Banks and banking are boring right?
No matter how many trendy branches with coffee and couches they open up it’s hard to kick the image.
But Monzo have. Sarah Clay tells us about the social media campaigns that make them stand out and scare the boredom away.
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Superhero Tips – How To Reach the 50% Of Instagram Users Who Don’t Use Explore
Instagram just announced that they are adding a new ad placement. In the explore feed.
But it’s not the placement that caught my attention. It’s the way they were selling it:
“50% of Instagram users visit the explore feed at least once a month”
That means that 50% didn’t. In fact probably, even more, didn’t on a daily basis. There we are as marketers filling our posts with hashtags and locations trying to reach more people but in fact, we’re missing at least 50% of them.
50% of Instagram users that we can’t reach by appearing in hashtag searches.
This got me thinking.
If we can’t reach everyone with tags, how can we reach them?
The answer probably won’t surprise you. Engagement.
Posting content on social media even strategically is only half of your job. The other half is engagement and it’s going to be the magic that lets your reach further.
1. Hashtags
Yes, it is still important for discoverability to add hashtags to your posts but you should also be searching and following hashtags.
Try and get into your customers head. What hashtags would they use in their posts? They don’t have to be related to your business. If you know your customer well enough you can judge the types of tags they will use.
Now you’ve found them, follow them and make time to leave relevant comments on the posts that you see.
But not everyone uses hashtags so where else can we look?
2. Locations
Where does your audience hang out in real life? Search for those locations on Instaagram. It could be a town, a city or it could be a local business, a pub (bar), a restaurant, a hotel or a gym.
These are Insta hot spots. Find your audience in these locations and get into the comments. Start conversations.
What’s that? Not everyone tags their locations? What do you do then?
3. Conversations with commenters
No hashtags, no locations, how do you find them?
It’s not just the content creators that you should chat to. Look deeper into the comments and find the people who are having conversations there and then, join in.
And then…
Go visit the profiles of the people you are chatting to. Leave comments on their posts and get to know them there.
4. Who do people follow?
Your final job is to stalk the follows. Who do the people that match your target audience follow? Who in your target market gets a lot of comments and build conversations? Who are the people that your audience looks up to?
When you find these people start digging through the people they follow and who follow them.
And once you’ve found a match… you guessed it, get into a conversation with them.
I know, I know this is time-consuming, it’s hard work but do it enough and it will become second nature and you’ll know you are doing all you can to find reach everyone you need to on Instagram, not just the people who use tags.
Superpower of the week – Instagram Chat Sticker
The ‘chat’ sticker invites your story viewers to join a group chat with you.
Viewers click the sticker to request to be added to the chat and once in you can talk about whatever you choose.
Some ideas for chats:
The closed space of a private chat can be more comfortable for your audience than more public channels which means you’ll get to know people better and form stronger connections.
Have you seen anyone using this yet? I’d love to hear about the conversations you’ve got involved in as a result.
Superhero Interview – Sarah Clay
Sarah was Head Of Marketing for north London estate agents, Hotblack Desiato, for 7 years: setting them up on social media as well as re-branding the company. She moved to multi-award-winning Nexus Studios in Shoreditch as Head of PR and social media.
Realising her true passion was for Social Media Marketing, she ‘quit the day job’ and completed the intense 9-month award-winning Digital Mums Social Media Management training course to receive her diploma in Social Media Management. She set up her agency ‘Sarah Clay Social’ the day she qualified!
She is an absolute stickler for good customer service. She knew she had done something right when her 5-year-old son said, after a really good café breakfast:
“The service was good wasn’t it, so was the food. In fact, it was all really nice, but I suppose it has to be otherwise they won’t get any customers and they won’t earn any money will they?”
She now lives by this mantra: She gives good service to her clients and she ensures they do the same for their customers! Which is why she now specialises in working with the hospitality industry – where there is the opportunity to provide the best customer experience.
Amanda Webb:
This week’s superhero is Sarah Clay from Sara Clay Social. Welcome to the show, Sarah.
Sarah Clay:
Thank you Amanda for having me on the show. It’s great to be here chatting with you today.
Amanda Webb:
The campaign that you’re going to talk about is one from a really strange sort of business to do well on social. So tell us that.
Sarah Clay:
Okay, so it’s a slightly unusual one because my kind of specialism is pubs in the hospitality industry. So there are lots of accounts out there that are doing really well in that sector. But today I’ve actually decided to talk about a bank and the reason I’ve chosen to talk about a bank is because banking isn’t very easy to market into social media, but these guys are doing such a great job of it that I thought it was really worth bringing it to everybody’s attention. The bank is called Monzo.
I don’t know if you’ve heard of it, but they are on Twitter, Facebook and they’re definitely on Instagram, I think they’re on Facebook. I follow them on Twitter and on Instagram mainly.
Amanda Webb:
Yes, I think when we think bank, we think boring. I remember doing some work for a bank once and there’s so many rules and regulations that I couldn’t basically do anything. So this bank is being a little bit better than that, little bit more creative than that.
Definitely. That’s what’s great about it because they’re being more creative visually as well as mentally, psychologically because their visuals are really sweet. They’re just really approachable, really lovely colours. They kind of appeal to pretty much everybody. They just don’t look like a bank. Actually, the name Monzo doesn’t really sound like a bank either.
Amanda Webb:
No.
Sarah Clay:
But yeah, so that’s why that’s visually they’ve got a really nice feed and they’ve got this kind of smiley little guy who’s a credit card and he’s got just a really nice little face that’s just very appealing. So yeah, I have to say they don’t really look like a bank at all.
Amanda Webb:
Are they just graphics or are they doing videos as well with that?
Sarah Clay:
They’re doing videos, and interestingly their videos are often … Well, actually, I’m scrolling through now having a look and pretty much all of their videos are customer testimonials.
So people talking about their experience with the bank and how they found it really easy to deal with or my sister was using it so I’ve given it a try and I love it. It really brings the human element into banking, which I think has been missing for a long time in that sector.
So yeah, the videos are just really sweet. They’re very simple, just people talking to camera. There’s no flashy graphics or anything on them.
Then they do other little quote posts. So they do, they’ll repost somebody’s Twitter quote on their Instagram feed, which could sound really dull. But actually, they do it in a really nice way.
I’m just going to read you one that came from ‘EzzieLondon’, it said, “Spent my monthly Monzo budget in a week,” because they do this amazing budgeting thing where they help you with your money. “Sad face. Can’t wait to stay in every night and watch Love Island” talk about turning a negative ground to a positive.
Amanda Webb:
Yeah. That’s hilarious. You were telling me as well that from an engagement point of view, they’re really strong. So tell me about that.
Sarah Clay:
Okay, so ever since I started in this sort of marketing social media journey, I’ve been very, very hot on engagement and communication with your customers, potential customers. I think it’s really, really important. In fact, I’m sort of starting a campaign slowly called start to that chat where I’m trying to encourage more conversations on social media.
But what they do is they respond to every single comment. So somebody post up a comment saying, “Oh, I love this.” they will respond saying, “We’re glad you like it.” Or they might ask a question and then they’ll start a conversation and they get quite a lot of comments on their posts, like 50, 60 and they’re responding to every single one.
I think that’s such a clever idea, but it’s also really, really easy to do that. If you’ve got a social media account, it’s very, very easy to respond and you don’t need an awful lot of money or skill. You just need to be yourself really.
Amanda Webb:
That’s so true. Again, it’s not something we see happening from financial institutions in general, not just banks. I think it is interesting to see and particularly that tip because that’s something I do myself. Somebody leaves a comment, don’t just say thank you. If you can try and turn it into a conversation by asking a question back. That’s huge, isn’t it?
Absolutely. I mean, I’ve been engaged with most incredible people on social media by doing this and they’ve become clients, they’ve become friends. It’s just so much nicer to be on social media when you’re having proper conversations with people. From a customer point of view, you’re much more likely to keep those customers if you’re engaging with them in a proper, authentic way.
Amanda Webb:
Do you think this is a trend in social media moving towards more conversations? I know that sounds stupid because I’m just like it’s ‘social’ media and I think, I don’t know how long you’ve been doing it, maybe you’ve been doing it as long as I have. That’s what it was about in the beginning. Somewhere we lost the message and we started automating. So do you think, I’ve noticed recently there seems to be more conversations online and I think maybe it’s the algorithm pushing them, what do you think?
Sarah Clay:
I completely agree with you that first of all, yes, social media was set up so that we could all keep in touch with each other. Then it was realised, I think the brands stepped in and saw it as a marketing tool. Yes, that’s when the automation and all of that came in and the conversations did really start to dwindle.
But I do see more and more conversations coming up and particularly on Instagram, which traditionally, I mean it’s a visual platform and it was really meant to showcase visual creative, creative, visually creative work.
But people are actually now starting proper conversations and engaging with people properly.
I think with all the talk about mental health issues attached to social media, I think there is a change and I think we need to push it harder to try and build those conversations even more.
Amanda Webb:
I have a whole part in my strategy training now about engagement strategy because I think it’s something people had been putting off and I love to see that a bank is doing it, but then, of course, the doubt creeps in. Isn’t it just a waste of time? What’s the return on investment on having a conversation?
Sarah Clay:
Well, that’s something we were talking about earlier. What is the ROI on a conversation? It’s about building the relationships and if you can get, if you can attract your customers to actually talk to you properly, that it’s the know, like, trust journey.
If they know you, they like you, they trust you, they’re more likely to do business with you.
But once they are your customers and you’re giving them an amazing customer experience, then they’re going to tell everybody else how brilliant you are as a company and they’re going to be doing your marketing for you. So your company could grow without you actually doing an awful lot.
Amanda Webb:
I agree. Of course, it’s not a waste of time.
Sarah Clay:
It’s so not.
Amanda Webb:
So as a small business owner, what can we do to replicate the success, we’re going to say the success of what Monzo are doing?
Well, I’m just going to say it again. It’s about having those conversations. I mean, also from a big company point of view, they’re posting quite regularly, which obviously is important and that depends obviously on what your resources are.
But once you’re up there and you’re posting and you’re live on your social media, it’s about … It’s not only responding to conversations and comments on your feed, but it’s also going out there and starting conversations on other people’s feeds.
So look at, it’s what I tell all my clients, if you look at other accounts in your industry or your potential clients and dive into their posts and start a conversation in their posts, so don’t just write, “Oh, that’s a lovely picture.” You can write, “That’s a fantastic picture. Where was it taken?” Or, “Why did you choose to take it that way?” Or, “What does it mean?” and start proper conversations in other people’s feeds and then they’ll come back and carry on conversations in your feeds as well.
Amanda Webb:
I think that’s something actually small businesses can do better than large businesses because if Tesco or Bank of Ireland, and in fact recently a beer company, I can’t remember which, Carlsberg came and commented on something I put on Twitter. I was just a little bit freaked out.
So I think a small business, I wouldn’t have been so much. It was just a little bit out of context and it seems to be pushing a product. Whereas I think with the small business we like to get to know the small business owners that we’re dealing with, don’t we?
So I think there’s no harm in doing it as a smaller business. For a larger business, you just need a better strategy.
Sarah Clay:
Yes, yes. As you say, it’s a bit weird that somebody like Carlsberg came and commented on your post, but hey that’s great that they did that.
Amanda Webb:
I’d have to tell the story about what the post is. I feel like I have to tell it now. We have like a tram system in Dublin and one particular line on that tram system is kind of famous for being a little bit dodge.
One day I’m travelling, there are so many stories on this, one day I’m on it and a guy gets on with a pint glass and a can of Carlsberg and he poured the Carlsberg into the glass and stood there and drank it like he was in the local pub.
Now he was, he’d have more than one. So I’m not sure it’s something Carlsberg want to endorse. When they came back, they were just trying to push their new brew to … They were asking, “Was he drinking this?” It was a nice observation, whereas actually, it was more of an observation on the dodginess of the red line.
So that’s why I think, obviously, they’ve hired someone and go, “Go and comment on everyone who’s mentioning this,” but they hadn’t got a strategy in mind and thought about what it was that they were actually promoting.
Sarah Clay:
No, that sounds like they were sort of … They had the right intention, but the operation of it didn’t quite work.
Amanda Webb:
Yes, but I don’t mind. I just thought it was a little bit inappropriate is what I’m thinking. Anyway, so, okay. Monzo is the name of the bank. You are Sarah Clay from Sarah Clay Social. Tell us where we can find you online.
Sarah Clay:
You can find me on Instagram and Facebook as Sarah Clay Social. I’m on Twitter as @curlyclay, for those of you who know what I look like, you will get that. Linkedin, Sarah Clay, or my website, which is www.sarahclaysocial.com.
Amanda Webb:
Thank you for coming on the show. You really are a superhero. Have to put your cape into the post. Welcome to the club.
Sarah Clay:
I can’t wait for my cape. Thank you very much. It’s been really amazing talking to you, Amanda.