Your Step-by-Step Guide to Social Media Success

Close your eyes for a moment and think about your ideal members. Can you picture them? Are they single or do they have a family? What do they do for work or fun on the weekends? What are their desires and needs? Now, imagine you invite them into your office for a cup of coffee – you’d answer their questions, maybe make them laugh, inspire them with member success stories and offer them engaging, credible information that enables them to make more informed decisions about how they spend their money.

You may be thinking, “Well that sounds amazing, but impossible. How would I gain my members’ willingly undivided attention?”

I’ll let you in on a secret – every second your members spend on social media is a second you have their full attention.

With a recent poll by Statista showing that Americans spend an average of one hour and 57 minutes per day on social media, the ability to find, meet and impress potential members on these platforms is unparalleled.

Not sure where to start? Here’s your step-by-step guide:

1. Pick your platform: One of the biggest mistakes I see when working with financial services companies is that they haven’t personalized their social media messages to the platforms on which they are posted. While social media as a whole is a fantastic tool to connect with people, each platform has its own unique purpose and user profile. Let’s take a look at the four main social media platforms and how to best use them:

LinkedIn: As a general rule, LinkedIn targets working professionals and job seekers, and according to Pew Research, it’s the platform most popular among educated, urban, professional Americans from households earning more than $75,000 per year. Use this knowledge to your advantage by posting content that will educate your page visitors. This could look like giving facts and statistics or linking to blog posts or news articles about relevant financial topics.

Facebook: Facebook remains the No. 1 social network with over 2.23 billion active log-ins each month, making it an excellent place to connect audiences with your brand. It’s also an extremely relational platform, so your content should be a balance of informative and engaging (in addition to visually on-brand). Consider highlighting your solutions to pain points that your target audience might have with their current financial services provider. Take the opportunity to educate them on what makes your credit union unique, and don’t be afraid to do so using infographics, photos, interactive polls, quizzes and videos.

Twitter: While a recent Twitter survey found that 79% of monthly active Twitter users are outside of the United States, it’s still important to be animating the platform regularly.

Twitter is a great place to highlight credit union awards, announcements or media mentions, and it’s especially important in the event of a crisis, as it works as a quick way to broadcast information and provide updates.

Instagram: While you may think Instagram is only for sharing photos between friends, think again. One recent Hubspot report found that 80% of all Instagram users follow a business on Instagram. Invite audiences into your credit union family by highlighting behind the scenes happenings, corporate social responsibility activities, member testimonials and national holidays that are relevant to the finance industry. Photos and videos highlighting employees and workplace culture can make your members feel more connected to your credit union.

2. Think outside the box: Many of the financial industry executives I work with often understand the power of social media but struggle to create the content to support it. I get it, but I would again encourage you to think about your ideal member. What would they want to see from you? Or more importantly, what do they need to see?

Crafting valuable, compelling content that helps people solve problems is the goal. Maybe it’s listing 10 tips for saving money during the holiday season or analyzing a particular financial benefit your credit union offers. Can you hold a contest? A vote? A giveaway?

Videos also perform extremely well on social media, with one Facebook executive going so far as to tell Quartz he believes that Facebook will be all video content and no text by 2021. With that in mind, consider doing some interviews with your team about advice they can offer, company features or employment benefits – depending on your goals and your particular social media platform.

3. Time it right: While what you post on social media is important, when you post is also something to consider. Each platform has algorithms to take into account, plus users tend to log in at different times of the day.

For example, Facebook posts receive optimum engagement on Wednesdays between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., according to Sprout Social. Since LinkedIn attracts mostly working professionals, it’s no surprise that Sprout Social reported the heaviest engagement traffic is mostly during traditional work hours, as well as right before the workday starts and right after it ends. Marketing platform Later recently analyzed 12 million Instagram posts to determine that between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. each day is the best time to post.

A strong social media presence is one that provides consistent value to its targeted audiences. Make a plan for how you will create fresh content, schedule it weekly and monitor your engagement daily. If you don’t have the staff in place, consider hiring an agency to implement and track your social media strategy.

Don’t let the many facets of social media scare you away from taking the first step. Understanding the platform purposes, generating content that appeals to your specific audience and getting the timing right will ensure you are one step closer to forming quality relationships with your members, almost as if they were stopping in to visit your office!

Jeff Bradford is CEO of The Bradford Group. He can be reached at jeff@bradfordgroup.com.