I’m currently sat on my regular bus commute and decided to ask my Twitter followers if there is a burning social media question they would like me to answer in the time it takes (about 60 mins) for my journey to end. My pals at @NectreGroup asked – ‘Do you have any tips on the use of social media in financial services?’ I’ve worked ‘in-house’ on social media at a large pensions company so have hands-on experience of this. Read on for some quick tips…

1 – Use social media as a channel for education – Products like pensions are far from sexy, however saving for the future is rather important. At times the options can pretty confusing, use social media to reach audiences that will appreciate the more laid back approach that the platforms allow. Think how you could appeal to demographics that need help such as young adults or new parents. Take an educationary angle and don’t be too ‘salesy’ Great content will work well for you while building relationships and help to ensure you’re front of mind when a person needs to invest in a product. Oh, and try and make the content something that people are going to want to watch, read and share. Old chubby guys in pinstripes and bowler hats is not the way to go.

2 – Use social media to build thought leadership - the financial services industry is constantly in the spot light, opinions are always strong and it’s very rare that an opportunity to be the voice of reason doesn’t exist. Get the people who are really in the know at your organisation to regualrly comment on news stories, industry trends etc. Use a well designed and structured blog as the vehicle for this. If you react quickly (take your work to your favourite Compliance team member!) and with great copy, you will start to become a trusted source for opinion. Not to mention the wonders that frequent and relevant content can do for your SEO!

3 – Use social media to build relationships - if you are a IFA looking to find clients to advise, becoming a master at a platform such as Twitter could be a major weapon in your (one nil to the) arsenal. First thing to do is start curating industry news, interesting lifestyle based articles etc and make yourself a resource for your (soon to be) followers. Acting as a filter of great content is an effective way to build trust. If you are creating your own then all the better! Remember to use relevant hashtags (no more than two in a tweet, one ideally) to help people discover your tweets. Once you are in the swing of curating content, start using Twitter advanced search to find people in your locale that are talking about financial services, or even tweeting and asking for advice on products etc. Follow them with a view to getting a follow back and then seek a dialogue. Never ever be to pushy or intrusive, take it easy and be genuinely helpful. You’ll start to see results if you really take the time it requires.

The tight regulation of the FS industry clearly means that you have to be careful when it comes to what you discuss on social media. It can also mean a dynamic approach can be hard to take due to compliance turnaround. Don’t let this put you off, look at it as a challenge and as a catalyst for great content.

Phew! Hope that was useful!

Please note, this was written in Evernote, on an iPad, on a shaky bus on pot hole ridden roads, so excuse any spelling/grammar errors and lack of links/images please! This first appeared on my Tumblr.

Mike McGrail

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