Financial communications and social media
We are getting a lot of questions about how financial companies should use social media. So here are some suggestions for the creation of a ’social’ financial company:
Companies need to be more transparent and enter into into online conversations in order to build trust and manage their reputations.
Directors should blog about progress on mergers; about market developments and new business developments; innovations and ad campaigns.
Videos could be used for discussing issues with shareholders and shareholders could be invited to submit questions which could be then answered via a video reply.
Directors overseas trips and new office openings could be shared via Flickr groups.
Companies need to also be actively tracking what is being said about them on blogs and social media sites and organising responses.
Bloggers should be involved in company announcements and invited to meet and have briefings with key executives.
Key announcements should be released on Twitter or blogs in order to maximise distribution and to generate discussions.
Companies could live blog from AGMS and twitter their results in order to develop networks with their key stakeholders.
It is crucial for financial companies to build networks online with key stakholders which can, for example, support new product launches. There needs to be less obsession with traditional media which is inefficient in terms of targeting.
There is also an obsession with getting financial announcements and key business developments on company web sites. The world cannot be expected to always beat a path to your web site. There are so many new routes and networks through which they can now receive news, which is why companies need to start to distribute their content through social media sites and networks to reach relevant online communities.
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