Facebook and other social media sites are popular diversions for 401(K) participants, and there is a segment of them that wants to use social media for financial purposes.

The Spectrem Group study Plan Participant Social Media and Mobile Technology Usage shows that  73 percent of defined plan participants use Facebook, 42 percent use LinkedIn and 41 percent use YouTube. Twitter usage has grown to 21 percent.

Only 16 percent of plan participants report no social media usage.

Age is obviously a factor in social media usage, and 88 percent of plan participants 35 years of age and younger are on Facebook. Fifty-four percent of the youngest group of participants is on both LinkedIn and YouTube.

Among participants 50 years old and above, two-thirds are on Facebook, 35 percent on LinkedIn and 33 percent are on YouTube.

Twitter usage runs below YouTube, but is a likely place for communication between plan participants and their financial advisors. Twelve percent of plan participants say they would follow a trusted advisor through Twitter if it was possible, and 11 percent said they would be interested in a financial advisor who uses some type of social media to communicate with clients.

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