Social Media for Financial Services - doing it the right way

The use of social media by financial institutions is a necessity, albeit somewhat different from the kinds of social media strategies applicable to other service industries. In this guide, we're sharing all the tips on how you can do it the right way so that you can capitalise on the opportunity presented by its multiple benefits.

Do it the right way

Most financial service organisations have active social media accounts. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a Fortune 500 financial company who doesn’t. Since this industry is regulated, however, there are challenges to be addressed and methods to follow for best practices. It is, therefore, important to consider this a multi-departmental effort, which includes more than a marketing team.

You will need to involve people in IT behind the scenes and consult with a lawyer who specialises in social media. This way, you can cover all of your bases in terms of cybersecurity and compliance laws, which are paramount for such service providers - any issues with these two aspects would be detrimental to consumer trust in your brand.

These channels result in new clients, an online community and platforms to showcase the benefits of your services - in other words, driving engagement and sales by motivating your audience. The most commonly used platforms for banking and credit providers are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. As an integral part of your brand's positioning, this aspect of your marketing requires a thorough understanding of your audience, the channels and the industry you're operating in.

Social media strategy for financial services

• Awareness: Your institution's social media is primarily there to remain at the forefront among other brands. The best ways to do this are to increase and maintain visibility, with visual content being the most effective content to share (images and videos).
• Relationships: Having personal interactions and sharing soft selling posts is key to relationship building for financial service providers. The overriding key here is in building trust.
• Branding: It is essential for institutions that can otherwise seem very formal to include aspects of humanisation in their branding messages. Financial services can create and share storytelling content about how their services improve peoples lives in genuine, touching ways. Facilitate this by sharing snippets of your partnerships and sponsorships.
• Marketing: Your social media efforts should include specific campaigns which relate to your overall marketing strategy. There are opportunities to answer questions from your audience in time-saving ways by doing this. Social media also presents the opportunity to collect valuable data for the marketing team relating to your competitors, consumers and industry.

Content to share

• Financial: Your content should reflect what it is you offer, both tangible and intangibly. Therefore share content based on your offers, as well as security and financial planning.
• Educational: Video content and easy guides can be shared to educate audiences of your products. You can also share valuable, informative content and resources with them via social media links.
• Optimise: Optimise content so that it contributes to your SEO positively, tailored it to meet the needs of each platform.
• Persona: Your brand persona needs to have a clear and consistent brand message and voice across your various channels.
• Positivity: Encourage positive feedback online through engagement and reviews.

Tips for best practices

• Keep it simple: General communicative language will suffice. There is no need to populate your posts with jargon.
• Interactivity: Utilise social media tools that drive engagement through interactivity, whether that is through polls or reactions.
• Mass audience: More so than other industries, you need to appeal to the masses with your communication. Do this, while tailoring your niche content in targeted advertising.
• Customer service: Utilise social media to meet customer needs to improve their experience with your brand and increase their levels of satisfaction. Offering premium customer service should be a primary goal for your community manager.
• Native advertising: Create and share valuable content with trusted third-party sources to increase your reach and visibility. In this same collaborative spirit, you can share relevant external content links with your audience from trusted sources.
• Archives: All of the content you share should be archived and accessible at a later stage. Also, continual audits should be conducted of your social media efforts, as well as that of your competitors.
• Policy: Have a policy in place which outlines the acceptable methods and style to be used. This should also include the hierarchy of the processes used in your strategy. The team in charge of social media needs to have a committed approach that adheres to consistency and has a crisis management plan in place.
• Trends: A great way to encourage conversation and touch on relevancy in the bigger scheme of things is to engage in consumer trends. This also ensures that the content shared is not overly promotional.

Financial service providers need to have a social media presence. With a strategy in place to ensure it is done the right way, there are many returns in the form of benefits to gain. Institutions need to share the right kinds of content in the best way and accordance with the best practices.

Work with a social media agency that understands your business...

Nexa is a leading social media agency. We can help you with your social media strategy, content creation and community management. Book a session with us to get started.