IFA Life, the social networking site for IFAs and financial planners has launched two new tools to help consumers find, connect with and refer IFAs.

With over 5,000 registered on the site and a strong presence on the Internet, increasing numbers of consumers are finding social networking site IFA Life as a valuable source to make contact with IFAs, to assess them and make contact.

The first search tool is a simple but powerful location based tool, where consumers can find IFA Life members within specified distances. Founder of IFA Life Philip Calvert said today: “It’s commonplace for people to use the Internet to find an IFA, and increasingly they are also using Social Networking sites such as LinkedIn, Ecademy, Twitter and YouTube – and so we have responded to increasing use of the IFA Life site by consumers.

“The good news for IFAs is that when their name comes up in a search result on IFA Life, people can click though to their profile page where they can find out more about them, their interests, their expertise, what other business networks they use – plus their website and contact details.”

Calvert added: “There is no charge for IFAs to have their website address visible in our search results.”

Find, follow, assess and refer IFAs on Twitter
IFA Life’s second search tool is believed to be a first and unique within the industry. IFA Tweets is aimed at more sophisticated Internet users who use Social Media tools such as Twitter to find, follow and assess IFAs before engaging their services or referring them on.

Indeed, many consumers do not actually want to engage an IFA’s services directly, but ‘follow’ them in order to benefit from their financial expertise and observations expressed through Twitter. Many will then refer that IFA on to friends and colleagues as is typical use of social networking sites.

Philip Calvert added: “Most IFAs will tell you that referrals are a key source of business. They are gained because clients trust their IFA following years of great service. Social Media is a new way for IFAs to build a reputation and trust, which in turn leads to their followers referring them to others.”

IFA Tweets is a special Twitter page which enables people to find, follow and refer IFAs who use Twitter. IFAs who have added their Twitter address to their profile page on IFA Life will see their Twitter posts (tweets) automatically featured on the IFA Tweets page, and the page itself will be heavily promoted on the Internet.

Philip Calvert added: “This is pretty cutting edge stuff, but given that Social Media is reinventing traditional referral mechanisms, we thought it time that the financial advice community should also benefit.

“This is a completely new way for consumers to refer IFAs, but in time we believe that the ‘Social Web’ will be at the heart of how people find an IFA.”

Only members of IFA Life will be featured in the new search tools, and are free to IFAs.

The location based tool is at http://www.ifalife.com/FindanIFA and IFA Tweets can be found at http://Twitter.com/IFAtweets