Social Media Challenges Financial Institutions Need To Overcome For Improving Their Bottom Line
Credibility is a huge problem banks are experiencing, especially in the current volatile economic environment. The financial institutes are feeling a constant pressure of regaining and improving consumer trust and satisfaction.
With technology evolving rapidly, social media platforms are generating a lot of content every day. Therefore, banking institutions are finding it extremely difficult to deliver reliable and incorporated consumer experience that differentiates their brands.
Brands of different sectors are using a lot of creative methods to employ social media to resolve customer issues, as well as increase brand awareness and reach. However, the financial industry still is lagging behind when it comes to integrating social media into their digital marketing strategies.
There are lots of fascinating debates and practical examples of how financial brands like credit unions, insurance, and banks have leveraged social platforms. Let’s explore some of the key ones in this article.
Challenges financial institutions need to overcome
Nurture meaningful social media conversations
Just as people share their opinions about hotels and restaurants online through social media, they also give their honest views about financial products/services. These judgments are public and driven mainly by personal experience.
The unfortunate truth is that more than 50% of online audiences share bad experiences with friends on social media as opposed to good ones. It is potentially highly damaging for the reputation of a financial institution to disregard a single frustrated customer; one negative comment can quickly spiral out of control and reach thousands of customers incredibly quickly.
Social media monitoring flags such potential risks and helps to mitigate the impact before it escalates. Research shows that it is best to act quickly on customer feedback – positive or negative – as soon as it appears on social media due to its potential to erode trust and ultimately an institution’s reputation.
Active engagement
To become one of the best Facebook bank brands it is vital to recognize consumer sentiment and opinions, pay attention to their needs, see what content is resonating most, as well as respond to their complaints on social media. The goal of banks must be to interact with customers and translate them from sheer listeners into dynamic participators or even brand advocates.
Financial brands can nurture meaningful social conversation into real relationships, which can change into an opportunity to earn revenue directly through encouraging word-of-mouth marketing.
Fulfill customer demand
Privacy, compliance, and security are huge challenges that banks experience in the public domain of social media. This is especially true for the younger demographics, who are in the habit of publishing every activity and opinion on social media. However, banks have to conduct themselves online within strict industry regulations.
Many banks have created accounts of popular social networking websites, but naturally forbid consumers to transfer money, make payments, or check their account balance from these networks. They use their social networks to provide real time responses to queries, and also educational and informative content.
Bottom line
Financial institutions will need to experiment carefully and use social media analysis to understand:
- What to say on social platforms?
- How to say it?
- When to say it?
Fundamentally, if you want to engage customers then give them a good reason other than broadcasting your own content and views. To make social media a measurable contributor to a financial institution’s bottom-line brands need to understand their customer’s needs, wants and dislikes through robust social media analytics.
