Establishing a social media strategy for a financial institution can feel daunting. Price barriers associated with external consultants, intricate analytics platforms. and wondering what you don’t know about social media can all feel like huge obstacles stopping your social media strategy from getting off the ground. Sometimes, an employee-led approach can be a great way to get the wheels turning on your social media presence. By leveraging your employees to distribute your social media messaging on their individual social media pages, you can reap a variety of benefits while using a straightforward, no-frills approach to establishing an online presence.
Trusted Source
When social media users see individuals they know posting content, they tend to trust it more than seeing it from a stranger, and especially trust it more than seeing it posted from a business. This remains true even when the poster is an employee of a business or organization, posting that organization’s messaging. By allowing your employees to post content, you’re reframing your business through these employees/individuals, who are likely to be viewed and thought of by their social media audience as a friend, family member or casual acquaintance, rather than as a professional associated with your financial institution. This is valuable because it increases their ability to be trusted by followers in an online space.
Truly Engaged Audience
Rather than getting “cheap” views via promoted ads, the individuals reached through employee social media serve as a truly engaged follower who will be more receptive to your organization’s messaging. These viewers likely have some interest in your employee, and that pre-existing relationship increases their willingness to engage in your content your employee shares.
For local credit unions and regional financial institutions, this engagement is especially valuable because it is geographically targeted, reaching a high portion of social media followers of employees who live in the city and region your financial institution represents.
Accessible For FIs of All Sizes
Smaller financial institutions have limited budgets when it comes to marketing in the form of social media, especially with advanced social media management approaches, like outsourcing content creation, soliciting consulting on social media analytics and having full-time staff dedicated to social media marketing. By creating an employee-led campaign, smaller institutions can leverage the power of social media marketing in a tangible, easy-to-understand, and quickly implementable way.
Easy to Execute
Simplicity is key, especially when coming up with a social media strategy to get your financial institution off the ground, active and making tangible progress toward an enhanced online presence. Explaining the benefits of an employee-led social media initiative helps your staff understand the impact your collective action is having not just on your organization as a whole, but on the impact your financial institution’s success has on them as individuals. Establishing buy-in enhances your social media push’s efficacy, and has a reciprocal effect of making your team feel connected and engaged with your organization beyond their day-to-day responsibilities.
Cost-Free
Advanced social media strategies, analytics platforms and sophisticated methods to distribute content all come with a price tag, but employee-led initiatives are virtually free. Once your team establishes the content you want to share and sets aside time to explain to your staff the best practices to share content — voila — your social media presence is off the ground and taking concrete steps toward a meaningful online relationship with your target customers.
