I was just reading an article on Forbes website (link below) that highlights (what they say) the Top 7 key trends for digital transformation in the banking industry for 2019.

Virtually all of them are investments in digital technology that will no doubt reduce operating cost for the banks, but continue to reduce the 'human' experience for you and me, and all this whilst they are playing catch up with the new kids on the block.

Financial institutions are renowned for having a language of their own, you see it's down to what they like to term very strict 'compliance and regulations' imposed on them by government bodies so we can all be protected from bad practice's and avoid a lot of the chaos we all experienced (still do) during the last crash. I say last crash because I'm pretty certain the next big crash from them will be self imposed.

We have all seen the rise of 'people power' when it comes to raising investment via numerous 'crowd funding' companies, these are continuing to nibble away at a lot of what the big banks used to do. 

Add into the mix the constant rise of 'challenger banks' and the erosion into the traditional banking sector continues unabated, I've no doubt it will continue into other financial products like loans, insurances etc.

What we find is that what these young financial upstarts have done to gain traction (and our attention) is to utilise the power of Social Media, yes they advertise, yes its an intrusive and annoying pain, but they are also benefiting from the 'social sharing' of their latest small business App, or personal banking App. 

All of these shiny new disruptive Apps come with many functions and features that make lots of things we do, or don't do with our finances so much easier. Many of the big banks are hurriedly trying to play catch up, but investing in that catch up game isn't easy or quick with legacy systems, and legacy marketing thinking, which is probably why we keep seeing (and experiencing) huge technical glitches that hit the headlines.

And when those stories do hit the headlines, it seems that social media is only used as a crisis broadcasting tool, once said crisis has died down so does the social activity.

So, how can the financial sector that still has to consider compliance and regulation become, well, more human whilst reducing the costly physical interactions to service our needs?

By taking the first step in understanding what immense power an internally aligned 'social media' strategy can have to connect, listen and have conversations with all of us, and guess what?

It doesn't need more investment in tech, but it does need investment and trust in the people they employ to become the 'human' voice of the brand on 'social media'.

At DLA Ignite we specialise in helping companies and the internal 'Change Makers' deliver on Digital Transformation with Social Media as a key strategy, and I'm pretty sure we can help you as well. We have a tried and tested methodology, we hold you and your colleagues hand throughout, ensuring we not only 'teach' you what to do, we also make sure its firmly embedded into your firms DNA.

We don't do retainers, we are not an agency that creates and produces copy/content or sells ads for you.

We are active 'practitioners' of what we do, we already know and can evidence the ROI of a robust and internally aligned 'Social' strategy.

Part of that evidence it that you are reading this blog, just like many others - including your competitor!

We also don't do outbound pushy, salesy marketing, so if you would like to explore more, please contact the author of this blog.