How Banks Can Improve Their Social Media Presence

Every week there are new studies that try to analyze the tendencies in social media. Recently, one such study found that the banking industry is not doing very well on the social websites. According to the research, there are many banks, both small and large, which have pages in the social websites. Nevertheless, most of the users share that they find banks’ presence online to be quite apathetic.

• Further reading: Dubai Corporates hesitant about Social Media, PR Boss

For the purposes of this article, New Media Group conducted a little research to find what are the most common mistakes that banks make in the social media. Here are few simple solutions that can greatly improve any bank’s social presence.

Lack of Engagement

Statistics show that banks are not very “communicative” online. Often users send them messages and questions, but they never receive an answer. Moreover, most banks don’t show a more personal and fun side when they are posting on the social websites. Many users reported that they “unliked” or “unfollowed” the account of their bank, because it published only bland and complicated content. They also found financial abbreviations like FTP, LVTS and ZBA to be quite confusing.

Solution: Interact with your customers. Always respond to their posts and make sure you do that fast. Another thing you should do is post material that is free of any sophisticated financial terminology. Not everyone has a degree in Finance and Banking. Also, try to diversify your content by posting some trivia or entertaining articles and facts. Photos can too lighten up the heavy financial atmosphere.

No Plan

Many banks and banking companies have no scheme when it comes to social websites. They don’t have a strategy of any specific goals. They just post random things. Moreover, they do that at various random times. Many banks do to comply with the basic social timing rules. As a result, they can neither reach their audience nor can they expand it.

Solution: Come up with a social strategy and follow it strictly. See when your customers are more active and schedule your content for this particular time. Also, keep track of their engagement level. See which posts make them respond more. Use calendars to divide your plan into steps.

Bad Looks

Another common complain of users is that banks are never creative when it comes to the appearance of their website, blog or social page. Companies in the banking industry stick to particular fonts, colours and styles of graphic design. The study also made an interesting discovery – the website themes of the majority of banks are either blue or green.

Solution: Hire a top professional team of graphic designers with more innovative ideas to freshen up your online looks. Also, pay more attention to visual material like photos and videos. Latest analyses show that users are more impressed by them. However, remember to keep the interface of your website or blog simple. When customers browse through them they must not encounter any difficulties caused by their design.

Now go and see whether you are “violating” some of these rules and take actions to improve your social media presence.

*By New Media Group – the most powerful independent content marketer and social media services provider in Dubai and the wider region. The firm publishes www.dubaichronicle.com, www.bride-wedding.info and it is preparing the launch of www.abudhabichronicle.com. For inquiries, please write to Info@newmediagroup.biz.