LinkedIn is most reputable for being the “business social platform”. Even though LinkedIn has been around for 19 years, banks are still trying to figure out how to make LinkedIn worth their time, energy and resources. Does a bank get business from LinkedIn? What kind of content works on LinkedIn? How do employees help our bank on LinkedIn?
Sometimes I think we overthink LinkedIn instead of viewing the platform as another channel to highlight our brand, celebrate our culture and connect with people. We complicate our content, get stumped by algorithms or worse, get overwhelmed and don’t engage the space at all.
In this three-part series, we’re going to break down the three primary roles for your bank in using LinkedIn and show you how these roles point back to building a better brand, helping your bank to leave your mark. The three roles are your Financial Brand, Lender (mortgage and commercial) and Leadership. Up first, your Financial Brand.
WHY LINKEDIN FOR YOUR FINANCIAL BRAND
What role does the Bank play in engaging in LinkedIn and why does it matter?
At the most basic level, LinkedIn is a search engine. When people are looking to switch jobs and stalk company cultures, LinkedIn is one of the first places researchers visit. (And let’s be honest, who isn’t trying to recruit today?) By your Bank having a LinkedIn page, your employees can identify they work for your Bank, tag your Bank and thus help researchers gain a peek into your company culture.
We can compare this in some ways to reviews. If you were looking at two restaurants and they both had 4.3 stars, but one had only one reviewer and the other had 250, would that impact which restaurant you would choose?
When banks say “their people” are the differentiator to their bank, then ‘their people’ should be easily found! The people will become the reason potential employees either connect (or don’t) to your bank’s brand.
(I love this person’s description. Just by reading her headline, I feel fondly for her and what she’s trying to do in the community she serves.)
Keeping on the topic of search, there are some great SEO benefits to LinkedIn. Remember how we described LinkedIn like a search engine? Then, naturally, search engine optimization would be a thing. According to WebITMD, Google loves LinkedIn for the tone of user engagement and the continual refresh of original content. The way your Bank approaches SEO for your website should be mirrored on LinkedIn. If you want to learn more about SEO, listen to the Social Assurance SEO webinar recorded on Thursday, December 2, 2021.
WHAT KIND OF CONTENT WORKS ON LINKEDIN?
Now that you’re convinced that LinkedIn is a good space for you and your Financial Brand, we want to equip you with some best practices to help you succeed in the space.
Get your LinkedIn profile setup correctly –
- Use a good logo and cover photo. Our basic size guidelines help you know your logo and image size, helping it fit without stretching or pixilation. These images represent your brand and should reflect the professionalism your bank displays. Don’t be afraid to update these images for seasons and with the people who make up your brand!
- Use SEO keywords and phrases in your company description. Every effort you can make on the interweb to drive the keywords and phrases important to your bank will have an impact.
- Tell your story! Your Financial Brand is much more than a history lesson of milestone dates. Use the About section to dive deeper into how your brand connects and supports the community. And don’t forget to include the great people who help represent your brand!
The most commonly asked question we receive is, “What should our brand be posting on LinkedIn?” Being a bank brand on LinkedIn gives you opportunities to humanize your brand, share industry news – like mergers & acquisition activity, regulatory changes impacting businesses and consumers (i.e. Biden’s proposed IRS Reporting Requirements), community events and more.
- Remember, LinkedIn is a professional network of people. Share highlights about professional people – in your community, in your bank
- Use video. Videos do not always need to be professionally created. Check out Canva.com as a low-cost resource for video editing.
- Consider sharing professional resources, checklists and tools your brand already has within your network.
- Did you know, like Facebook, you can create an event in LinkedIn? As the world is opening back up, if your Bank hosts a networking event, or a continuing education event, creating that event in LinkedIn gives one more channel of exposure to business folks in your network.
- Every company is navigating recruiting in this environment. Don’t forget about sharing career opportunities within your company!
LinkedIn continues to be an animal for the banks we talk to and we’re here to make it simple. Remember, this is only one of a three-part series which will roadmap the LinkedIn landscape and how LinkedIn can support your Financial Brand, Lenders and Leadership into 2022. Stay tuned for part two and three!
Social Assurance is a market leader in supporting banks and credit unions in the social space, streamlining processes for managing social content and delivering results to help your bank leave its mark. If you’re ready to make LinkedIn work for you and your bank, let’s talk.
