Hopefully your bank or credit union has a healthy social media marketing outreach. More and more consumers are connecting with brands (like your bank or credit union) via social media rather than traditional communication methods. Recent statistics indicate 2.8 billion people globally are now active social media users, 83% of Americans have at least one social media account and mobile social media use continues to skyrocket.

Handling the social media outreach for your bank or credit union is a big responsibility. Following are three important social media marketing blunders to avoid:

  • Not responding to comments and messages in a timely manner. They call it social media for a reason. It’s all about interaction. If your consumers are commenting on your various social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) and you aren’t replying, that’s a problem. Reach out to your consumers (even the upset ones) to show that your bank or credit union has a human personality behind its social media platforms. A good rule of thumb on social media response is within one business day.
  • Only talking about yourself. You’ve all been around that one person at a party that just won’t shut up talking about themselves. No one wants to be around that person. Don’t be that brand on your social media platforms. Not everything you say should be directly related to sales. Rather than push, push, push loan promotions, rate deals, etc. all the time, devote a healthy amount of time on your social media platforms listening to what your consumers are saying and even learning from them. As a rough guideline, you should use your social media platforms to promote products and services no more than 20% of the time while educating, informing and interacting 80% of the time.
  • Trying to be everywhere all the time. There are a boatload of social media platforms out there. Your bank or credit union must decide two things: the social media platforms where your consumers (and target markets) hang out and how much time/manpower you can devote to social media. Simply having, for example, a Pinterest page but never doing anything with it only hurts your brand. Target your social media activity like you do your marketing – with focus and clarity.

Social media is a powerful communications tool to reach out to consumers. Make sure you’re doing it the right way and growing your brand.