Social+ companies are extremely popular, and the reason is that they provide more value. Not only do social+ solutions provide certain specific functionality, but they also give users a sense of community. There are many products that feature a social element, but for social+ companies, the social element is an integral part of the product. In other words, if you remove the social element from such products, they will lose their main selling point or won’t make any sense at all.
The tech industry has already seen many examples of successful social+ solutions from different niches, including gaming (Fortnite), fitness (Peloton, Strava), audio (Clubhouse), and commerce (Pinduoduo). All these apps feature social interactions as the main feature that makes them valuable and different from other products from their niches. The enormous success of social+ products demonstrates that the social+ trend gains momentum in different industries. No matter what a specific app focuses on, it can be turned into a social experience.
One of the most interesting things about this trend is that even solutions that used to be considered personal and private, such as financial tools, also go social. Social+ finance becomes more and more popular. In this article, we will consider the benefits of social features and take a closer look at the social+ concept in the fintech industry.
Advantages of Social+ Products
Before we get into detail about social+ fintech products, let’s think of why social+ products, in general, are a good idea. Should you risk your success making your product dependent on the social factor? Why are different companies from unrelated industries implementing social features? “The main reason is that social features add a lot of value to your product. This way, you can not only provide regular functionality but also enable your users to participate in a community, build their status, and form friendships,” explains Celia Herring from Topwritingreviews. Here are some of the key advantages of social+ products.
Insights for personalization Including social features in your fintech products can provide you with countless insights from user data. Therefore, you get more opportunities to understand what works well and what needs some improvement. Besides, when you have an active user community, this audience can provide you with useful insights that you can use for personalized user experiences.
Retention
Customer retention is all about your ability to build and maintain relationships. If your relationships with customers are not strong enough, they can quickly switch to your competitor that offers the same or even lower price. If your product gives users access to a community of like-minded individuals, they will be much more likely to stick around. You can create a community that revolves around your brand, where you always own the conversation.
Growth
If your product has the social factor as its integral function, your users can also drive growth, recommending your product to their friends, and expanding the community. When people become engaged participants of a community, they talk about it so you can get more customers coming from word of mouth. A sense of belonging can have a very powerful impact on your growth.
The social trend enters all industries, and the popularity of WallStreetBets proves that even payments and finance go social. Not so long ago, the idea of sharing personal financial information would sound completely inappropriate, but the popularity of social media has changed the situation. Students write about their debt on Twitter, bloggers and influencers openly discuss their income with followers, and Microsoft employees share salary information with each other.
Talking about money online becomes the new norm, and social features have also proven to be capable of making some financial operations more fun and engaging. For example, asking somebody to pay you back or returning what you’ve borrowed has always been somewhat awkward. However, when Venmo added emojis and notes to requests and payments, it changed the situation and demonstrated yet another example of how convenient social features can be.
Perhaps, one of the main things that blurred the borders between finance and social interaction is social media shopping. It had already been extremely popular before the COVID-19 pandemic, but the pandemic made social media shopping one of the main options for consumers. In fact, social media engagement has increased by 61% during the pandemic, and 58% of consumers aged 13 to 37 years state that they are interested in making purchases directly from social media. Therefore, social media payments have become a necessity for payment service providers that don’t want to miss out on good opportunities.
Some social+ finance apps also demonstrate significant disruptive potential. For example, Robinhood made investing in the stock market more accessible than ever. Not only is Robinhood easy to use, but it also doesn’t charge broker fees. Even the team behind Robinhood didn’t realize its full potential until this app made headlines because of the skyrocketing value of GameStop shares that shook hedge funds. Robinhood, however, was just a tool for Redditors — the community of the WallStreetBets subreddit behind this incident just demonstrated the power of social media in the world of finance.
What Makes a Social+ Finance Product
When creating social+ products, it’s important to keep in mind that “social” comes first. It’s not enough to simply add a loosely designed social feature to your product as a marketing trick. The social factor should be at the core of your app. Therefore, you should provide your users with all the necessary peer-to-peer engagement features, such as feeds, following, in-app publishing, personal and group chats, voice, and video calls. You can also add leaderboards and rewards.
Of course, implementing numerous social features may seem like a time-consuming and expensive task. The good news is that the modern API ecosystem enables app developers to implement social features easily and quickly. What should be your main concern, however, is community moderation. Having a social+ app means that you’re responsible for the conversation and the community.
Social features are more popular than ever. Companies from different industries add the social element to their products, and the finance industry is no exception. A social+ product can provide you with a lot of valuable insights, generate growth, and increase customer retention. Your users already create communities on social media, and implementing social features gives you a chance to create a built-in community of loyal users that revolves around your brand.
