1. Run a giveaway in your bank branches. For entry, require customers to fan your page on Facebook or follow you on Twitter. They could show proof of “fanship” on their mobile phone or use the “laptop station” you have set up in your lobby (simply a laptop on a table with internet access).

2. Have a local college or university? Set up a booth at the freshman orientation or other school event to promote your checking accounts available to students. At the same time, give away a freebie or do a drawing in exchange for students liking your page on Facebook (use same technique as above).

3. When customers open accounts, apply for a mortgage, etc., capture email addresses. Then, always send a “welcome” email thanking them for choosing your bank and asking them to join your community on Facebook, Twitter, your blog, Youtube channel, etc. You can download social media icons here for the links to your pages/feeds. Don’t forget to tell them why being a part of your social communities will benefit them. Haven’t tried email marketing before, checkout Mail Chimp (free for smaller email lists) and Campaign Monitor.

4. Also add these social icon links to the homepage of your website and blog.

5. Get your employees involved! Get them excited about being a part and contributor of the social community, and they will bring their friends along with them.

6. Encourage employees to add links (and use the icons from the link above) to your social pages/feeds in their email signatures.

7. Add your Facebook/Twitter/Linkedin urls to your business cards and all printed marketing pieces.

8. It’s not all about you! Make sure you are sharing the love with others in your social networks. Retweeting, mentioning, and replying on Twitter help to increase your visibility as you engage with others in that space. Sharing, commenting, and liking content on other business pages do the same thing for your efforts on Facebook.

Please share in the comments what your bank may already be doing in the realm of growing your social community or ideas you have for the future!

• When trying to think about what content to post to your social pages, first think about your audience. Who are they? What do they care about? What’s important to them? What would be helpful to them? Try and avoid thinking about what you want to say to help sell mortgages, but instead think more about giving valuable information to your networks to build relationships and trust.
• Why not ask your fans on Facebook what they are interested in or want to talk about? Use Survey Monkey, a free survey tool, to find out. You can easily connect your survey to your Facebook page, and engage with them in a new way.

10 % Rule

• 9 out of every 10 posts you write for a social media site should be information or conversation that is purely interesting to your audience, not necessarily a direct sales pitch of your products or services. 1 in 10 may be about your bank and why an individual or business would choose to bank with you.

Variety!

•  Try to give your friends and fans a variety of posts: video, photos, article links, text, etc.

Inspire Action

• Stimulate conversation. Social media platforms are not meant for you to just speak out to the world but are meant to support two-way communication.  Ask questions. Talk about topics that would be the main conversation if you went to a dinner party tonight.
• Don’t be afraid to end a post with “like this post if….” This encourages people to interact with your content in a way that also drives your post to the top of people’s newsfeeds (Facebook) helping you expand your reach beyond just your fans.

Community Before Commerce

• This is the list of priorities. First, focus on building your community by creating great content. Once the community is strong and the trust is built, then you can begin introducing commerce and providing solutions for your community’s needs. It’s a process that requires patience but will pay off in the end.

Not Enough Time?

• You may be thinking, I don’t have enough time to post and engage daily like I should on our social pages.  Try signing up with Hootsuite – it’s free. Hootsuite will allow you to post to multiple social pages at the same time. Other cool features: schedule your posts in advance (very handy before a vacation) and create a free click report to see how many people are engaging with your content. The report feature will help you learn from the past and tweak future content choices to reflect what your audience truly cares about. (This isn’t a FULL picture since it only measures click through on links you have included in your posts). And, you can do all of this from your smart phone!

]]> http://communitybanksonline.com/2011/09/30/103/feed/ 0 http://communitybanksonline.com/2011/09/29/new-guaranty-trust-company-blog/ http://communitybanksonline.com/2011/09/29/new-guaranty-trust-company-blog/#comments Thu, 29 Sep 2011 05:01:22 +0000 Gregg Hargett http://www.communitybanksonline.com/blog/?p=88 Welcome to the new Guaranty Trust Company blog for community banks at communitybanksonline.com! We are so excited you’re here. What can you expect to find here on the blog? Subscribe via RSS or email to get timely market news, informative articles to help you be more knowledgeable in the mortgage business, social media marketing tips to help your bank connect with your community, and more!

For now, here is a little about what Guaranty Trust can do for your bank…

In today’s difficult banking environment, every transaction that puts dollars on the bank’s bottom line should be considered. Many community banks are using secondary mortgage originations to accomplish this.

Guaranty Trust Company, a mortgage lender and a wholly owned subsidiary of Volunteer State Bank, understands community banking. That is what we have done for 25 years.

What does Guaranty Trust offer your community bank?

1)    Guaranty Trust provides access to Conventional, FHA, VA, and Rural Development loans without your community bank having to staff a “backroom operation” of underwriters, closers, shippers, etc.

2)    Guaranty Trust will help your bank’s originator decide the best loan type for the borrower, underwrite the loan, help with the conditions, prepare the closing package, and make sure your bank is meeting compliance standards. This shifts the liability of the loan from your bank to Guaranty Trust.

3)    Guaranty offers rates that compete with any “big bank” in every community.

4)    Secondary mortgage originations generate bottom line fee income for your business.

Click here to read more about Guaranty Trust’s mortgage services.

Leave me a comment so I’ll know you stopped by!