The Connected World, Now commonly known as the Internet of Things is a large and growing area of M&A. M&A activity in the Internet of Things grew 45% from 2012 to 2013 and those numbers will continue to rise.
The Internet of Things is a web of physical objects and appliances that use the Internet to connect with other machines as well as the external environment. Connected Home, Connected Auto, Connected Everything!
Check out the video below which speaks to Investor Activity in the space:
M&A Finance and the Internet of Things
Not only are VC’s in the IoT space, but Strategic Investors are also present, knowing that they need to be here now to capitalize on these massive opportunities later.
Want to to know more about the Real Advantage of Digital Channels for Financial Advisors?
This Digital Financial Advisor Report provides insight into how Financial Advisors engage with online and offline media when conducting investment research, and how advisors are prompted to move through the decision process from awareness to recommendation / use of the investment product and on what type of materials & methods advisors use when communicating recommendations to clients.
Quick Stats: “94% of Financial Advisors used at least 1 internet source for researching investments”
“82% of Advisors are prompted by ads to do additional research”
This is the first part in our Digital Marketing for Banks series: Social Media Strategy for Banks It’s no secret and certainly nothing new that Social Media has become a must for banks (and most financial institutions for that matter) and knowing how to use it as well as what you can and can’t say is imperative. We touch on a few key points to plan for and pay attention to.
Strategy Having some level of strategy always generates more success on social channels. Things to consider when putting together a strategy:
Why will you be active on Social Media? Defining the reason for being there is enlightening and assists in creating a comprehensive strategy.
Who is your Audience and are they on Social Media Channels? This is Critical! Define your audience / target and find out if they are active on social channels and analyze how they engage on social networks.
How will you Engage? Define what types of information you will share on social networks (news, contests, community events, etc.). If you will be using the channels for customer service then you will need to staff accordingly and create guidlines. If you won’t be using it for customer service you need guidelines on how to field customer service questions that arrive on the social channels.
Compliance Recently the FFIEC released a guide for social media use by banks and credit unions. The FFIEC’s guidance provides an outline for these banks and credit unions to monitor & manage the risk with being active on social media. This includes policy, monitoring, reputation, privacy and more. FINRA also has an impact on how a Bank or Credit Union will uses Social Media. With FINRA it is all about monitoring, controlling and accountability. Record keeping and archiving are huge, this is a must and needs to be done at 100%.
Activity / Engagement Now for the fun stuff. You need to figure out who will manage the social activity, who will plan the content calendar, who will post, who will respond, will you use paid ads, etc. This falls a little under strategy, but this is so critical to the engagement on these channels. This person or persons will be the face of the Bank or Credit Union and be an extension of the brand, that humanistic injection into these digital spaces. Whether it is posts, tweets, retweets, likes, shares, follows or pins you want to see that engagement!
Measurement What should you be measuring? That depends on the goals of the Bank or Credit Union. But we can safely say that tracking community growth (followers & likes), engagement metrics (shares, tweets, retweets, pins) and traffic to your website are fundamental mainstays in your reporting. It may be important to measure and report on your social influencers, online form fills, vanity phone number calls and matching why certain types of content is engaged more often than others and at what times of the day are most effective.
This is just a sampling of what Banks and Credit Unions will need to think about when integrating social media their operation.
If you are interested in Social Media Strategy for Banks you can contact us by filling the form out on the upper right of this page or give us a call at 866-357-7422
