Pub. 16 2019 Issue 4

12 O V E R A C E N T U R Y : B U I L D I N G B E T T E R B A N K S — H E L P I N G N E W M E X I C O R E A L I Z E D R E A M S SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING. Time to Get in the Game. By Neal Reynolds, President, BankMarketingCenter.com T he name of the game, when you’re a financial institution looking to grow deposits, customers, and revenue, is to build relationships. This can be challenging, however, in the digital age. While you still have customers who bank in more traditional ways, there’s a new breed of customer out there. And building a relationship with this customer is not easy … but it’s critical. These are digitally-savvy individuals with high expectations and low attention spans, individuals who are much more apt to open an app than a magazine. The way to reach these future customers, who you really need now not tomorrow, is through the media with which they’re most comfortable — social. Is social a big deal? You can Bet your Bottom Dollar it is. According to the latest Global Digital suite of reports from Hootsuite, the number of people around the world who are active social media users reached 4 billion in 2018. Today, well over half of the world’s population is online. Social is here to stay. How are financial institutions responding? According to a recent study by the American Bankers Association, 9 out of 10 banks surveyed are either “somewhat active” or “very active” on social media. It’s no surprise that banks are working hard to build strategies that can make social media marketing an