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Social media for financial services is a rapidly growing sector. In an industry that was previously slow to adapt to digital marketing, the pandemic sparked an economic downturn, which spurred a newfound urgency to meet customers online.

An Emarketer report forecasted that digital ad spending in the financial services sector would grow 9.7% to $19.62 billion in 2020. Over 70% of that amount will be spent on mobile advertising – an increase of 13% to $13.9 billion – placing financial services as the second-biggest consumer of digital advertising.

Financial service companies that don’t have a social media presence risk being perceived as out-of-touch or even untrustworthy.

But what platforms are best for financial services?

To help you, we’ve compiled a list of the six best B2B social media platforms for financial services based on our research and experience.

Before we dive into that, let’s first explore why social media is essential in the financial sector, how it can benefit, and how financial services should use social media.

Why is social media essential for financial services?

Financial services that don’t exist on social media are losing out on valuable opportunities to engage with potential customers.

Social media can provide a level of transparency to an industry that is often perceived as opaque. Showing the human side of financial services through social media can help to build trust with potential clients.

What are the benefits of social media for financial services?

There are a number of benefits that financial services can experience by being present on social media, which include:

Build trust: Financial services is a relationship-based industry. Your potential customers need to know they can trust you with their finances. A social media presence allows you to build that trust by humanizing your brand and showing that you are an authority in your field.

Generate sales: According to GlobalWebIndex, 54% of social media users use social media to research services and products, making it an excellent platform for generating leads that can be converted into sales.

Build brand awareness: Social media is a cost-effective way to increase brand awareness for your financial services company. Whether it’s paid ads or simply organically sharing your content, you can reach a large audience quickly and easily on social media.

Collect valuable customer data: Social media is a great place to collect important customer data. For example, you can use LinkedIn Analytics to track who your target audience is, where they live, and their interests. This information can be used to create targeted marketing campaigns across various social media channels.

Stay up-to-date on industry trends: Social media is a great way to stay abreast of the latest industry news and trends. You can follow influential people in your industry, join relevant groups, and discuss the latest industry news with your peers.

How financial services should use social media

There is no doubt that financial services are one of the most tightly regulated industries that exist.

Those that work in the industry must be careful about how they communicate with the public to ensure that they are in compliance with regulations. This becomes even trickier when using social media, where you’d need a full social media policy across your entire team.

So how do you walk the line of staying compliant across industry norms while creating content that engages your audience?

When it comes to social media marketing for financial services, the key is to provide value. This can be done in a number of ways, such as sharing educational and helpful content, answering customer questions, and sharing company news.

Financial services should keep the following in mind when doing social media marketing:

• Be compliant: Ensure that all of your content is compliant with industry regulations.
• Be transparent: Be open and honest with your audience.
• Be helpful: Share content that is helpful and informative.
• Be human: Social media is all about building relationships. Don’t be afraid to show some personality and let your audience get to know you and your brand more personal.

Moreover, fin-fluencers are one of the best and most innovative ways to market financial services. This strategy involves working with finance sector social media influencers who have a large following in your target market and who can help promote your brand to their followers.

Top 6 Best Social Media Platforms for Financial Services

1. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a platform that allows you to connect with other professionals and potential customers in your field. With over 850 million users in over 200 countries, LinkedIn is a great platform for generating new leads. In fact, 62% of financial advisors have reported getting new clients through LinkedIn. It’s also an excellent place to share content relevant to your industry, thanks to its large reach possibility and professional environment.

Pros:

• Great for relationship building and networking
• Best social media platform for social selling
• A huge user base of professionals
• Allows you to share long and short-form content
• Good platform to establish topical authority

Cons:

Example: ACI Worldwide is a software company that provides corporations with real-time payment solutions. They use LinkedIn to share company news, recent discussions, and informative articles.

2. Twitter

Twitter is a fast-paced social media platform that’s perfect for sharing news, articles, and other timely content. It differs from other social media platforms in the way, that it’s heavily conversation-based. Financial services will benefit from the platform’s ability to have real-time conversations with potential customers and connect with them to answer their questions and concerns, as well as get feedback from them.

Twitter is a popular social media platform in the financial sector, with 63% of the industry using the platform.

Pros:

• Fast-paced environment
• Large user base
• Doesn’t take long to create a tweet that can go viral
• Built-in scheduling tools
• You can track data effectively with Twitter analytics

Cons:

• Character limit can be limiting (tweet can be up to 280 characters)
• Limited in terms of interaction types

Example: Nucleus Commercial Finance is a financial technology company with a mission to make solution-led finance accessible to more businesses. On their Twitter, they share helpful blog articles, statistics, and company awards and news.

3. TikTok

TikTok, the world’s fastest-growing social media platform, is a video-sharing app that allows users to share short-form videos. It’s an ideal platform for sharing educating and entertaining videos that showcase your financial services and brand personality. The majority of TikTok users are Gen Z, making it a great platform to reach out to this demographic.

Pros:

• Wide audience reach makes it an ideal place to build brand awareness
• Able to share short videos on any topic
• Excellent for reaching Gen-Z and millennial audience
• High viral possibility

Cons:

• Time and effort are needed to figure out what kind of content works best for your brand

Example: Austin Hankwitz is an influencer in the finance niche who uses TikTok to share quick and helpful videos on a variety of finance topics. His account is entertaining while also informative, making it the perfect example of how financial services can use TikTok.

4. YouTube

YouTube allows financial services to create a deeper connection with potential customers by sharing educational and informative content about their products and services. It’s a great place to be transparent about your financial services company and to show your audience that you are an authority in your field.

Pros:

• Good for building long-form content
• It can be a great lead generation tool
• Great for building an engaged audience

Cons:

• Requires a high level of commitment (you need to consistently produce videos in order to grow)
• It can be expensive to start if you have no previous gear

Example: Wealthfront is a financial service combining investing and banking services, aiming to make long-term investing easy. They use YouTube to share helpful and educational videos on a variety of topics related to personal finance.

5. Instagram

Since its launch, Instagram has gathered more than 3.8 billion downloads, with over 20% of them being active users, making it a prime social media platform for financial services. With the use of attractive visuals and videos, financial services can generate a large following, educate them with helpful content, and eventually convert them into customers.

Pros:

• Excellent for connecting to Gen-Z and millennials
• Ability to give customers visual reference of what you offer
• Builds up useful customer information that can be used for marketing purposes
• Great for employer branding and humanizing your brand

Cons:

• Getting followers can be difficult when starting. Getting your content in the Explore section, which increases visibility, is hard without previous followers
• Hashtags need to be used strategically in order to be seen by potential customers

Example: Capco, a global technology consultancy company specializing in financial services, opts to use Instagram to humanize their brand. A powerful method of employer branding, Capco relies on Instagram to give their followers a sneak peek behind the scenes of what it’s like to work with them.

6. Facebook

Though Facebook is the oldest platform on this list, it has a lot to offer for financial services. You can create and share images, videos, live videos, and stories free of charge. The platform is used by financial services to promote their brand, build their customer base, and even share memes related to their industry.

Facebook allows you to create targeted ads based on interests, demographics, and behaviors that can help you reach a new audience.

Pros:

• Good for multiple purposes, such as promoting your brand, creating targeted ads, and using Facebook Messenger as a customer service tool
• Great analytics that shows you how your posts are performing and what your customer base is

Cons:

Example: Allianz Trade is an insurance company offering services like insurance, debt collection, and surety bonds. On their Facebook, you can find inspirational stories from their influencers and collaborations, as well as charity work.

A social media presence is essential

Over 95% of companies expect to face a crisis in the next two years, yet fewer than 40% have a crisis plan that is “very relevant” as of 2020.

Because of the large usage of social media by individuals and companies, it has become one of the most effective channels to address a crisis.

Social media is a trend that’s here to stay and, if used correctly, can be a powerful tool to help you reach your marketing goals.

In order to manage your social media campaigns and other financial service marketing efforts, you will need a powerful social media engagement suite tailored specifically for B2B companies, like Oktopost. As a platform with robust scalability, automation, and analytics, Oktopost keeps financial service marketers on top of the game.