Social Media Marketing in Financial Services

Financial service providers and social media - how can you benefit?

It's not news that Facebook has tremendous advertising potential and is ideal as a marketing channel. As a result, fans often feel directly connected to the company. A previously untouchable and abstract structure of a company thus has the opportunity to exchange briefly and concisely with the fan. Often a company is even perceived as a person at some point and fans like to get in touch with it. It all sounds very simple, it has happened many times and has proven itself in a wide variety of industries. Unfortunately, some industries have a hard time. These include the finance and insurance industries. But why? And how can they catch up there and catch up with other areas?

According to the “Social Media Atlas 2013” ​​study by Faktenkontor in Germany, anyone who wants to find out about insurance and financing offers or financial products rarely uses social media to find out about themed articles and offers. The study examined the Internet behavior and the use of users on social platforms such as Facebook and found that these have so far not played a special role for those interested in obtaining information. In the past they preferred to find out more in other ways. That's a shame, but there is also good news to be announced: The tendency for people to take up more and more online topics relating to insurance and finance is slowly increasing.

The study also found that the importance of social media has increased overall in Germany. Unfortunately, the field of insurance companies and financial service providers seems to be largely excluded here. Actually incomprehensible, since Facebook and Co. have enormous advertising and image-building potential for companies.

So far, consumers have wanted personal, competent and trustworthy advice - and according to the study, they prefer to do so in other ways than via social media marketing. It seems that trust is what Internet users lack when they find out about insurance and all things finance online. In the time of total NSA surveillance and data theft, this is only too understandable.

Of the 3,426 participants in the survey, according to Faktenkontor, only 25 percent of Internet users are not familiar with social media. It's hard to imagine that it is such a high percentage.

In general, it can be stated that users do not like to use social media to find out about offers from financial service providers. However, this does not only apply to social media: it is shocking that only four out of ten users obtain information from traditional media such as magazines, newspapers and online news. The subject of money is simply boring - or alternatively disturbing. A modern financial service provider has to face this challenge.

What do the fans like?

In general, the topics of finance and insurance seem to meet with little interest from Facebook users. On the platform, they tend to find out more about leisure-time topics. For financial service providers who want to use Facebook for work, this is generally a bad prerequisite.

Topics relating to health and consumer goods, on the other hand, are more than well received by users and have already triggered a real boom. The topic of »health« in particular could offer the insurance sector an opportunity to slowly approach users.

But how is that supposed to be possible?

Facebook and Co. are pure entertainment media. So if you are, for example, a financial service provider, then you also entertain people on your Facebook fan page instead of only distributing important, but deadly boring business information. You should of course maintain a certain seriousness with your company profile on Facebook, because you want to gain trust. However, you must not forget that users romp on Facebook primarily out of private interest and are not interested in pure advertising messages, yes, advertising is often even interpreted and repulsed as an invasion of privacy. It is undisputed that advertising can work on Facebook - it must, however, be sent and usually without sales-related content.

Financial service providers and insurers are seen as brakes on fun

Financial service providers have a lot in common with other consulting professions - such as management consulting or the funeral industry, for example: They are somehow stuffy, dreary, dusty and not very entertaining. But it doesn't have to be like that, because you decide how you as a company will be perceived by your fans on Facebook. The undertaker Friedrich Cordes burials from Hanover is a positive example. The company takes the work, which is serious in itself, with a good dose of humor, because it likes to entertain its fans, doesn't take itself too seriously and is not afraid of poking fun at the serious reputation of a funeral home.

For example, "10 ways to shorten your life" were shared: this can be easily achieved by smoking, being a police officer or lack of sex. The fans also find articles about vintage car cemeteries, funny illustrations on the subject of death and even strange deaths very entertaining. The reward for the effort: a high rate of interaction on the site and an increasingly younger clientele who perceive this undertaker as more interesting and personable than the others.

The 5-3-2 rule

Friedrich Cordes Bestattungen does not miss out on offers and information that are relevant to customers, which his Facebook fans can find out about anonymously and easily on the Facebook page without having to establish direct contact by email or telephone. Such information offers must not be neglected. But how much of it can be?

In general, it is important to create a balance between entertainment, information and offers. The fans want to be entertained and equally informed - and let's be honest: Who wouldn't like to be advised by someone who doesn't always take himself too seriously, is nevertheless competent and provides good and regular information on new and existing offers? As in politics, such issues are primarily about transparency, trust and sympathy.

The 5-3-2 rule provides information about the proportions of the content on your Facebook page: Out of ten posts, five should be entertaining, instructive or inspiring content from other websites that are of interest to the fans of your page. Three contributions should be your own content, i.e. report from the company and your work. Purchase messages can be interspersed here, but only now and then, please. Two items of content should be of a personal nature - for example, a weekend greeting or a photo of the office dog. There is no need to be slavish to this rule, but it is justified.

How do you increase interaction in a boring industry?

If your company is part of an industry that tends to be "boring", such as a financial services provider, there is one thing you should always keep in mind: Facebook users love puzzles and quiz games. Interest in your site could be aroused, for example, with a quiz in which the fan can playfully guess financial terms that may have been mentioned and explained in previous posts. In this way, the fans can first be made aware of this topic, because many terms such as annuity, insurance and semi-dynamic pension simply say nothing. At the same time, you can demonstrate your competence by solving the puzzle. It would be a good idea to offer small prizes as a reward for the winners. It just depends on a good mix between topic-independent entertainment, offers and topic-related information.

What does the fan want?

However, entertaining Facebook fans is often difficult. But why is that? Well, on the one hand you think that the fans like to be served funny and »light food« and that this makes it easier for them to bind them to the company. To a certain extent, that is also true. However, at this point there is often a problematic misunderstanding between the fan page operator and the fans: Although they want to be entertained regularly, according to the study by ibi research, 23 percent of fans also want to hear about current financial events several times or at least once a week - and the insurance market to be informed. 21 percent even want it every day. Horrifyingly, however, only one percent of the content is served daily. 14 percent of financial service providers do not even provide this information.

Initial information about offers from your own insurance company or bank should also be possible easily and conveniently from your computer at home, without having to meet your personal insurance and financial advisor straight away. For small questions, a short chat on the fan page is also sufficient. And that can also be very comfortable with pajama pants instead of a suit.