The financial services sector is a fast-changing industry and as it increasingly becomes more digital, social media marketing has become the go-to means of promotion. Even if your organisation has a more traditional approach, to reach a younger generation social media is almost essential. Generation Z (those born between 1997 and 2012), for example, has the fastest-growing income worldwide¹ and therefore money and investment decisions to make. Can you afford not to engage with them? There are many social media platforms to choose from including: 

Financial advisers have long used social media, and there are many benefits to doing so. In this article we will:

How can social media benefit your business?

Here are a few quick insights:

With 4.62bn active social media users around the world as of 2023, an increase of 10%² from the previous year, it is not an understatement to say that social media is the most accessible and utilised way for people to make connections and share information. If your business is not engaging with social media fully, then it is probable you are missing out.

Stage 1: Research

Understand the FCA guidance on the use of social media with their promotion and record-keeping rules

Before you even open your browser, you will need to ensure that you fully understand the constraints around how the FCA expects you to use social media within their promotion and record-keeping rules.

The FCA released a consultation paper outlining its supervisory approach to financial promotions in social media. It details the relevant rules and their supervisory expectations. We would advise you to read the complete paper before commencing and also suggest you read the short briefing statement which makes their stance very clear.

At Vanguard, we recommend that advisers should steer away from talking about performance on social media. This is, of course, your decision, but note that once you reference performance, you must use ‘value of investments’ and ‘capital at risk’ disclaimers and also include a full five-year discrete performance to provide transparency and clarity to investors. It may therefore be sensible to avoid these statements and the accompanying requirements altogether.

Work out which platforms your target audience use

To draw up your social media strategy, you will need to work out which platforms are actively used by your target audience so you can ensure that you will reach them.

If you haven’t consulted “Building a brand” already, now would be a good time to read through it and put the actions into place. Aligning your social media strategy with your brand identity is vital to presenting a cohesive approach that reflects your business’s values, tone and personality.

Let’s look at some of the available platforms and their benefits and drawbacks.

Facebook

Benefits: Huge user base, different targeting options available and an ability to share a variety of content types.

Drawbacks: Algorithms are frequently changing, and there is a decreasing organic reach and growing competition for visibility.

Instagram

Benefits: Engagement rates are generally high and the strong visual aspect enhances brand-building capabilities.

Drawbacks: There are limited options to allow links to posts and frequent algorithm changes can negatively impact reach and visibility.

X

Benefits: Large and active user base, wide audience reach and ability to share in “real-time.”

Drawbacks: The fast-moving environment makes it a difficult platform in which to stand out.

LinkedIn

Benefits: Professional network with many business-to-business marketing opportunities.

Drawbacks: Competition for attention can be high and the focus on written content may stifle creativity.

YouTube

Benefits: Huge user base and high engagement rates, along with the ability to host a variety of video content.

Drawbacks: Algorithm changes can negatively affect the impact reach and competition for visibility can be high. Being a solely video-based platform is limiting.

TikTok

Benefits: A large and growing user base that is particularly popular amongst the younger demographic. High engagement rates and very visual.

Drawbacks: The platform is constantly evolving, which, along with the algorithm changes, may make it less suitable for some businesses.

Platforms are constantly developing so remember that the benefits and drawbacks can change over time. It’s therefore important to regularly evaluate and adjust (if necessary) your social media strategy.

Don’t make assumptions

As far as social media goes, data is your friend, so use it to direct your social marketing strategy. There are many sources from which you can find reliable and up-to-date social media data. These include:

Use this data to ensure your social media efforts are focused on areas where commercial gain can be made. It takes time to create content, build your strategy and activate it, so make sure your work will be visible to the right audience.

Research your key competitors

The chances are that your key competitors will use social media, so look at the platforms they use and build a picture of how active they are. Researching your competitors provides valuable insights into the market and enables you to stay up to date with useful information regarding what is working well for them so you can stay ahead of the curve and understand the best practices for success.

Consider:

Creating a regular cadence of social content takes time and resources so, when building up a picture of the social landscape, consider this as part of your research phase.

Stage 2: Build an audience

Before you start posting on social media it is worthwhile spending some time building your audience. This will help you in many ways, by:

It is better to build your audience slowly and correctly than fast and worthlessly. You need to attract the right audience so take time to make sure you are reaching relevant people. You can start the process by simply liking, following and commenting on other people’s feeds.

Build a business relationship, don’t enter a hard sell just yet! At this stage you should be developing a bond with your audience. One of the easiest and most effective ways to do this is to share useful, relevant and thoughtful content with your target audience.

Stage 3: Start posting

There are two methods of content on social media – creation and curation. Creation is content that you have developed yourself and curation is content that you have liked, shared or reposted from another company or individual.

Creating new content means you have control over the image, copy and feel of the content and can ensure that it aligns with your goals and promotes your brand. It can showcase your personality and develop your brand voice.

Curation enables you to show your audience that you are engaged, responsive and invested in your industry. It allows you to be viewed as a trusted source of information and share diverse perspectives and insights.

It is a good idea to use both of these methods in your social media strategy as the two complement each other. Creating content takes more time than curating, so when time is short curation is a great way to stay engaged without impacting your other priorities.

But what should you post?

Start your business’s dip into social media with content that aligns with your brand and resonates with your target audience. You could consider the following:

These are a few ideas, but the prime focus should be on putting your audience first and working out what most appeals to them. Engaging with your audience should be key.

Stage 4: Amplify

Now you understand the mechanisms of social media, are active on platforms and have developed an audience, it is time to start thinking bigger – how can you grow your following?

There are two options: you can work on expanding your audience organically, or you can use technology to do this for you.

Organic amplification means that the reach and visibility of your content expands without using paid advertising. It relies on audience interaction growing your following, for example with likes, shares and comments, and with you interacting with your audience through following and commenting. As the name suggests, it happens over time, as an organic process.

The alternative, and faster, option, is to pay for promotion, which can include sponsored posts, display adverts and promoted accounts. This enables your account to reach a much wider – and also targeted – audience, which in turn increases your visibility and therefore audience base.

Organic amplification is free – there is no financial input required, it also enables you to always be authentic (as you can control with whom you engage and how you engage with them), and you can ensure that your brand’s values and mission are at the forefront of your communications.

However, it takes time to see results and needs to be viewed as a long-term process. It is also hard to collect data so you may not be able to measure success. Also note that Google and other platforms will favour paid adverts over your organic content, so it can sometimes be hard to be seen.

Paid amplification delivers results quickly, so you should see an immediate impact from your investment. You can also target specific audiences – for example by age, industry or location, ensuring your information is being read by a relevant audience. There are detailed analytics that come with paid amplification, so you can keep track of how well your campaign is performing and if changes need to be made.

Be aware that some platforms determine the price for paid amplification through an auction-type system where the cost is based on demand for advert space. This can quickly increase the financial investment required. Also, if you over-advertise, you will, in turn, over-expose your audience, making your efforts ineffective.

Stage 5: Consistency is the key to building success

When building and growing your social media strategy, it is important to keep consistent. Your audience will engage with – and trust – you if your message, branding, mission and tone remain uniform. By ensuring all your content is coherent you will increase brand recognition, demonstrate yourself as credible and build a strong following and reputation.

Using an external agency

If you are engaging with an external agency to design and instigate your social media strategy, you will need to ensure that they fully understand you, your business, and what you stand for. This is where a good brief is so important.

Your agency will need to know:

A thorough briefing is vital to enable you to gain the desired outcomes from your investment, so whilst we appreciate this seems like an extensive amount of information to formulate and share, doing so at this stage will save you time in the long term. It is worth taking the extra time now to ensure this stage is carried out comprehensively.

Scheduling tools

Another way to ensure consistency within your social media strategy is to use scheduling tools. These enable you to plan and schedule your social media content in advance, freeing up time for you to undertake other business tasks.

Scheduling tools are straightforward to use, and an inexpensive way to lay out your social media content in advance, whilst making your posts consistent and keeping you visible and active on social media.

Conclusion

In this article we have established that social media can benefit your business by:

Social media has become an integral part of our daily lives, making it an indispensable tool for businesses to reach and engage with their target audience. Ignoring it is no longer an option.

Action points

Here are some straightforward actions you can put into place in the next month to immediately enhance your social media presence.

Download your social media checklist

A checklist for posting social media content is designed to ensure that each social media post your company makes is well-prepared, engaging and aligns with your business’s goals and messaging.