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Companies in highly regulated sectors such as financial services, health care, legal services and utilities must adhere to strict rules on releasing customer information, disclosing product risks and engaging with consumers or risk severe regulatory penalties. As a result, many regulated companies remain reluctant to embrace social media marketing.
Social media is built for connecting with others, not for meeting regulations. For example, Twitter’s 140-character limit is far from ideal for disclosing a medication’s possible side effects. Ambiguous, slowly evolving regulations, arbitrary regulators, and corporate legal advisors who strictly interpret all regulations for fear of notices from regulators have all prompted many companies in highly regulated industries to avoid social media.
Many social media marketing experts argue, however, that those companies can – and should – embrace social media and still comply with regulations.
A Financial Services Example
Mark Schaefer of Schaefer Marketing Solutions offers BPV Capital Management as a case study of successful social media marketing in the financial services industry. BPV realizes that today’s digital environment calls for more than just brochures. The financial services sector faces omnipresent regulations. An attorney and sometimes an outside compliance agency must review every piece of content, and the company cannot post claims or customer testimonies. Yet despite those obstacles, BPV is “a content marketing machine.”
Its secret is an efficient workflow and approval process, a data-centric content team, supportive management, investments in digital marketing resources, and a talented digital production staff.
Key Steps to Social Media Success
Social media and content marketing produce just as much value – maybe more — for regulated companies as for other types of businesses. Regulated industries, however, need to be more circumspect in making claims and in assuring that social media posts conform with regulations. Hype doesn’t work for regulated companies in social media; solid consumer education certainly does.
Online marketing experts say companies in industries that are tightly regulated can achieve social marketing success by following these steps.
Obtain management support. Top echelon leaders must drive the organization’s cultural change that embraces social media. “If your company is still in the social media dark ages, the first step toward success may not be a new Facebook page,” Schaefer writes. “It’s probably executive education.”
Implement an efficient approval process. Marketers in regulated industries typically require approval from legal and compliance staff before posting content online. It’s crucial to create a workflow and approval process to obtain those approvals swiftly. Marketers must view their legal and compliance teams as resources, not obstacles. Reviewers must recognize and respect the time deadlines of marketers.
Be patient. Content marketing requires a long-term commitment and success is more likely in heavily regulated businesses not saturated with content. Companies that are first to embrace content marketing will gain a distinct advantage over competitors.
Be useful. Although companies in highly regulated industries cannot engage with followers, they can create content that educates and otherwise provides value to their prospective audiences. Companies can announce industry news and share factual information on social media. Health care companies can share facts about the Affordable Care Act or a new medication, and direct them to a landing page where they can obtain more information and register for a newsletter.
Humanize your brand. Companies can build trust if an actual staff member sends private messages to customers with problems and questions, rather than send automated, scripted responses. “That can build trust and comfort a customer that the matter in question — such as difficulty logging on to the company’s website — will be handled in a reasonable amount of time,” says John Rampton, founder of online invoicing company, Due.
Monitor social media. Through social media listening, companies can learn what consumers are saying about their brands, industry and competitors. By monitoring complaints, a company can identify problems that need correcting. Archiving social media conversations will create a historical perspective about subjects and will help the brand managers analyze marketing campaigns to find successful strategies. Most companies need to be active on only a few networks but should listen to all platforms. Consumers are constantly talking about their health, finances and legal issues on social media.
“The insights you can gain from that listening are far greater than figuring out how to talk on each of these networks,” writes Carrie Kerpen, CEO and co-founder of Likeable Media, for Inc.
Educate employees. Since many employees nowadays are active on social media, prudent organizations educate their employees about what is and is not permissible under SEC rules or regulations such as HIPPA.
Bottom Line: Digital marketing experts urge companies in industries that are highly regulated to embrace social media marketing. Despite fears of breaking government regulations, companies in sectors such as healthcare and financial services can gain a distinct competitive advantage by monitoring social media and utilizing social media for consumer education.
William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, media measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.
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