The trend is clear – if your financial brand isn’t on Facebook, it’s time to put a process change in place to make it happen. In fact, according to our 2018 Marketing and Compliance report, 95% of financial brands maintain a presence on Facebook with a growing 52% permitting loan officers to operate their own account.
With Facebook being the not only the larger platform for users, but also the most widely used by our surveyed banks and credit unions, it’s important to avoid mistakes so you can cut through the noise and grow your page. Here are things to keep in mind when growing your financial brand on Facebook.
Focus on the Right Metrics
While getting likes is important, it isn’t the end-all of success. Metrics such as shares, engagements and comments are better indicators to track your interactions and measure your community. For example, a post is still successful when it has high engagement, despite not that many likes. Looking at a snapshot of your analytics helps you better understand how to scale your community.
Pro Tip: Vary your organic and paid tactics on Facebook and aim to improve your metrics each month. Each post you make should have a purpose, so make sure you’re asking, “what is my goal with this post and how will we measure its success?”
Practice Brevity
Keep your posts simple. The longer the post, the more likely you are to lose your readers. While it may seem helpful to include more detail in your financial product posts, make sure the information you’re providing gets them to engage with the post.
Pro Tip: There are some exceptions, but in most cases try to keep your posts to no longer than five sentences. Do you need to say more? Break up your posts into different sections to keep the reader engaged.
Make Sure Your Page is Complete and Verified
More people are turning to Facebook to find business phone numbers, addresses, contact information, etc. If this information is incomplete — or you don’t have the correct information on your page — you’re ultimately missing an opportunity to engage with your customers and leads.
Additionally, if you haven’t verified your Facebook page, you’re also losing an opportunity to not only claim rogue pages for your brand (e.g., location pages), but also the ability to show up higher in a Facebook search.
Pro Tip: You can check your page information by viewing your “About” tab on your Facebook page. If you’re missing vital information, now’s the time to update it. Make sure you’re also updating any Facebook Location Pages as this information may have changes since it was last updated. Here are tips from Facebook on verifying your page.
Post Consistently
A regular posting schedule has never been more important in order to stand out on Facebook. Posting only once or twice every few weeks makes it hard for your brand to attract new customers. It may seem like a small thing, but it’s one of the main reasons why your financial brand could be buried by your competition.
Pro Tip: Create a posting schedule that you can stick to. Even if it’s only a few times a week, regularity in posting can help improve your page traffic and reach more leads.
Invest or Invest More in Advertising
Relying on just organic reach to grow your brand on Facebook isn’t enough. The good news is that advertising on social media is often more effective and inexpensive than traditional avenues. Paid social gives insight into how your followers are interacting with your advertisements and identifies ways for improvement. Moreover, the cost per customer acquisition falls dramatically.
Pro Tip: If you haven’t already started your 2020 budget, now’s the time to take a look at what you’re spending (if any) and make it a larger part of your media plan. Don’t forget that we can partner with your team on Facebook advertising, custom content and campaigns.
Facebook is constantly changing, and it is important that your brand changes with it (and update those pages). If you want to talk about Facebook strategy, I encourage you to reach out to us or tweet us @socialassurance to let us know other Facebook tips that have helped your brand grow.
