Social Media for Financial Services: Benefits, Tips & Strategies
It’s hard to ignore the impact that social media has had on the world. It affects almost every aspect of life, including business. When trying to navigate how to promote and market your financial institution, an absolute must is including social media marketing for financial services. While this might seem intimidating to some, professionals, like those at Vested, are ready to build a financial services social media strategy and put it to work right away.
In this article, we’ll cover:
- What Is Financial Services Social Media Marketing?
- Benefits of Social Media Marketing for Financial Services
- Best Social Media Platforms for Financial Services
- How to Build a Financial Services Social Media Strategy
- Social Media Tips and Ideas for Financial Services
What Is Financial Services Social Media Marketing?
Financial services social media marketing refers to the use of social media platforms to promote and advertise financial services, products, and brands.
This includes creating content for those social media platforms, engaging with users, and researching to determine and focus on advertising to specific, target audiences within the financial services industry. Social media marketing’s primary focus is to promote brand awareness, generate leads, increase website traffic, and attain new customers.
Benefits of Social Media Marketing for Financial Services
There are many benefits of employing a social media marketing strategy for financial services firms. Some of these benefits include being able to reach new audiences, build and maintain relationships with customers, grow your brand, generate new customers, and stay on top of industry trends. Each of these can greatly influence the growth and strength of your business. Let’s dive a little deeper into each.
Reach New Audiences
This doesn’t mean abandoning your current customers. However, chances are a younger generation is going to be searching out financial information through social media. For example, almost 39% of Gen Z’s primary source of financial education comes from YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, or other social media. Regardless of age, social media is an important way to connect with potential new clients.
Build and Maintain Relationships
Nobody is going to just hand over their money to someone unless they trust them. The same goes for financial institutions. Social media is a great way to build that trust in your brand and maintain relationships with current clients.
For potential new customers, this is a way for them to check out your services and observe for a while before deciding if they want to trust you with their finances. Social media gives you the chance to build that trust, show that you are an authority in finance, and prove why you are the right match for them.
Grow Your Brand
Your brand is more than just what you do financially. Now, customers want to invest with those that share the same beliefs and values. Whether you use paid ads or simply focus on sharing organic content, social media is a cost-effective way to spread brand awareness and reach many people quickly.
Generate New Customers
Social media is currently a top platform for bringing in new leads and then converting them into sales. One survey states that 55% of advisors saw an increase in clients gained using LinkedIn for business. Paid ads can also generate new leads since they are able to target specific audiences based on the user’s age, location, or online behavior, and 24% of social media users are likely to click on a sponsored post on social media.
Stay on Top of Industry Trends
Social media is a great way to stay on top of what’s going on in the financial industry. Not only are you able to see what your competitors are offering, but you will be able to follow respected and influential people in the financial industry, join relevant groups to gain meaningful information, and participate in discussions with others in the industry about the latest news and trends.
Best Social Media Platforms for Financial Services
LinkedIn is the perfect platform to connect with other professionals in the financial industry and potential customers alike. LinkedIn has a massive reach, with over one billion (yes, that’s with a ‘B’) users worldwide – 214 million of those users in the United States. This makes it a great place to share content, build trust with potential leads, and make connections that can convert to sales.
You can use LinkedIn to market your business and build a strong professional profile. You can do this by optimizing your profile, sharing tips and tricks relevant to your work, and actively engaging with your network.
Advantages
- Massive user base of professionals and potential leads
- Great way to network and build relationships
- Able to share a variety of content, including long and short-form
Disadvantages
- Less ways to interact than other social platforms
- Building a strong profile does take effort to optimize
TikTok
TikTok is a social media platform that allows users to share short-form videos. It’s popularity is growing at an extremely fast rate and it is especially popular with younger users, like Gen Z. This is a great way to reach a younger audience if this is what you are trying to do. It is also ideal for sharing educational videos about your services and to expand brand awareness. Although it can take time to find what content works best for your financial brand, there is a possibility of going viral and reaching a large audience quickly.
Advantages
- Possibility of going viral and achieving large reach
- Great way to reach a younger audience
- Expand brand awareness
Disadvantages
- Can take more time to figure out content that resonates
YouTube
As opposed to the short-form videos that TikTok offers, YouTube is a social media platform that is great for sharing long-form educational videos about the services that your business offers. It’s a place to build trust with your audience and show that you are an authority in finance.
Consistently producing content will help you grow and build an engaged audience. Providing helpful knowledge for free will make potential customers more likely to reach out about something that they need help with. Content that impresses users will also likely be shared with others, creating an even greater reach and increasing potential leads.
Advantages
- Able to share long-form educational content
- Build trust and become established as an authority in finance
- Engaged audiences will likely share and increase your reach
Disadvantages
- Longer content to create and produce
- Need to maintain consistency in order to grow
X (Formerly Twitter)
X is a social media platform that is mainly conversation-based and very fast-paced. Because of this, financial services are able to have real-time interaction with their current and potential customers. Questions and concerns are handled in real time, as is customer feedback.
Because posts are limited to 280 characters, financial services can use X to share up-to-date content such as articles or news that relates to the financial industry.
Advantages
- High engagement with customers
- Posts can be created quickly
- Track data effectively with analytics
Disadvantages
- Posts are limited to 280 characters
- Must stay up-to-date with fast-paced environment
How to Build a Financial Services Social Media Strategy
Before diving into social media, it is important to have a strategy with clear steps to follow. Making sure that your financial brand is consistent across different platforms is also necessary. Here are four steps that you can follow to get your social media strategy started:
1. Establish Clear Objectives and Your Target Audience
Make sure to start out by determining what your company’s goals are for your social media marketing campaign. Whether you are focused on increasing brand awareness, generating new leads, driving traffic to your website, or enhancing customer engagement, objectives needs to be clear.
You also need to have a clear idea of who exactly your target audience within the financial sector is. You want to consider all the factors of that person, including their demographics, needs, and interests. Having a clear understanding of your target audience allows you to create content that will appeal to them.
2. Create Engaging Content and Messaging
Once you have established who your target audience is, you will want to create engaging content that resonates with them and follows your marketing goals. Your content and messaging should address any pain points of your audience, provide valuable insight, and show you are an authority in the finance field. Be sure to mix different types of content to keep your audience engaged. These can include educational videos, articles, infographics, and client testimonials.
3. Implement a Compliance-Focused Strategy
The financial services industry must comply with regulatory guidelines and industry standards in all areas, including social media. You must ensure compliance within your social media marketing. This means you should develop clear policies and procedures for content creation, review, and approval to mitigate legal and reputational risks. If you have an in-house social media team, make sure they are trained on compliance requirements, including privacy regulations, advertising disclosures, and prohibited practices. If you hire contract social media marketers, it is your responsibility to make sure that they have the same training and understand the compliance requirements. You should also regularly monitor and audit your social media accounts to make sure that compliance standards are being met.
4. Engage and Nurture Relationships
Social media allows you to engage with your audience in a completely new way. Make sure to respond to comments, messages, and questions quickly. Engage in meaningful interactions with your customers to foster positive relationships and build trust. Meet your audience wherever they are at in their financial journey and address their concerns at this point in time without trying to “sell.” Building trust and nurturing relationships will end up leading to more conversions.
Social Media Tips and Ideas for Financial Services
Now that it’s established that you definitely want to implement social media marketing for your financial firm, you also want to make sure that you do it right. While there are definitely some challenges to using social media in a very regulated industry, you can avoid some typical pitfalls by using the following tips and ideas.
Compliance is Everything!
It cannot be overstated how important it is to have compliance tools and procedures in place for the use of social media. As you create your social media strategy, be sure to consult with the compliance team. They will help guide you so that you are able to protect your brand. Following a chain of command for approvals of all social media posts is one way to ensure compliance.
Archive All Records
This is technically a part of compliance, but deserves its own spot on the list. According to the compliance requirement FINRA, firms must retain records of communications related to their business for at least three years.
Audit Your Social Media
When you conduct a social media audit, you examine all of your social media platforms and compare. Whatever important information you determine for each should be documented.
List all the accounts your department uses, including old or abandoned accounts. You will need to find any imposter or unofficial accounts to make sure that those are shut down. These put your company at risk and can ruin the trust you have built.
Create an Internal Social Media Policy
A social media policy created for your organization is a great way to guide your team with the expectations of a social post. This is a living document and should include input from the compliance, IT, legal, information security, HR, PR, and marketing teams. This way you can maintain consistency among your brand and avoid compliance challenges.
Go All In
The most successful social media campaigns are those that go all in. Financial firms accounts need to be active and present. Training for your advisors is a great way to ensure they have what they need to be successful with their social media presence. Another option is outsourcing to a social media team like Vested to make sure that the strategy is solid and working.
Conclusion
Implementing a social media marketing campaign for financial services is no longer an option. However, there is a lot to take into consideration to make sure that you are getting the most out of your social media platforms. Determining which platforms are right for your financial services and creating a strategy that reaches your target audience are a great place to begin.
You don’t need to take on this feat alone, though. Vested is here to help you with your digital marketing and social media. Reach out today and let’s get started!
