How You Can Reach Credit Union and Bank Customers on Instagram

It's important for banks and credit unions to always work to find new and better ways to engage with customers, especially in this day and age when fewer and fewer people are visiting branches in person.

Bank and credit union clients are sharing more and more content via Instagram, and we are seeing some great engagement and fun interactions for financial institutions on this platform.

All these efforts help to build relationships and trust with customers, and keep the institution top of mind as the consumer goes about his or her daily lives. This is essential to better grow your FI's share of a member's wallet.

Here's a few tips to help your staff reach more customers via Instagram:

Fully Optimize Your Profile

When you land on any Instagram account the first thing you see is a username, a photo, a short description and the ONLY clickable link on Instagram (except in ads). This is your chance to let your brand shine through and tell people what you are all about, DO NOT leave this section blank! 

When choosing an image, make sure it is sized properly for Instagram. If you upload a square image, it will automatically be cropped to a circle. We recommend you use your financial institution's logo to keep your brand consistent and clear. 

Your bio is your first introduction, make sure your brand and mission is clear. Also, make sure you add a link to your website in the designated field, this is the only clickable link on Instagram!!

You can change this at any time, so update it with your changing marketing campaigns or with links to blogs or other website content as you share it in posts.

There's also a place to update your contact information and include an email and phone number as well as an address. Make sure you fill these out so that readers can click the CONTACT button on your profile and easily call or email your team.

Optimizing your profile will not only help your customers find you, but they will instantly recognize your bank or credit union and be more likely to follow you. 

Discover More: The Definitive Guide to Social Media Marketing for Financial Institutions

Use Facebook Ads to Better Target Customers

Instagram ads are great if you are looking for a very broad audience based off of location and interests, but if you want to reach just your current customers or members, there is no way to do this. In Facebook ads you can create a custom audience of your members or customers by uploading a current customer list. 

Once this list is made you can create an ad in Facebook Ads Manager that is targeted JUST to your target list. We have found that brand awareness ads work best when trying to grow your Instagram's exposure and followers. 

Share Branch Generated Content

Behind the scenes photos are by far the most engaged with on Instagram. Behind the scenes as in a picture of a birthday cake for your branch manager, or a photo of the new flowers planted outside of the main branch. These photos do so well on Instagram because it is relatable to your members, it is part of their world! 

 

The ladies at our Arrowhead branch celebrated Follow Friday with popcorn, candy and a special prize giveaway for members! We are a day late but this was too good not to share! 😁❤👏 . . . #creditunion #followfriday #photo #creditunions #weloveouremployees #welove ourmembers #creditunionlife #memberappreciation #deervalleycu #dvcu #deervalleyarrowheadbranch

A post shared by Deer Valley Credit Union (@deervalleycu) on Mar 11, 2017 at 8:27am PST

Another fun way to get your customers involved is an Instagram takeover day with a tech savvy team member. By doing a takeover, it will give your followers a glimpse of the day to day happenings at the branch. This is a great way to get branch team members involved and excited about social media as well.

 

Can't believe this is my last #instagramtakeover post! Thanks for following me today! Here's a TGIF sendoff from me and my fabulous team! Have a great weekend! 😄 . . . #adayinthelife #instagramtakeover #behindthescenes #marlboroughma #coworkers #lovemycoworkers #team #creditunionlife

A post shared by St. Mary's Credit Union (@stmaryscu) on Feb 24, 2017 at 3:22pm PST

Come up with a Solid Hashtag Strategy 

Hashtags are a great way to reach your target audience, boost engagement and develop a content hub. We suggest using 10 or more hashtags per post ranging from extremely popular to brand specific.

Research hashtags that relate to your brand or your mission and judge their popularity by how many public post there are. 

Once you create a list of hashtags, you can pull specific ones that align with what the post is about. We use this strategy:

• Include 3 - 5 Popular (In the Millions)
• Include 5 - 8 Moderately popular (In the Hundred Thousands)
• Include 3 - 5 Keyword Targeted (In the Thousands)

By creating a hashtag list and a simple guideline like the one above, you will ensure easy posting and better reach and engagement.