5 takeaways from a social media strategy for a financial institution

Around a year ago, we were able to revise the social media strategy of a financial institution. It was an interesting, wide-ranging project, and I want to share our key takeaways with you.

1. Key analyses:

A comprehensive analysis is, of course, essential. What I found especially important in this project was:

• Which content and content formats perform well, and which do not, on which platform? This applies both to your own presence and to leading, including international, benchmarks. 

• What organic reach is really being generated on your own accounts? These figures must be questioned critically, especially on Meta/Facebook. The reality is often sobering.

• Which channels generate the most leads and conversions on the website? Do not forget that many iOS users are not captured, and that visitor data in Google Analytics under the “Social” category is not accurate at all. You need to analyse by utm_source and utm_campaign.

• How does the demographic profile of all website visitors differ from that of converters? Are younger smartphone users more likely to visit, while older desktop users are more likely to convert? What conclusions can be drawn here for channel selection? By the way, there is an overview of all relevant platforms on the cooala Content Hub at nau.ch:

2. Tidying up:

Social media is around 20 years old. Today, it is about cutting old habits and removing platforms and measures. In our case:

• Podcasts are great. But for company podcasts, the effort-to-reach ratio is often poor. We recommend appearing on established podcasts and benefiting from their reach.

• Classic blogs: they usually cover a company’s topics too broadly and get very little traffic. Content hubs are worthwhile for specific, highly relevant niche topics. More on this, and on content marketing, is available at cooala.

• Facebook: there are exceptions, but for most companies, Facebook organic is no longer worthwhile. Its reach is not even one tenth of Instagram’s, for example, and the effort for posting, monitoring and community management is usually underestimated. We usually recommend a paid-only strategy for Facebook to target people aged 50+.

Save 10 minutes here, 2 hours there - and there is time left for good quality content.

3. Focus and quality

Whether it is investment news on Instagram or a job ad on LinkedIn, posts like these are not relevant enough and weigh down the algorithm. 

It is about focusing on the core target group and the context. A person may be on Insta and LinkedIn, but they do not want to see the same thing from a brand on both platforms, nor business content on Instagram.

• So on Instagram, the financial institution focuses on the “experience”: events, sponsorships, and competitions.

• On LinkedIn, a second LinkedIn page, focused entirely on everyday working life and jobs, was launched. Because the main page is about business and finance. With success: the new account gained many followers in a very short time and multiplied its reach.

4. Success together 

On LinkedIn, employees’ personal accounts matter more than a company account. Said, done: 

• Management and other internal opinion leaders were trained on LinkedIn and brought up to speed.

• All employees received training videos on using LinkedIn for business, photo and video tips, and information on strategy and compliance.

• Ideally, accounts are run by the target group for the target group, or as the Edelman Trust Study calls it every year: “I trust people like me”. That is why half a dozen apprentices can manage the financial institution’s TikTok channel without much coordination.

5. How long should you allow for a social media strategy project like this?

For analysis and creation, including sign-off, you should allow 3-6 months, especially if the project still has to be approved by committees. We were also allowed to take responsibility for all social media channels for 3 months and really push ahead, then train the new social media manager over 2-3 months. 

Curious? Unsure about the performance of your current platforms and measures?