One way for community banks to build relationships with the community is through an active, thoughtful presence on social media. This can be achieved through planning and implementing social media strategies that align with your bank’s overall marketing objectives. Below are six ways to boost your social media strategies:
1. Use the right social media platforms
The list of available social media outlets is immense. Facebook and LinkedIn are the most preferred social media platforms for community banks to reach their targeted audience, particularly small business owners. Many community banks prefer Instagram and TikTok if they are targeting Gen Z customers. No matter which platform your bank chooses, make sure you understand customer personas and where your audience spends their time online, connecting with others and growing their networks.
2. Optimize your social media profiles and content
Optimize your profile by filling out all pertinent information on the page. Use branded images and include links to your other social media accounts and website. Likewise, focus on optimizing your content by developing easy-to-find, well-designed content that users want to share, like, and comment on. Enable social sharing buttons to make it easier for your customers to find you and reference your content. Add social media buttons to your website and email marketing campaigns.
3. Be strategic and active on social networks
Your posts should be a mix of promotional and educational content. Educational content can include blog posts, finance-related resources, educational graphics, or infographics. Take advantage of relevant holidays, especially financial-related observances such as Teach Your Child to Save Day, Financial Literacy Month, and Tax Day reminders. Use hashtags and tag others to amplify your posts. For example, if your bank partnered with a local charity event, tag the charity, and use relevant hashtags.
4. Show your bank’s human side
You can show your bank’s human side by acknowledging staff anniversaries or promotions and sharing photos and videos of events held at the bank. These posts get the most likes as employees react to pictures of themselves and their colleagues, and followers pay more attention to them. Sharing photos of your employees at community volunteer events may also help build your financial brand.
5. Create a channel plan
Develop a social media calendar with a mix of engaging and informative content and promotional posts. Create your calendar a month or more in advance and adopt a social media scheduling tool. Your plan should help you understand the audience you want to engage, your content focus, and how you’ll measure the success of each specific platform. Likewise, your bank should not hesitate to reuse content. For example, an old post about how to create a budget is an excellent tie-in to Financial Literacy Month.
6. Track meaningful metrics
Vanity metrics like the number of followers and likes are easy to track, but it’s hard to prove their actual value. Instead, focus on metrics like engagement, click-through, and conversion rates. You may want to track different goals for different social media networks or even different uses for each network. For example, you measure click-throughs if you’re using LinkedIn to drive traffic to your website. If Instagram is for brand awareness, you might track the number of Instagram Story views. And if you advertise on Facebook, cost-per-click (CPC) is a standard success metric.
Conclusion
Innovative social media strategies support your bank’s work and help you develop stronger relationships with your targeted audience. Your social media marketing strategy should be a living document that you review and make changes to reflect your bank’s goals, tools, or plans.
Key Takeaways
- Use the right social media platforms
- Optimize your social media profiles and content
- Be strategic and active on social networks
- Show your bank’s human side
- Create a channel plan
- Track meaningful metrics
