It sometimes feels as though parts of the financial services industry are in the grip of a social media frenzy, with a keen anxiety to "do something". We've written before about why tactics such as "We want a Facebook page" are not a social media strategy and will not, in themselves produce long-term engagement and benefits for the brand. Sometimes Facebook is a presence is right for your brand and what you are trying to achieve, but there are some great examples of financial services organisations being more creative in their use of social media.
One such example comes from the US and is AXA's My Retirement Shop. Rather than just trying to engage customers in their brand or products they are offering a real service. They are meeting their own business objectives, engaging a defined audience and also providing them with a service and an enhanced brand experience over and above their existing transactional relationship. It is one of many ways that financial services firms can make themselves relevant and also engaging. For many consumers insurance is not an engaging topic, but by adding this additional service to them it can become so.
We see many examples like this, particularly coming out of financial services firms in the US and increasing adoption of them in the UK and Europe. Brands moving from just using social media to engage customers in the brand to providing a real service and value to them. Of course for many brands, a combination of both as part of a coherent and ongoing social media strategy would be the best option.
Developing these solutions come best from a thorough review of why a financial services organisation is using social media in the first place. At FreshNetworks we would with clients, though our social media workshops, to identify the overall business aims that social media can help with and the best audiences for the business to target. Then we figure out what will bind the audience as a community and hence encourage them to participate.
It's not necessarily all about Facebook. And it's not necessarily all about engaging with your actual product or service. When you are using social media to engage customers make sure you focus on your business aims and target audience, and then be creative about the tactics you use.
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