It’s time for financial services to take the social media plunge. If your bank or credit union is still contemplating social media, this post isn’t for you.If you’ve already decided to embrace the bounty that social media can add to your bank or credit union’s online marketing efforts, then this is something you’re going to love.[Additional reading: Bank and Credit Union Online Marketing Resources]So where does one start when embarking on credit union or bank social media marketing?
This post will cover two key areas. Planning, and ideation.
Getting started with bank and credit union social media marketing planning
A solid bank and credit union social media marketing strategy starts with a plan.Each plan will differ based on specific needs of your market. However, there’s a few key elements every plan should include.
Overall objective.
Why is your bank or credit union getting into social media? Objectives should be aligned with your overall marketing strategy. Social media should support those objectives. A few common objectives that are often included are:
- Drive traffic to bank or credit union properties.
- Influence perception of bank or credit union.
- Increase awareness of bank or credit union.
- Monitor bank or credit union.
Bank or Credit Union Social Media Strategies
After you’ve established objectives, document the strategies to support them. If your objective is to drive traffic to your bank or credit union properties for example, one of your strategies could be to enlist a content marketing effort. Post original and curated content on your bank or credit union site and use social media to drive visitors back to your website with information about personal finance topics. Once there, have the site optimized to convert visitors over time into new accounts.
Tools and platforms
What tools and platforms will you be using? This includes everything from the networks you will engage on to the analytics tools. Document what they are and how you intend to use them so everyone is clear and can provide feedback on use over time.
Roles and Responsibilities
Social media marketing at a bank or credit union is a team effort. Most likely, your social media policy has (or should have) roles documented. Included those roles here but include operational responsibilities. Who’s job is it to respond to brand mentions? Who’s job is it to respond in crisis? etc.
Credit Union and Bank Social Media Calendar
Make sure you have a social media editorial calendar. The calendar will help your bank or credit union know what to post and to what platform everyday so you don’t find yourself scrambling. You have enough to worry about than to fret about finding something for Twitter. This is where you plot out the tactics that will support the strategies aligned to the objectives above.
Overcoming the financial social media idea block
Once you have a social media plan in place, one of the big challenges is often coming up with content that is relevant and interesting to your community. Truth is, interesting is not tweeting about loan rates.
How do you fill up a calendar full of interesting content that also supports objectives like driving traffic, increasing awareness or changing perceptions? Think like your members, lenders and depositors.
What matters to them? To help you out, I curate a list of financial social media ideas. It contains ideas for multiple social networks. Have at it. It gets updated over time with new ideas as I come across them.
Over to you
This is a simplified outline for getting your credit union or bank social media efforts off the ground with planning. What else is a mission critical piece of the social media outline? Leave a reply below. As always, if you have questions or want some help getting started, get in touch.
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