How to build your financial services brand in the social media space
1. Branding
2. Projecting
3. Conversing
In many ways, choosing an adviser is a leap of faith
It all comes down to this
Which company will help me feel confident about my financial future and that of those who rely on me?
Will you deliver the cheque and will it meet my expectations?
“I don’t know who you areI don’t know your company.I don’t know your company’s product.I don’t know what your company stands for.I don’t know your company’s customers.I don’t know your company’s record.I don’t know your company’s reputation.Now - what was it you wanted to sell me? ”
Moral – Sales start before your salesman calls
(Source: Advertisement for McGraw Hill Magazines.)
Branding is something you do already
Or is it?
Branding your business – 3 steps
Consider what you’d like people to remember about you1
Think about what makes you different and try to bring that out in everything you do (Remember to be customer focused).2
Branding your business
Be single minded.
It is an old marketing maxim.
If you throw one ball to someone, they will catch it. If you throw several, they are unlikely to catch even one.
“A man may be so much of everything, that he is nothing of anything.” Samuel Johnson
The best communications focus on one message.
3
Your two most valuable commodities
Trust Reputation
Clarity and consistency build trust and reputation
Clarity
Clear about who they are, what they stand for and what they
offer their customers.
Consistency
Consistent in their presentation, in their character and in their
messages.
Each of these builds trust and reputation
Your social media presence is the clothes you wear on the internet
Your social media presence is the clothes
you wear on the internet:
Speak with one voice consistently
across all channels
Keep your ‘brand’ in mind in every
interaction
Make sure everyone is on board
Good English is important – check your
spelling and grammar
Branding Summary
1. Why brand? To communicate what you offer, your unique
qualities and experience
2. Branding your business To build trust and reputation and instil confidence
in your customers
3. Communicating consistently To be consistently recognisable through clarity in
identity
2. Projecting
The extended visibility of your brand: So from stationary, to website, to all the available channels
Why bother?
Real time search
The extended visibility of your brand: So from stationary, to website, to all the available channels
Why bother?
“Everything you now do with social media will have an impact on search”
Cedric Chambaz, Microsoft
Need image for telling stories
Summary
Popular content:
•Lists
•How-tos
•Stories
•Videos
Structuring your content
Sharing and following content
Sharing content:
•add this
•tweetmeme
•slideshare
•YouTube
Tools to maximise reach
Projecting Summary
1.Why bother?• To build trust in your clients and with a wider audience
2.Effective content and propagation• Make your content easy to digest, and easy to share
3.Tools to maximise reach• To maximise your return on your time investment
3. Conversing
Advanced ‘listening’ tools
Don’t allow voids to develop around your brand
Brand advocates
Conversation Summary
1. Listen first Monitoring social media offers great insight into the hopes and
fears of your audience.
2. Join in the conversation Establish where conversations are happening and take the
opportunity to engage
3. Actively manage both positive and negative How you manage your brand in social media will leave a
permanent legacy, make sure it’s the right one
1. Branding
2. Projecting
3. Conversing
And finally…
Thank you
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twitter.com/TheGateLondon
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‘nicolawebber’
Nicola Webber
All images from flikr > Commercial