Social media tips for banks and financial institutions
Social media offers you the opportunity to connect with your target audience, attract new customers and build client loyalty. After all, people spend almost 30% of their time online on social media, and more than 70% of people utilize social media when looking to make a purchase. Therefore, you would be remiss not to include social media as part of your marketing plan for your bank or financial institution.
But where to start?
The first thing you need to do is determine what social platforms you’re going to utilize. But, first, let’s examine the options:
- LinkedIn: This channel allows you to build the credibility of your brand, connect with potential clients and find new hires. Additionally, this platform offers Ads that can target specific industries.
- Facebook: This platform has the widest user base and is therefore useful for building a community. Most experts will agree that if you’re only going to use one channel, it should be this one.
- Instagram: A mainly visual platform, Instagram is best used to offer engaging and interesting photos or videos. Alternatively, short graphic text can also work well on this channel.
- Twitter: You’ll find this channel is useful for communicating directly with customers. Through Twitter, you can respond to client concerns, complaints, and compliments. Moreover, most users express their thoughts and interests through this platform, giving you a good gauge of what consumers are thinking.
If you create more than one social media account, you must ensure that they all have the same account name. This will ensure that people can find you on any platform. However, due to the popularity of these sites, you may find that the name you want to use has been taken. To check whether the name you want to use is available on all the social channels you want to post on, consider using BrandSnag’s social media username checker. This tool will enable you to find an account name that works across diverse social platforms.
Once you’ve set up your accounts, it’s time to create some posts.
5 tips for social media posts
Be informative
There are a number of topics you can post about. For starters, you could create a post about new things that are happening at your bank, such as a special interest rate on business loans. You can also create more general information posts on things like money-saving tips or how to start investing.
By sharing helpful information, you’ll increase your client’s trust in you because it shows you’re willing to help and provide valuable advice.
Send users to your website
You want to make it easy for your clients or potential clients to engage with your bank. The best way to do this is to include a link in your post that sends them to relevant pages on your website. For example, if you have a post about how to start investing, you could link to a page listing your institution’s investment advisers and how to contact them.
Offer contests
A great way to get people to stop scrolling and take notice of you on social media is by offering things for free. People love free stuff. Therefore, to increase engagement with your brand on social media, consider holding a contest. For instance, you could offer free concert tickets, but to be entered to win, users have to like your social page and share your post. This will help spread the word about your bank and increase your followers. The more followers you have, the more opportunities you have for converting a user to a customer.
Employ hashtags
On networks like Twitter and Instagram, users use hashtags to find the information they want. Therefore, by adding hashtags to your post, people interested in your topic can find you. First, however, you have to make sure to use hashtags that are commonly searched. Fortunately, a quick Google search for “hashtags related to banking” or “hashtags related to finance” will provide you with a relevant list.
Provide customer service
A lot of people use social media to vent their feelings about a company. Therefore, if you see your financial institution has been tagged in a negative comment, you can use it as an opportunity to demonstrate your customer service by responding to the complaint. In this way, you can alter the social perception of your brand and turn a negative into a positive.
