also say that they trust peer-to-peer, including social media, for gaining financial information, again a trend that is increasing.

I believe this “unfaithfulness” to just one source of media is a good thing: people now realise that they shouldn't just trust the first piece of financial information they are given and need to be much more proactive in looking after their money than in the past – higher rate earners are already embracing this trend.

Financial companies must wake up and realise that people are no longer taking information at face value and are more likely to be doing their homework. Now more than ever, companies need integrated communications telling the same message when talking directly to customers, via media relations and in the social media space – people are not faithful to just one source of information and we all need to adapt to that.

For more details of the Communications Revolution Report please contact Louiseb@lansons.com