A Few Ways In Which The Financial Services Industry Can Utilise Social Media

For the financial services industry, today there are more ways than ever before to promote their deals and campaigns.  They are now exploring the social media platform to facilitate deals and secure the trust of customers.  However, it has been opined that the industry has been rather slow to adapt to the quickly evolving digital landscape.  Ben Mott, the client services director at Smith & Miltonopines,

“Brands like Red Bull and Virgin are busy showing the world how to evolve using social channels, while retail and investment banks are still trying to work out handle names for their multiple product-led Twitter accounts.  Moreover, when they try, it doesn't always end well: just look at MasterCard's disastrous involvement with the Brit Awards.”(http://www.theguardian.com/)
 
However, he has already admitted to the fact that there are several reasons why this industry has lagged behind in terms social media marketing – data protection, legislation and complex target audience have been the major causes for the same. 
 
But the asset managers however, have quickly done away with the obstacles to social media usage.  They are now leveraging the power of software to address compliance issues and mitigate risks.  They are now busy in devising sustainable strategies of reaping benefits of Twitter, Facebook, G+ and Pinterest.  Below are a few ways to do the same. 
 
Try and Act as “go-to” source rather than as a “distant brand”
 
People and potential consumers are now more interested to deal with “human faces” rather than impersonal brands.  Social Media gives your officials an opportunity to prove their potential with the help of proper skill demonstration.  So your customers actually know that you’re actually not all about “proclaiming”
 
That Magical “Human” Touch
 
Yes!  To take off from our first point we would like to stress on the growing importance of developing a “human” face for your brand.  Most of the other things will fall in place-- your online reputation management, trust building, everything.  Firms that engage in genuine conversations enjoy an obvious edge.  So even if you have a savvy financial advertising agency(there are many like Media Group Worldwide and The Financial Brand) managing your affairs in this regard, do take time out to visit your profiles personally.  Ask them to convey customer queries without delay so as to guarantee good turnaround time. 
 
Learn from Social Media Successes but don’t Ape
 
There have been several cases of success registered by the biggest brands around.  For instance, in the early 2013, PayPal was grappling with its social media presence with low engagement or lack of proper utilisation by them to convey a proper brand story.  However, they quickly witnessed notable improvement with the introduction of the @AskPayPal handle.  The content was drastically revised to include more customer benefit story and engagement of celebrities in real time.  A reported 327% increase in engagement was noticed along with almost similar shift from negative to positive sentiment.  (Sources: industry.shortyawards.com).
 
Make sure that you are keeping yourself abreast of similar stories and implementing novel innovations in your SM marketing techniques as well.  But steer clear from aping others.