For those financial institutions that do employ social media as a means of marketing, the methods are few and far between. Most actually miss the opportunity sitting in front of them by misusing this resource completely. Using Facebook to promote a bank holiday or Twitter to discuss your bank’s hours are not the most effective ways to use social media.
I read a great article by The Financial Brand yesterday which outlined five ways financial institutions can best use social media:
1. Networking
As a banking professional, did you ever think you’d have the need to network with others outside of your company or branch? Many assume that social media’s main draw is its ability to draw buzz and build community, but in fact it’s a great resource for connecting people who share common interests.
You can find many like-minded banking professionals via Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs to share ideas and knowledge in just a few clicks. Once considered highly secretive and proprietary, banking knowledge is now more widely shared and discussed in this open knowledge era.
For example, say you have a question regarding a new law put in place. If you want to understand it better, what better way to quickly get an answer than to ask your community via a tweet, LinkedIn discussion, or blog post?
Just a few years ago, this concept was unheard of. Today, with a vast array of technologies available, you can leverage your online network to learn from and also teach others.
2. Listen
If you know even a few things about marketing, you probably know that listening is the #1 most important task to improve your marketing and product offering. There are some great conversations happening online regarding banking, you just need to be at the right place at the right time to hear them. Social media monitoring accomplishes this.
You have two choices to interact on social media: passively or proactively. When you are passive, you are simply reading and listening to the conversations, but not contributing in any way. When you are proactive, you will be joining the conversation with comments, questions, and feedback.
How it works:
You read a tweet saying, “I HATE XYZ bank because they have ridiculous interest rates and terrible customer support.” This would be an instance where you should proactively jump in and respond. That customer is probably not expecting a response from your company, so receiving one from your bank would be beneficial for both parties. From there, you can dive deeper into their problem and frustrations and hopefully solve it for them. The best way to do this is to continue the conversation offline Twitter via email or the phone.
Another example: You read a Facebook post that says a person is signing up for your bank for a particular purpose but with no negative or extremely positive comment included, you can take the passive approach and just take the feedback for what it is.
3. Customer Support
Many companies today are utilizing social media as a support channel. You will find that people use sites like Twitter to voice complaints, dissatisfaction, usability questions, etc. If people are voicing their opinions here, consider yourself lucky. This means your customers are actively looking for a solution, leaving you the great opportunity to respond. Reach out to those with a problem or issue to reason with them and solve their conundrum. Every time you respond and solve a problem, you are retaining and enhancing your customer relationships and business in general. If you solve a tricky or very important question, you may even generate a brand evangelist.
Check out Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Wachovia for their awesome use of social media customer support.
4. Social Responsibility
Social media is a great outlet to forge important community relations. If you’re a local bank, why not interact with a local cause and get others involved via Twitter or Facebook?
You could also develop creative challenges for which your online community can participate and donate. This will not only engage them with your brand, but it will help them feel good about their actions while also helping out a cause in need.
These charitable donations will help you with online community building and business partnerships, building awareness, and developing relationships with top-level executives in the area.
5. Public Relations
Social media can be used to promote new product releases, events, programs, etc. Chances are, reporters and bloggers are on the look out for these activities. By making this information publicly available for them, their job is now that much easier.
You should also make available on your website a press kit which includes programs with which you’re involved, charities to which you donate, annual reports, quarterly statements, contact information, and links to your social media profiles.
Social media can also help calm the waters of an online PR crisis. If a major controversy, CEO scandal, or unfavorable policy goes viral online, your social media outlets area there for you to release statements and respond to people.
It is important to develop an online crisis management plan in the case of any major issue. That way, when or if one does occur, you’ll be ready and armed to respond.
While there are generally “more important things to do” than sitting on social networks on a daily basis monitoring your brand, don’t use this as an excuse to not get involved at all. At the least, you should set up Twitter and Facebook fan page accounts for your brand as a placeholder to share news occasionally and be ready to interact if needed.
There are important conversations happening online, don’t get left in the dust and make a major mistake like Motrin did.
Due to FINRA compliance rules, many financial institutions are now required to archive their online accounts. Sign up for a social media backup plan today to ensure you are compliant with their regulations and archiving all communications.
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