NewsWhip content strategist Gabriele Boland reveals how to break through the digital noise on social media in an age where reaching and engaging your audience is becoming harder.
NewsWhip is a content intelligence company that analyses, in real time, the endless stream of social data published across the web every day. They can then use these insights to help answer the million dollar question: what content works across the web?
How can finance brands in particular leverage NewsWhip data across their social networks to increase engagement?
Our dashboards show marketing professionals which events, stories, and influencers are getting the largest social engagement, in real-time or historically. Our data helps brands understand what their audience wants to see and what drives engagement in every vertical, globally or locally. For finance brands, this means real-time content discovery of the stories their readers care about, 360 media-monitoring of their brand, and competitor analysis to get ahead of the others in their space.
What sort of content do you find works best on social for these sorts of companies?
We’ve seen some finance brands adapt very well to the social space. This has been through a few distinctive tactics. While distilling a complex topic into an image can be difficult, visuals have tremendous value on social media. Although not always the easiest to do, visuals can bring a lot to an otherwise complicated topic. A striking video or infographic will stand out in your readers’ social media feeds.
Focusing on niche audiences is a trend we’ve seen becoming more prominent and more successful
Which social media platforms do you find work best for this sector?
Testing different social media platforms can prove successful and is one way to reach the different audiences that live on each one. NASA, though not a finance brand, has seen enormous success by branching out across Instagram, Reddit, Tumblr, and more. Another part of this is finding the big topics, and how best to communicate them. Again, this is something NewsWhip Spike and Analytics can help with. Brands need to communicate to users on their level. Gone are the days of lecturing at your target audience. Your readers want to be able to understand, participate, and respond to your content.
In your experience, have finance brands been slow or fast to adapt to social as a communication channel?
Some have pivoted faster than others. MasterCard, a client of ours, uses NewsWhip Spike to identify and engage with their top earned stories and influencers. They’re constantly keeping a pulse on what’s happening on social around them. Then there are emerging brands such as Venmo and others, which are coming onto the scene and are naturally digitally savvy. It’s definitely necessary for finance brands to master the social space. Social media is the customer service, reputation, and advertising of brands today.
Can you provide an example of a post either from or used by an insurance company or bank that really worked?
One UK finance brand we’ve seen navigating the space well is NatWest. The bank has been experimenting with different types of content on Facebook: educational guides and videos that aim to improve personal financial security, along with little interesting history lessons. The brand also joins in on holidays (both real and social media based), which is a part of the communal social media experience. There are also posts about new coin releases, which speaks to a specific audience of coin enthusiasts.
What are your predictions for social content in general in the coming year or so?
Like with NatWest publishing content specifically for coin hobbyists, focusing on niche audiences is a trend we’ve seen becoming more prominent and more successful. Publishers and brands alike are slicing and dicing their content into specific, tightly focused verticals. Video content is also continuing to see momentum across social media platforms, with continued experimentation around live-streaming and VR. Organic distribution will mean heightened prominence on building out communities on social and highlighting your content creators. Ultimately, knowing how to reach the right audiences, at the right time, with the right message, is going to be key for success on social.
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