Pinterest rules for the financial sector

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Hazel McHugh

Last time we promised some tips for setting up and using a Pinterest account in the financial services space so here it is our starter for ten to get you pinning in no-time.

Setting up your Pinterest account
Despite its phenomenal growth, Pinterest is still invite only but it’s easy to request an invitation by visiting the homepage. Once you’re in take care to use the same email you use for your Twitter feed since this will make sharing what you pin much easier.

Once that’s done it’s fairly straightforward to choose a username (probably your business name), write a description of what you do and add a logo and web link.

Play by the rules
Pinterest is naturally keen to discourage people from using the site purely for self-promotion. Brands, such as General Electric, Sony and Chobani – America’s no.1 yoghurt – are using the website effectively but they’ve put in the work to share content that’s genuinely interesting.  Chobani have posted 565 pins to date covering not only ways to enjoy or cook with yoghurt but fitness, travel, and even a board devoted to favourite cutlery.

Sony Electronics describe themselves as “pinning in tech, geek, photography and products since December2011”.  As well as including the very latest Sony products they’ve spent time pinning up images of products which have the greatest retro appeal and have a board of “Sony Art” which including a lunch box that looks like a playstation controller.

So, by all means use Pinterest to drive some traffic in your direction.  Use it to get people thinking and talking about your business, but be prepared to do so in a way that gives back as well as takes from the Pinterest community.

Keep things visual
Pinterest is a visual tool.  Images matter.

Other Pinterest users are only likely to follow you if you share high quality visual content that people want to look at and re-pin.  Pinterest is all about online curation so not everything you pin needs to be directly related to your brand; it just needs to be interesting enough to capture some attention.

Think laterally
The quickest route to success is to think carefully about what people want to look at online and then track back to see how that can be related to financial services.

How about a group of boards devoted to key life stages such as starting a family or retiring?  Use the images to capture the essence of what’s important to people at such times- focusing on the why not how of money management.

A board about wealth management advice doesn’t need to contain facts and figures, it could be full of images that show people connecting with each other, giving advice or listening attentively.

People love a touch of retro.  How about a board of bank architecture, a board showing the gadgets your business used to serve customers 20 years ago or a visual history of how fund trading and stock markets have changed over the years?

Share industry insights if they’re interesting and relevant.  Lots of people like sharing infographics so if there’s one devoted to your sector, or you’re willing to create your own, make sure you pin it up.

And finally, don’t overcomplicate things.  Even numbers can be incredibly artistic, moving or thought provoking so how about a board of quirky ways in which numbers are used? Or a board charting the history of money?  Remember, Pinterest is about driving traffic and growing your brand.  You can’t sell a fund via this channel but you can use it to get closer to customers, show them a softer side and engage their interest.

Make it easy to pin images from your main website
Just as you will be busily pinning other people’s images, you want users to come and pin up your own. Make sure there are plenty of images all over your website that people will want to share and check that the ‘pin it’ function can grab them easily.

Add a video
And finally, don’t stop there.  Videos can be uploaded to Pinterest too – so long as they’re interesting enough to watch – so remember, this is just the beginning.  Get pinning and see how your boards evolve.  Above all, have fun.

Hazel’s (our blogger) pinterest
Kurtosys’ pinterest

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Financial pin-ups: How Pinterest has stolen the social headlines this year.

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Hazel McHugh

Once the Daily Mail starts talking about the latest social networking site, it’s possibly no longer the new kid on the block, but Pinterest has shot to fame so quickly that lots of people are still playing catch up with the latest addiction to hit the internet – visual online pinboards for social sharing.

What is Pinterest?
Pinterest’s mission statement is to “connect everyone in the world through the ‘things’ they find interesting.”  Put simply, you scour the web for images you like, respect or just find quirky or interesting then ‘pin’ them to your virtual boards for other people to enjoy, ‘like’ and ‘re-pin’.  It sounds simple but is surprisingly addictive in real life.

Development began in December 2009 but it is 2011 that really saw the amazing growth that’s made everyone sit up and take notice, helped by the Pinterest App.  It was included in Time magazine’s “50 Best Websites of2011”and voted no.1 startup by Techcrunch.

By December 2011, Pinterest was one of the top 10 social networks, attracting 11 million total visits per week and driving more referral traffic to retailers than LinkedIn, YouTube or Google+. By January 2012, the site had 11.7 million unique users.  Whilst shooting past the 10 million unique users mark, Pinterest confirmed their position as the fastest growing website in history.

Who’s doing all the pinning?
Those keen to write Pinterest off as nothing more than a passing fad cite stats showing that the majority of users are women using it for retail fashion and home styling.  Whilst that in itself represents a significant opportunity for those who want to target females – leading the Daily Mail to ask whether Pinterest will become the Facebook for women? –  the latest stats on UK usage point to a quite different story emerging over here.

Mashable shared a great infographic comparing US and UK users on Pinterest, but in a nutshell, UK users are richer and more likely to be male.  What’s even more significant is that UK users are going beyond fashion and design, using Pinterest for online topics such as SEO and Marketing, PR and even venture capital.

Source: Mashable

But will people really want financial services pin ups?

 

 

 

 

 

Last Sunday I launched the first tentative steps of my own Pinterest board on “Things that are shaking up financial services”.  I’m not the first one to tackle money matters on the network and won’t be the last.  With hundreds of brands taking to the website it’s only a matter of time before a financial provider cracks it.

Next time we’ll share our best tips for crafting a Pinterest campaign but, in the meantime, if you’re a financial brand who would like to feature on my shaking up financial services board simply get in touch and tell us what you’ve been up to and we’ll do our best to add you to the board.

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comScore digital report 2012: Implications for the financial services industry

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Hazel McHugh

2011 was a busy year in the digital space.  A new report from comScore captures the year’s most noteworthy developments so we decided to take a look and consider the implications for the financial services industry. 

Social networks tightened their stranglehold
For anyone still wondering why Google wanted to launch Google+, the following chart sums things up.  Despite the fact that Google sites remain the most visited overall, measuring the time spent on various sites tells a very different story with Facebook way out in front.

So, regardless of the sceptics who continue to say people don’t want to read about financial matters on Facebook or ‘like’ an investment brand or asset manager, it’s time to face up to the fact that Facebook is where people are spending their time.

They might not ideally want to use those minutes reading about a pension but that’s the marketer’s problem to solve.  Most people don’t want to think about choosing an investment fund as they step off the tube either but advertisers know that using that space gets their products in front of people.

As people spend longer and longer on social networking sites it will become more and more crucial to find a way to engage with them there.

And for social networks, read Facebook
And to push the point home, increasingly, social networks do equal Facebook.  The minutes spent by the average user on Facebook eclipse anything achieved by the rest of the pack, although the stratospheric rise of pinterest will continue to raise some eyebrows.

People watched more videos than ever before
Video saw a massive 43 per cent increase in viewing during 2011.  We’ve written before about the importance of video in financial services – or indeed how to sell a tongue cleaner using YouTube alone – and we definitely still think this is an area to watch.

Video is an excellent channel for financial communication. It is clearer, more interesting for consumers to watch and puts the personal back into an industry so often accused of being cold and aloof.

And quite a few of used mobile devices
Mobile continued to dominate; by December smartphone penetration had reached 2 in 5 mobile users and data on usage revealed that mobile users are increasingly using devices for retail and online shopping, as well as researching information.

No review of 2011, however, would be complete without a mention of tablets.  It took seven years for smartphones to hit the 40 million mark.  Tablets achieved that in less than two years making people more connected than ever before.

So, perhaps the biggest challenge for financial institutions during 2012 will be designing ways for complementary digital consumption via a whole collection of devices.  It’s clear that people no longer use one device or another but switch between them during the day. Many more have embraced the habit of twin-screening and surely that offers huge potential for financial advisers.

What could you gain from using a video on YouTube to guide clients through an interactive fact find on their tablet?

If there’s a theme to take away it’s about accepting customer choice when it comes to device and channel and adapting financial content to suit those choices.  The days of financial institutions demanding that customers adapt are long gone.

For more analysis on digital trends to watch download the full comScore report.

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3 reasons why the cloud helps you work harder and be happier

Posted on February 9, 2012 by Hazel McHugh

We usually use this blog to focus on how cloud computing helps businesses by delivering the 3 C’s of cloud computing: change, choice and customer service but today we’re looking at people like you and why the cloud just might make you smile more and be healthier.

 1.       Mobile working boosts job satisfaction
The flexibility to work from home was the third most important factor in job satisfaction according to a survey by Mashable.

Source: Mashable survey on remote working

2.        It might make you more efficient too…
56% of mangers believe that remote workers are more productive and less than half of employees think they need to be in the office to do their best work.

 

Source: Gist’s mobile workers infographic

3.        And it might even help stop you becoming depressed
According to research recently shared by The Independent, working just three extra hours a day doubles your risk of major depression as well as leading to a 60 per cent higher risk of heart disease.

So moving a business to the cloud doesn’t just need to be about lower operating costs or more efficient service for customers, it can be a key part of an employee care strategy too… it might even save some lives!

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It’s technology, rather than RDR, that will really change financial advice forever.

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Hazel McHugh

The role of the independent financial adviser is a strange one.  On the one hand, intermediaries – in any walk of life – put space between a customer and the end product, in this case a financial one such as a pension or investment fund.  On the other hand, given the undoubted complexity of managing money effectively, one could just as easily argue that by stepping in between a customer and a financial provider, intermediaries actually bring customers closer to managing their wealth.

Certainly, most customers who’ve enjoyed the services of a first class IFA would never look back.  For them, having someone to act as a go-between helps take the pain out of financial management, helps them set and work towards meaningful financial goals and ultimately helps them grow their wealth faster.

So, what does the future hold?  With RDR now just a few months away what is the outlook for financial advice.  Will there be more or less intermediation in the future and what form might that advice take.

There is an ongoing trust issue within financial services
It would be foolish to ignore the issue of trust.  Ever since the financial crash of 2008, trust in banks, fund managers and even IFAs has been at an all time low.

On the one hand this is good news for intermediaries – customers who are less likely to trust the end organisation, a multi-national bank for example, might be more inclined to pay for financial advice in a post RDR world.

On the other hand, more and more consumers want to take matters into their own hands.  Most people rely on personal recommendations and advice and worryingly trust their peers to provide better information than the professionals.

But financial products are getting ever more complex
That said, the number of financial products continues to grow exponentially.  Ever more complex features are designed each day to try and maximise rewards in a difficult market.  Ever more information is provided to knowledge hungry investors eager to read all about their asset manager or fund choice.

The end result is a level of complexity that is genuinely difficult for any one individual to cut through without a guide to lead them through the maze of products and choices.  This, in itself, is one reason why financial advice is most definitely here to stay.

New intermediaries are popping up online
What’s more, even as industry insiders worry about the future of IFAs, more and more intermediaries are popping up online.

Innovations such as Mint.com in the US or rplan or lovemoney in the UK are all intermediaries, so is Paypal or the Google Wallet, they just look and feel a bit different from the average intermediary.

Customers have demonstrated their love of online financial tools
Today’s connected customers prove on a daily basis that their thirst for information is virtually unending.  Whether it’s finding out what a hundred friends had for breakfast via Facebook or checking the intricate details of account statements via an online aggregator, consumers are demonstrating an amazing “need to know” and are carving out more and more time for largely online research and media consumption.

So, what about the traditional IFA on the street corner?
So what’s the upshot?  Well, in my opinion it’s twofold.

I firmly believe that intermediaries, of one type of another, are here to stay.  I think the need for them will only increase and I think customers will be more and more receptive to expert advice.

But I also believe that those same customers will demand that the advice they want is delivered at a time and place convenient to them… which almost certainly can be extrapolated to mean online.

It’s a worrying time for banks.  As new entrants begin to sew up cardless payments and others launch mint.com clones for day to day financial management it gets harder and harder to see how retail banks will continue to engage with their customers and build long term, profitable relationships.

 

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