Social media is such a powerful marketing tool. Currently, 88% of marketers say that social media has helped to increase exposure. Therefore, lacking a social media presence can significantly affect a business in the current climate. However, the term ‘social media’ encompasses many different platforms, all with different purposes. Choosing which social media platform(s) to use can be quite challenging as each deserves its own individual approach which can vastly differ from one platform to the other.

Below is a great example of how a brand can use different social media platforms strategically but maintaining their brand identity at the same time.

Monzo Bank

As a FinTech bank that is highly popular with the younger generation, it is no surprise that Monzo’s approach to social media marketing is getting an A* from us. The relatively new but highly successful business has many great marketing strengths. They focus on community, and they highly encourage customer engagement. Their marketing team utilises a variety of platforms to demonstrate this community feel.

Forums

Monzo’s community forum is a place where both consumers and employees can converse and contribute. Not only is it a place where customers can ask questions, but they can also suggest new product ideas and feedback to the brand. This feedback is met with replies and likes from the community, crowdfunding investors and employees, where the consumer feels like they are being heard. This highlights the personal connection that employees of Monzo have with their consumers and adds to the community nature of Monzo as a whole. So much so, that they even wish each other a Merry Christmas. Customer loyalty and advocacy in these forums have increased throughout the years and are likely a large reason why the brand is so popular. This is the most informative platform for Monzo, where customers would come to know about product launches or system issues.

Twitter

Monzo’s marketing team are clearly aware of their demographic profile when producing social media content. On Twitter, they encourage customer engagement by asking questions and prompting their customers to share fun aspects of their life or just starting a thread of fun interactions.

Some fun questions include:

  • What’s your pettiest money-related local drama?
  • What’s your most outrageous airport purchase ever?
  • What’s the one single thing you spend the most on when on holiday?
  • What’s the one purchase that reveals where you’re from in the UK?

All these questions encouraged their customers to interact with their content and also build up the community feel with people reacting to others’ stories. Monzo will also retweet a lot of customer tweets who have shared some frivolous spending, with Greggs being a fan favourite.

Overall, Monzo’s Twitter is light-hearted, chatty and highly interactive. They interact with customers as if they were friends and they get a great response because of it.

LinkedIn

Monzo’s approach to LinkedIn is quite varied. They ask funny (twitter-style) questions, such as “£100 fine or use your teenage email address for work?” which results in extremely high engagement. However, they also stick to more ‘classic’ LinkedIn posts and show behind-the-scenes of Monzo working such as this post with some work-from-home tips.

They stay up to date with relevant topics that we all face. They are less likely to share a ‘FinTech update’ and are more likely to share ‘Ways to use your Monzo Card to keep cool in summer’. This is a really interesting approach, that clearly works.

TikTok

Monzo uses TikTok to have fun, get creative and be extremely customer focused. Their presence on the app is a great example of how the brand is staying relevant to its customers. Their style of content on the app is very much Gen Z and millennial-esque with relatable memes around shopping habits and money-saving tips. Despite the brand posting content fit for the younger generation, the content is still relevant to Monzo as a brand, with all content surrounding money, banking and shopping- just in a fun way.


What to takeaway from Monzo’s social media activity

  • Understand your audience- Monzo knows that their product is widely popular with the younger generations, and so they know that it would not be best practice to continuously share content fit for the older generation.
  • Keep your brand identity constant- Although they adapt their content to fit the individual social media platform, they do not change it too much. Consumers know if they want informative updates on products that they should go to their Forum. For the customers who are working and want some helpful work tips but also light-hearted LinkedIn content, Monzo’s profile is the place to be. If they want to share anecdotes or stories, head to Twitter. Or for some funny, light-hearted videos, TikTok is the answer. They are different but consistent.
  • Customers first- Monzo’s marketers and employees treat their customers as if they were their friends. By the way that they publicly interact with them, customers feel comfortable going to Monzo for any queries on any platform. They all have a sense of openness and community feel.
  • Not one shoe fits all – Monzo’s marketing is great, but this does not mean you should directly copy everything they do. It works for them because of the nature of their brand. They are highly customer focused and rely heavily on this to grow as a business. Other businesses would need to adjust their content accordingly so as to not confuse customers about the real brand identity.

So, which of Monzo’s social media platforms are your favourite and how would you use this to inspire your marketing?

Tinisha Osu is a Marketing Executive with two degrees in Psychology. She is the first-author of a published psychology paper and is beginning her career in marketing through blog-writing, creating social media content and running marketing campaigns.