Community banks are under more pressure than ever. They often operate on razor thin marketing budgets and rely on “tiny, but mighty” in-house resources. And faced with well-funded competitors, these invaluable local institutions must use every available tool to build their brand, their product portfolio, and their share of the market. Of all the marketing tools available to banks, one of the most powerful—and cost-effective—is social media.
But simply posting to Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn isn’t enough. Community banks that want to grow their market share and deepen relationships with their customers must not only use social platforms effectively, but also harness the insights offered by advanced marketing technologies to measure and enhance performance.
Social Media: More Than Just a Channel
In a relatively short period of time, social media has evolved from a “nice to have” communication channel into a critical pillar of an integrated marketing strategy. Across all industries in 2024, 62% of marketers used social listening tools—and 55% planned to increase investment—with early adopters (like banks) reporting better ROI and confidence in campaign outcome.1
Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), and LinkedIn offer unparalleled opportunities to connect with current and prospective customers in a more personal, immediate, and authentic way. Through thoughtful, consistent social media messaging, community banks can:
- Promote their brand, products and service
- Educate consumers on important issues and skills, such as fraud prevention, budgeting, and investing
- Share their stories about community involvement
- Spotlight employee accomplishments, anniversaries, or customer testimonials
- Respond to real-time questions, feedback, or concerns
When members of the community interact with a post, share content, or comment on a campaign, that engagement can translate into a conversation that can then translate into a new customer.
The Benefits of Social Management Analytics
By leveraging the analytics/data gathering capabilities of social marketing solutions, just a few of which are listed below, bank marketers can truly hone in on potential customers with “the right message” that truly reaches “the right person in the right place at the right time.”
- Platform Optimization: Knowing which platforms drive engagement helps banks allocate content wisely and tailor messaging by channel
- Faster Response and Human Connection: Tools that notify banks when they're mentioned help teams react in real time, enhancing brand loyalty and member satisfaction
- Performance-Based Budgets: With solid ROI data, banks can make true, evidence-backed decisions, justifying their investment in social media
- Benchmarking & Growth Targets: Average engagement rates and per-post interaction figures help banks assess their performance and set improvement goals
This is where KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) come into play. Historically, marketers have faced challenges in tracking the ROI of marketing efforts. But, no more. The beauty of digital marketing—and social media in particular—is the availability of hard data. With the right analytics-powered solution, community banks can now monitor:
- Engagement rates: Are people liking, sharing, or commenting on your posts?
- Reach: How many people are seeing your content?
- Follower growth: Is your audience expanding over time?
- Mentions and sentiment: Are people talking about your bank, and if so, how positively?
These insights are vital. They tell marketing teams what social content resonates with their audience, which platforms are performing best, and when and how they should adjust their messaging or posting schedules. In short, KPIs take the guesswork out of social media and make it a measurable, repeatable contributor to the bank’s bottom line.
Enter Social+: A Smart Solution for Smarter Marketing
Bank Marketing Center’s Social+ is a tool that delivers on that critical benefit of social marketing management: Analytics. Built specifically for community banks, Social+ combines content management and automation with robust performance analytics:
- Cross-platform post scheduling: Social+ allows teams to schedule content across multiple platforms in advance, saving time and ensuring consistent messaging.
- Engagement tracking: The tool provides real-time insights into likes, shares, comments, and click-through rates.
- Automatic alerts: Alerts notify team members any/every time the bank is mentioned on a social platform. allowing them to respond quickly and thoughtfully to feedback or concerns.
- Comprehensive dashboards: KPIs like reach, follower growth, and engagement are presented in a single user-friendly dashboard, helping marketers identify both trends and opportunities.
- Content creation support: With built-in templates and brand-compliant graphics, banks can produce high-quality posts without relying on costly third-party resources, such as ad agencies.
Social+ isn’t just about streamlining the process. It’s about making sure your marketing team is acting on solid, real-time data. When you can see which campaigns are performing and which aren’t, your decisions become smarter, your messaging more focused, and your outcomes more positive.
Compete Smarter
For community banks, success no longer lies in simply “getting the message out there.” It lies, instead, in building conversations, tracking responses, and fine-tuning strategies based on data. It’s true that social media offers a direct line to your audience—and a potentially new customer—but that line to your audience is only as productive as the insights you use to manage it.
With a bank-specific social media management tool like Social+, community banks can leverage those insights, benefit from more engaging campaigns, increase customer loyalty, and enjoy a greater return on their marketing expenditure.
And right now, we’re offering new Bank Marketing Center subscribers the opportunity to give Social+ a test drive, free, for thirty days. Dozens of banks are using it… and loving it. Why not join them?
Bank Marketing Center
We’re Bank Marketing Center, the leading, subscription-based provider of automated marketing services to community banks. Our goal is to help bank marketers with topical, compelling communication with customers that builds trust, relationships, and revenue. And we do this through automating critical bank marketing functions, such as content creation, social media management and digital asset management, as well as regulatory and brand compliance.
We also want to share what we know—and learn along the way—with all our community banking friends. Whether it’s the latest on AI technology, suggestions on how to attract and retain top talent, or the importance of data protection, we’re here to make bank marketing the best that it can be.
Want to learn more about what we can do for your community bank and your marketing efforts? You can start by visiting bankmarketingcenter.com. Then, feel free to contact me directly by phone at 678-528-6688 or via email at nreynolds@bankmarketingcenter.com. As always, I welcome your thoughts.
1Talkwalker.com. 28 Must-Know Social Media Statistics for 2025. May 25, 2025