Pub. 5 2015-2016 Issue 5

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 C O L O R A D A N S R E A L I Z E D R E A M S March • April 2016 21 plish. Do you want to find more customers and deals? Recruit talent for your team? Or, tell your story about how your team contributes to the community? Clear goals are the essential first step for any social media campaign. Without them, it is easy to get into the wrong online conversations and say the wrong things. Know The Rules: What are your bank’s requirements for professional social media usage? Often there are specific branding restrictions on posts that include the bank’s name, so find this out early to avoid headaches. Play The Right Field: The variety of social media websites today can be overwhelming. Thankfully, many of themwill be a horrible fit for your goals. Select only the one or two networks that will be the most effective (often LinkedIn, Twitter, or Face- book) and focus 100% of your efforts there. When you aren’t spread too thin, it makes it much easier to do things right. Look Great: Make sure your profile is set up properly. On the visual side, this means a professional looking profile photo (with good lighting, a smile, and cropped to just your head and shoulders) and an attractive, relevant, non-controversial cover picture. Fill your profile out completely, including your full con- tact information. (You want people to be able to connect with you -- that’s why you’re online!) Finally, make sure that your bio puts forwards the correct brand, whether that be your personal brand or the brand of your bank. Find Your People: You need to be clear on who you want to connect with. Focus your efforts on finding and connecting with exactly that demographic. Use the search features in both LinkedIn and Twitter to identify users who match your targeted audience. Then follow them. Join the same groups they are in. Participate in their online conversations. And then ask them to connect. This purposeful approach ensures that you are building the right relationships that will help you professionally. Find Your Offline People, Too: Don’t forget about taking your all offline relationships online.. The folks you meet at con- ferences or networking events, your current clients, prospects who walk into the bank -- be sure to look them up online and extend a warm, personal invitation to connect. This will position you to continue building these relationships far into the future. Say The Right Things: For your public updates, post a mix of industry news and personal information. The industry news and professional tips will help brand you as a trusted ad- visor and expert. Your personal updates should give a glimpse of you as someone that others can relate to, building trust and closeness. These personal posts shouldn’t be overly persona, however. Think of a picture of you and your employees at a business luncheon, or a shout out to your kid’s sports team for a win, rather than a picture of you in a speedo at the beach. Final- ly, an occasional mention of great loan rates or a new financial product is completely acceptable. Promotion is fine as long as it is a small portion of what you post.  Advertising in your association’s trade journal is a solid approach to business development. In fact, a recent survey done via the PPA called The Essential Medium, found B2B publications - such as Colorado Banker , to be the number one information source within any given industry when compared to other media. In the survey, respondents were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with a series of attitude statements and the PPA compiled the data, resulting in the percentages. Verbatim responses were collected by the survey, which are added to exemplify the points. Here are a few excerpts: • Business publication are rated the first choice for staying in touch with what’s going on in their sector by 61% percent of decision makers. • 83% of managers would recommend to people starting a career in their sector to read the business publications. • “If I didn’t read them I wouldn’t know what’s going on.” • 71% of decision makers believe that B2B magazines are essential reading. • “I would be lost without my business publications.” • “With the information we gather from the publications, we can determine if we are on the right track or if we need • to change direction.”