Like other advisers, Jeffrey Nauta has taken a gradual approach to using social media for business over the last five years, especially when it comes to using it as a tool to prospect for clients.

It is not surprising that he was caught off guard recently when a client informed him, out of courtesy, that a competitor had come calling on LinkedIn. “That hit me,” says Nauta, explaining his reaction to the news.

Nauta and his partners at Henrickson Nauta Wealth Advisors have decided to step up their game when it comes to social media. The firm is working with a practice management consultant to develop a more robust strategy.

“Three years ago, the typical adviser was saying ‘we need to do this.’ We are now working with our practice management consultant to just do it,” says Nauta.

While advisers, as an industry, were relatively slow to embrace social media, that is apparently no longer the case. According to a national survey of more than 800 adv