Social Media In The Financial Industry

The financial and banking industries are sectors where success is strongly related to reputation, brand image, customer relationship. Until now, social media has been quite of a thorny issue in this field, the conversations around this topic being filled with all sorts of misconceptions. This made the financial and banking sectors to be one of the latest industries to adopt social media.

A successful social media strategy is finding a balance between the limitations and benefits of online interactions.

Challenges that Financial & Banking Industries Face when Employing Social Media

1. These highly regulated industries are facing multiple restricting laws in different countries because of customer security. For example, there are problems with giving financial advice, therefore and that inputs a lot of limitations in the way a financial institution can interact with clients on social media platforms.
2. Vulnerability – By using social media, businesses in this industry expose themselves and risk degradation or loss of brand image. Negative feedback and controversial discussions can damage the image and it becomes crucial to have the right resources and crisis management strategy when employing social media.
3. There is the feeling that financial institution may waste their time and money by investing into a social media strategy because the limitation imposed by their business’ nature does not allow employing social media at its true potential.

Benefits of using Social Media for Financial & Banking Industries

1. Create a friendlier image
You can increase your customer satisfaction by making an effort to engage and interact with their clients. That conservative image can be transformed and humanized if you get involved in the online conversations and build a community around your organization.
2. Use social media for recruiting
With a good strategy, social media can be used for internal career development and recruitment. Keeping an open line of conversation with professionals can help an institution to improve its image as an employer and recruit the best talent.
3. Build strong relationships
Keeping in touch with customers using social channels can help your business improve you’re the relationships between you and your audience better understand their needs.
4. Create a crisis management strategy
Crisis management is vital for this type of brands and a previously drawn plan for unpredicted situations is mandatory. Knowing how to deal with negative feedback is what makes a difference in any form of online interaction

To successfully employ social media in the financial and banking sectors you have to establish your goals and have a well-executed plan. With the right resources, the balance between risks and benefits will be quite easy to reach and you’ll be able to quickly see the results.

What are the challenges you encountered so far in your social media strategy in this field? Do you have any tips and tricks that worked best for you? We’d be glad to find out more about your experiences.