Top 4 Instagram Strategies for Banks & Credit Unions

With the proper strategy, Instagram can be extremely beneficial to your Financial Institution's growth and help boost engagement with your customers.

Here are four key tips to perfecting your Bank or Credit Union's Instagram marketing strategy.

#1: Share Behind the Scenes Photos of Staff

Instagram photos that contain faces get 38% more likes! So, don't be afraid to share behind the scenes photos of staff members, whether they are interacting directly on a daily basis with customers or not - Instagram is the perfect place to introduce them to your members! Or if a customer is kind enough to drop off a gift, or brings in a pet, snap a quick photo and feature them on your Instagram newsfeed or stories. This is a great way to show your bank or credit union's appreciation for both staff and customers.

Another huge positive of humanizing your brand is that you deepen relationships with your customers and make them feel like they are truly a part of your Financial Institution.

Here are a couple of our favorite recent examples:

#2: Feature Local Hotspots or Businesses

As a community based bank or credit union, it's very important to show your involvement in the community and appreciate all that the local area has to offer!

Your organic social media timeline shouldn't be about sales. In fact, sales related content should be minimal, and scaled in your paid advertising efforts. An organic way  to create and cultivate real relationships with your members or potential new customers, is to engage directly with them! So, don't hesitate to ask them.. 

• What's your favorite local restaurant?
• Where is your local go-to destination?
• What is your favorite scenic photo you've taken recently?

Conveniently, the locations and content they share is likely the same kind of content they consume themselves on their social channels. So, use the answers you get from these questions to create future posts that will drive much more engagement with your target audience. By sharing local, familiar, and relatable content - you'll even give your followers new local hotspots to try!

Here are a couple of our favorite ways we've done it:

#3: Get Creative with Your Hashtag Strategy

Results show posts get much higher engagement and likes when you use hashtags. The best part about this, there's no rules!

Source: https://thefinancialbrand.com/60606/instagram-marketing/

Usually, we recommend making some hashtags of your own. Here's some examples you can mirror:

#(your FI name) #(your state) #(your branch locations) #financialinstitutions #creditunions #banks #beststaff #weloveourteam & feel free to add in some fun ones that relate to your post! Eg. #tbt #throwbackthursday #motivation #funny #happyfriday #dogsofinstagram #latergram

Get creative, be fun, share your name, share your brand!

Once you have your hashtags all identified put them into three categories - Popular, Moderately Popular, and Keyword Targeted. Then for each post you should use hashtags from each of these groups to reach users who are interested in a wider range of information. Here's our agency's list, which gives you an idea of what we mean.

FI GROW INSTAGRAM HASHTAG LIST

#4: Keep a Consistent Posting Schedule 

Create a schedule! Keeping your posting schedule consistent on Instagram is crucial for success. One tactic is assigning themed content to certain days of the week - such as "Wellness Wednesday". We've seen great success with this, and it's a fun way to keep your customer's attention and looking forward to what each week will bring.

Consider Throwback Thursday (#tbt), Monday motivation and Sunday Funday. However, even if you don't implement these right away, make it a goal to have a regular posting schedule 5-7 times a week, 1-3 times a week, or whatever fits best consistently with your schedule. You seriously can't go wrong, and that's what makes your page unique!

Here's some fun examples: 

Implementing an Instagram strategy is a great way to jump start new relationships and interact with your existing customers, all while sharing your brand and having fun! 

Need a helping hand? Email us today and we can get started creating your own personal plan for an Instagram Strategy.