Social media is not just for people to share stories and opinions anymore, and it has not been just that for a long time. Nearly every platform is a place for businesses, including financial institutions, to build a following, share important information with active or potential clients or customers, and reach out to people in a variety of ways, whether through text, images, or videos. And while we doubt a solely meme-based strategy will work for your business, a social media presence is vital, and you should consider how your company can use it to its fullest.
To do so, you will need a long-term strategy. While developing one might not be easy in a constantly changing online landscape, here are some of the top reasons to start developing your long-term strategy as soon as possible:
1) You Can Be Ready for Major Opportunities
The world is constantly changing, especially in these current times, and while there are many things that can happen, there are some key situations you know your business is prepared for. Whether it is a downturn in the economy or circumstances that would lead to a ramping up of investments across the board, you want people to be able to know where to go and who to talk to. With a social media plan, you can respond to these opportunities quickly and effectively, ideally with less confirmation and more action.
And waiting for the right time to start is the only wrong choice that matters now. Your business will need time to build an infrastructure, a social media methodology, and a following. By the time that is done, any new opportunities will have passed, or will certainly not have been seized on to their fullest potential.
2) You Can Build Trust in Your Institution
While you likely do not want your clients constantly worrying about their accounts (that is what your institution is there for, to alleviate such concerns), you also should not be completely absent from their minds or exist only as a distant and replaceable entity that provides a very basic service. You want what makes your organization great to shine through, and with a social media plan, that is more likely.
By staying in the public eye through providing important and useful information to them free of charge on social media, among other initiatives, you can improve your company’s brand in a significant way, and likely retain clients and gain new ones in the process (whether by word of mouth or improved natural traffic) through positive reputation and a sense of trust in your people. It is an investment that might take time to pay off, but it will pay off.
3) You Can More Easily Promote Your Online Systems and Resources
If you can provide direct links to your pages, sites, and tools, it is much better and quicker than giving someone a pamphlet that they might never read. Social media allows for just that, without the commitment of an email newsletter or similar techniques.
And while you certainly have people already using your institution’s online tools (and it would be hard to imagine your company does not have them in 2020 to at least some degree) you can use social media pages to better direct them, increase usage as opposed to more inefficient methods, and provide information as to their best uses. You want the investments made in technology and design to pay off. Use a social media plan to make that happen.
4) You Can Build a Team and Mission
As you are certainly aware from all other parts of your business, a good team and good processes make all the difference, and with a long-term plan, you can create the foundations for those personnel to thrive and give them clear instructions on how you want the company to be seen by active and prospective clients. Once people know what they are working with, they can work better.
A planned team will be able to be more organized and be able to use data of several types more efficiently than a simple unplanned posting schedule. You will be able to track what is working and what does not all the better for the changes.
5) You Can Be Proactive Instead of Reactive
Rounding back to the first point, if you have a long-term social media strategy for your financial institution, then you can plan for the future, even if that future is uncertain. You can have a plan that allows your social media and marketing teams to work more easily in conjunction and to target the likely people to use your organization’s services in the near future. As opposed to responding to events, you will be at times anticipating them.
Consider the top websites of recent years. While you probably aren’t operating on the same scale, does a single one of these websites not have a significant social media presence on at least a few platforms, if they are not one of the most trafficked websites in the world? Your financial institution needs to go to where the people are, and ideally be there before people start looking for answers. A long-term social media plan allows for just that.
Conclusion
You do not need to start investing all of your marketing budget into social media or create a team that’s as large as some of the top companies in the world. You just need to get started and get your priorities clear when it comes to social media. Even devoting just a few resources towards creating a consistent, long-term strategy can make the difference between stagnation and success over the next decade, and given that every competitor is either already working with a plan or soon will, its best to start working as soon as you can.
