In this episode, Meredith Olmstead and social strategist Sophie Bawany share how credit unions and banks can make financial content actually work on platforms like Instagram and TikTok. From simplifying the message to embracing real, behind-the-scenes moments—this episode is your cheat sheet for Gen Z engagement.
Key Takeaways:
Simplify to Amplify - To engage younger audiences, financial institutions must strip away jargon and break complex topics into digestible, relatable bites—think “Part 1 of 3” video series or carousel posts that mirror how people actually scroll.
Ditch the Polish, Embrace Personality - Overly produced content doesn’t perform well on platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Raw, behind-the-scenes, staff-led Reels and face-to-camera clips feel more authentic—and authenticity wins trust.
Use Platform Features with Purpose - Polls, sliders, trending audio, and direct calls to action (CTAs) are native to social platforms for a reason. Smart marketers use them to boost engagement and drive community interaction, not just impressions.
Transcription:
Meredith Olmstead:
Hi, there. I'm Meredith Olmstead, CEO and founder of FI GROW Solutions. We are a digital marketing and sales and service consulting agency, and we work exclusively with credit unions and community banks. I'm here with Sophie Bawany. Sophie is one of our social media and inbound marketing strategists, and she is also what we like to term our social guru. And so Sophie is here with us, we've been talking about some client work that we're doing with some individual clients who are doing influencer campaigns, as well as just trying to reach out to younger and engage younger audiences on social media, particularly TikTok and Instagram. And I was like, "You know what, Sophie, let's hit record on some of this conversation because I think it really makes a lot of sense to cover it." So say hi, Sophie.
All right, so today we wanted to talk about how to make complex financial topics you called it, "Scroll-stopping," on social. So tell me why you're starting there. Why are financial topics so kind of intimidating in the social media space?
Sophie Bawany:
I think it's a couple of things. I think first of all, people won't admit it, but sometimes you're a little embarrassed to ask questions about finances. You think it's something so basic that, "Oh, I should know this." So people do have a little bit of hesitation to openly be like, "Hey, what is this? Or how do I do this?" So social media provides that anonymity where you can anonymously search and you're not asking someone and you don't feel dumb. I think that's the first step. The second step is people aren't on social media technically to get knowledge about finances. I don't go to social media-
Meredith Olmstead:
Or honestly, anything, oftentimes. I mean, yes-
Sophie Bawany:
Yeah. You're scrolling. have fun.
Meredith Olmstead:
Yeah, they want to be entertained a bit. Maybe they're interested in a get ready with you video or how-to videos of people that they follow. But typically, yeah, financial topics can be a little bit intimidating and kind of complex for that channel. So yeah, that's true. And we always, too, run into the problem of too much text. Clients... Or overly graphic focus, like putting their logos and their colors and stuff on every single piece of content. Why is that a problem on social?
Sophie Bawany:
I feel like too much text and too much graphic, people don't want to read. I feel like that's the whole... The beauty and the problem with social media is it's kind of mindless. It takes a lot of stress off. It's not a heavy investment. You're not reading and you don't need to use too much brain power. So you want to break things into consumable content. And that where the balance comes in of if it's graphic and it has a lot of words and a lot of statistics, unless it's something really, really relevant or something really catchy, people are going to be like, "Oh, this is too much," and they'll just scroll by it. They don't want to stop.
Meredith Olmstead:
Yeah. So it's like if you're going to put text on it, it also has to fit with the channel. So if you're making a Reel for Instagram or TikTok, you don't want it to look like it was edited in some very fancy video editing program. You want it to look like it was made on TikTok where with the bubbles and the fund step. And so a lot of times... But financial institutions, I find they want everything to be super polished and on brand and just perfect, and it doesn't fit. While it looks nice, it doesn't fit with the user experience on some of these channels. And then young people are like, they see right through it, they won't follow you, and they're certainly not going to engage with the content.
Okay, so what has to... So first thing. So that's one thing already that we've already said is basically keep the graphics very appropriate to the channel. You can have things that are very polished and look very nice and on brand on your website, in emails. Even Facebook, it fits. And the occasional branded elements on Instagram are fine, but typically the content that people are really engaging more with is the Reel content, behind the scenes content, plain old photos or short little videos or whatever that doesn't have a ton of polished. So that's the first thing, for sure. What about in terms of actual content? Because you write scripts for clients who are doing Reels. So how do you deal with complex topics, financial ideas?
Sophie Bawany:
I think the best thing to do is to remember that the average person is not going to stay on your content for more than 20 to 30 seconds. So we have to take a really big, very important topic and really break it down and maybe oversimplify it to engage, and then we can build on it. There's nothing wrong with making a series if it's something important. If it's about buying your first car, that's a really important topic and it's relevant. Maybe break it down into three videos or four videos
Meredith Olmstead:
Yeah, part one, part two, part three. You see those all the time on TikTok and Instagram, where you have a 30 or 45 second video that covers the first point, and then six hours or a day later, they put up part two and part three and that gets people over to your feed or your list of Reels to then go watch the other parts, which is great. So bite sized pieces, different parts, or carousels, potentially, on an Instagram post could work. All right, so that's a good first step. What about financial terminology? And you said this, the example we were talking about was ARM mortgages, adjustable rate mortgages. But you were like, "I didn't know what an A-R-M was when I first started with financial institutions." I was like, "Well, first of all, we don't call it an A-R-M." So it's really funny, avoiding jargon or intentionally defining it, right?
Sophie Bawany:
The average person, and especially when you're targeting... Every credit union and bank that we've spoken to, their dream is to have a younger member audience. Your younger member audience may not know what a Roth IRA is. They probably don't know the different ways to set up for retirement. They're not there yet. So talking about mortgages and autoloads, you have to simplify the terms because they're out with very little actual knowledge and they're using... And they're going to trust you. If you want to build that trust, you need to simplify it so that they can become an authority and feel comfortable and confident in making those big decisions.
Meredith Olmstead:
Yeah. I like the other way that you said this too, is showing people something rather than just telling them. So don't say things, but act it out, demonstrate it, show it. It can be fun, cheeky, silly. Silly little videos or plays on words, but then also share or get across one main point or one main event that's coming up or something along those lines. Awesome. Okay, so behind the scenes you are really trying to push clients in this direction and helping them show off their staff, because that is absolutely the kind of content that young people want to engage with. So tell us a little bit about what you like to see there.
Sophie Bawany:
I've said it, this is the cross I'm going to die on, the hill that I'm going to die on. People trust people. Financial institutions, for years, have had a really bad rap about being bankers are the big bad wolf. So we have to humanize credit unions and remind everyone that's consuming your content that, hey, this person has also gone through life the same way I have. They just have more knowledge.
So a real member or a real person on your staff who's a subject matter expert giving a real life anecdote or example saying, "Hey, it took me... I applied for my car loan here and it was so simple." A real person will validate that because they actually went through it and somebody watching that will say, "Oh, yeah. If that person did it and they're an actual member," it adds authenticity and it makes things seem less daunting, a little less scary, and people are going to want to engage and they're going to want to learn more. Like, "Hey, how did you do that?" And if you see a staff member talking about a process or telling you, "Hey, here's how an IRA really is going to help you in the long run," they're not just talking about their subject matter, they're giving you something that's going to be useful to you personally.
Meredith Olmstead:
Yeah. And it's like their actual life experience. So really being raw, being authentic, versus being perfect and polished and edited down to the perfection, is better. Also, we're going to finish with platform specific tips. So if you want to try to get people to interact, so thinking about really specifically, we're looking at Instagram and TikTok these days for credit unions and community banks who are trying to get in front of younger audiences. So you're really going to be trying to actually promote some kind of engagement on those platforms, but you want to make sure that it fits on the platform. So for example, Instagram has, and Instagram Reels have, really cool built-in features like polls or countdowns or sliders to say if you like something or you don't. So using some of those can be awesome.
And then I always remind you to say this because this is something that I've been teaching people for over a decade on social media. Don't be afraid to remind people to do something. So say, "Take the poll... Here's a poll or here's a question, answer in the comments below. Tag your friend, share with somebody." Putting that call to action, actually very obviously in the content or in the post or the video. "Share if you think this could help your friends find a great tip," or something along those lines to remind people. As far as besides just being really, really kind of obvious with asking people to take an action for Instagram or for TikTok, are there any specific platform tips that you could throw out into those?
Sophie Bawany:
I think, again, using your Stories to your advantage. People get really worried about all of the features that different platforms have, but with Instagram, there's so many built in features. Take a second to explore what you can do with your Stories. Like you said, be intentional with every piece of content that you're putting out. Make sure that every piece of content has a certain call to action. With Instagram, I would suggest really utilizing carousels if you do have information that has numbers so that people can stop and pause and really absorb the content and using Reels for more of your fun engagement to drive views and to have the audience expand. And then for TikTok, similar concept of it's obviously more videos. They do have photos, but the photos for TikTok are more from an aesthetic perspective, so I would stick to videos on TikTok. But make sure that you're using their inbuilt feature of adding a title and having those captions. Make sure that you're actually building it within the platform.
Meredith Olmstead:
Yeah. And so a couple of other things. Face-to-face kind of camera explaining videos are awesome, especially if they're short, to the point, quick, and done by somebody who the person who you want to be connecting with feels like they can connect with. And then also trending audio, which is huge. And that is where somebody like you, your support is huge because the average marketer at a financial institution, even me, I have no idea what's trending audio for young people on TikTok or Instagram Reels. But if that's your job to stay up to speed on what's trending, and then you can shoot over the trending template to a client and they can quickly make a silly financially minded video with a trending audio, it can be huge for engagement.
Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Sophie. These are great tips. I appreciate you carving out some time to share your expertise. If you all are interested in learning more about social media or digital marketing for your credit union or community bank, please visit us at FIGROW.com. We have lots of other great podcasts, we have blogs and case studies, and so we'd love to see you there. And otherwise, let's just all get out there and make it happen.