top tips for social marketing in financial services

The bold

and the brave

Top Tips for Social Marketing in Financial Services

Copyright 2013 Tangible. All rights reserved.

This presentation was written and presented by Bridget O’Connor-Read at the DMA’s Oct 2014 event:

‘Who’s afraid of the FCA? How to comply and thrive on social media’

The FCA guidelines endorse good practice, promote transparency and greater competition for the benefit of the end consumer.

As practitioners we welcome these principles as this can only encourage greater user engagement and create new opportunities for those financial service organisations who are prepared to invest in proper social media strategy and community management.

However, the risk with more progressive guidance is that attitudes within financial marketing become even further entrenched with self regulation and internal sign offs, at the expense of relevancy to the end consumer.

We need to bring that consumer into focus and make them the core reason for every

communication.

http://www.fca.org.uk/static/documents/guidance-consultations/gc14-06.pdf

Critical observations


Common criticism of Financial Services’ use of social media

Social media’s real purpose is to increase consumer interaction with the brand, not self promotion or continuous product placement:

• Internal newsletter type content is of little value for the customer and rarely factors in a brand’s ‘likeability’

• Competitions and promotions aimed at gaining ‘likes’ are short lived and do not hold real customer engagement or longer term value

• If the channel’s main emphasis in on direct conversation then content will often become too product focused, too transactional, too hard sell. This approach leads to short term customer relevancy and ignores potential future customers who are currently out of market

• Typical brand messaging for financial products are inextricably linked with risk and insecurity in life. This positioning lacks entertainment or positive association. To break inertia and encourage longer term relationships, brands must find a positive and empowering angle for both product and service messaging


planning for sustainability

The key to a successful social media presence…


What are your objectives? ➜ Customer Relationship Management / Thought Leadership / Reputation Management

Who are your audiences? ➜ How will your objectives serve their needs?

Do you know who you are as a brand? *➜ Breathing life into your brand guidelines. Learn about Brand Humanisation

How can your efforts demonstrate ‘value’? ➜ Reporting and Insight

http://www.tangible.uk.com/tangibilities/

Building relationships


Sustainable communities

The internal objectives of selling a product or pushing a positive PR message will not make for a sustainable community. These only serve a one sided agenda and create passive subscribers, not engaged brand advocates.

Truly successful brands don’t just treat their audiences like valued customers, they go beyond this to create a sense of community membership.

People form a community for support, or to further a common need or purpose. They are loyal to values, passions and not brands.. to b

How can I build a community?

• Find out what it is important to your audience • Learn where your interested parties go online and interact with them there • Don’t assume setting up a broadcast presence is enough, alter tactics accordingly • Be prepared to get involved in ‘off topic’ chat from members

Know thy audience


Two routes into audience insight

• Analytical data that tracks page activity, posts, likes, retweets, shares etc

• Social listening tools that pick up the sentiment of conversations; identify related topics and key influencers within an audience

Tangible use Pulsar: http://pulsarplatform.com/

http://pulsarplatform.com/


Practical applications of social listening:

• Use to identify service issues earlier than official channels

• Profile customers through consumption and shared life events• These ‘social signals’ provide opportunities for personalised and responsive offers

• Reward regular contributors or positive engagement with recognition• 90% of consumers would recommend a brand to others after interacting on social media

• Go beyond customer service to develop Social CRM

Getting noticed


Have a plan

Good content planning isn’t just about frequency, timeliness or the sheer variety of production. Content posts without relevance are just noise to your audience.

Your communications want ‘cut through’ and you can get this by establishing a clear brand point of view on subjects and investing in original content production.

Social media platforms are also increasingly committed to providing a more relevant and genuine experience for their users. One example of this is Facebook’s discontinuation of the sponsored ‘Like Gate’. Now brands must focus their efforts on growing their following organically.

These tactics will mean marketing teams will need to review their budget spread, with less going towards advertising and more towards content production over the longer term. This shift will also mean ‘Likes’ are harder to capture, but those that are, will be better quality leads with a higher rate of longer term engagement and brand advocacy.


The case for content

• 80 % of business decision makers prefer to get company information in a series of articles versus an advertisement

• 70% say content marketing makes them feel closer to the sponsoring company

• 60 % say that company content helps them make better product decisions

Source: Roper Public Affairs

The need to be nimble


An organisational rethink is required

Challenges for the marketer are on the rise:

• Breadth of channel activity • Complexity of reporting • Pressures to prove direct ROI from Social Media • Compliance regs creates a more intensive and restrictive atmosphere• Responsiveness is a challenge for compliance depts

Promote ‘nimble’ working

Organisations must face the requirement for real investment in community management and improve ways of working through education and process.

Dare to be different


http://www.salesforce.com/

The standard response


The response that wins fans


• Timely and relevant to audience’s broader experience

• Direct correlation with brand qualities

• Great use of creative and copy

• Use of hashtags ensures it will trend

Make time for everyday chat


Want to have a conversation with us at Tangible? Contact: [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]