EXCLUSIVE—Social media strategy is a must for all areas of business in today’s world, including banks—who, fighting against entrenched perceptions of their legacy institutions, often rely on social media platforms to reach their younger customers.

However, it’s not enough just to establish a presence on social media (the bare minimum of being considered alive, in today’s world)—your bank also needs to make sure that presence has a noticeable effect on the institution’s bottom line, Melisssa Musgrove, head of social media for Regions Bank, told Bank Innovation.

“We are focused on providing extraordinary customer service, [and] we’ve expanded and grown,” Musgrove said of Region’s social strategy. “We are on ten different social media channels, and we are quantifying the value with ROI, data-centric metrics, driving revenue.”

The bank, which is partnered with digital marketing service Sapient Razorfish for its Customer Care media strategy, doesn’t approach social media as a “product push” or rely on what it terms as “soft metrics,” but rather relies on hard, real-time data to drive its strategy forward, Musgrove said.

The bank is focused on the top social channels at the moment, Musgrove said (a group which includes Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram).

“Soft metrics” refers to the statistics like channel growth or the amount of engagements a piece of social media content has received, Melissa Read, Ph.D., global emotion insights head for Sapient Razorfish, told Bank innovation.

While these statistics have their place, Reed said, as social media becomes more of an established part of a bank’s marketing and brand, financial institutions are going to need better ways quantify social ROI.

“Data is one of the most important parts [of our strategy,” Musgrove added to Read’s comments, which are further expanded in her recent report here, co-authored by Musgrove. “Working off data is one of the key elements. We need to be relevant to customers in the right time, in the right way, on the right platform.”

While the bank grows its presence on its chosen platforms, it is also looking to expand its reach on social—though that doesn’t include Snapchat, the social platform of choice for younger, Gen Z consumers, Musgrove said. Snapchat is “not something we’re experimenting with” at the moment, she said.

Currently, Regions’ Bank’s Twitter, @askRegions , has 21.6K followers.

To learn the latest developments in social media and digital banking, join us on March 5-6, 2018 at the Parc 55 in San Francisco for Bank Innovation 2018. Click here to register.