Advisors aren’t merely adopting social media -- they’re becoming social media savvy.

According to a recent survey from Boston-based Putnam Investments, financial advisors are now effectively using platforms like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to grow their practices and enhance their revenues.

In the Putnam Investments 2016 Social Advisor Study, 85 percent of advisors were found to be actively using social media in their day-to-day work.

In 2014, 75 percent of advisors told Putnam that they actively used social media on a daily basis.

Through its survey, Putnam was also able to profile the “social advisor,” a composite view of a typical financial advisor gaining assets through social media. A social advisor is on average 43 years old, with around 20 years of experience, and is most likely to work at an independent broker-dealer. Social advisors have a median book of business of $92 million, and are active on social networks daily.

In this year’s survey, 80 percent of respondents said that they were gaining new clients via social media, compared with 49 percent in 2013.

This year, advisors’ median asset gain through social media is $1.9 million, with the mean gain at $4.9 million.

Respondents with more than $100 million AUM reported a median gain of $4.7 million, with a mean gain of $8.3 million. While 82 percent of this cohort say they have used social media to gain clients, only 35 percent reported that social media plays a “very significant” role in their marketing efforts.

Most advisors in the survey, 85 percent, said that social media has shortened the time to close business when compared with traditional approaches. Similarly, 56 percent of advisors report that social media has improved their overall efficiency “a great deal.”

Facebook usage for business among advisors has risen from 36 percent in 2014 to 54 percent this year -- while LinkedIn usage grew from 64 percent in 2014 to 73 percent this year.

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