How Social Media Influences Plan Sponsors’ Communication

With younger generations joining the workforce, social media is clearly influencing how plan sponsors communicate with participants, leading to evolving standards for message length and delivery method.

Big, blocky chunks of text are out. Short videos and visuals that succinctly drive home a key point are in. Email may reach older generations, but Facebook, LinkedIn and TikTok or Instagram are how many younger plan participants get information.

“Social media culture is really mandating that we take a fresh look at how we communicate: less formal and in more fun, little, bite-sized information pieces,” says Kelli Send, a principal in and senior vice president of financial wellness at Francis LLC.

Send says human resource professionals are juggling how to explain benefits to employees whose ages may range a span of five generations, from Baby Boomers to Generation Z, each with different communication preferences.

Yet all generations can benefit from the positive aspects of social media communication, which tends to use short, compelling messages that, authentically told, may increase employee engagement. But like any information, plan sponsors need to take care when creating a campaign.

Reach Out Across Channels

Megan Yost, a senior vice president and communications consultant at Segal Benz, says having a consistent message that is easily recognizable on various platforms can reinforce information. That means creating similar messages to be emailed, texted or posted on a company social media account such as Facebook or LinkedIn.

“A multi-channel, multimedia approach, is the best way to reach people, because there are so many different learning styles and preferences of the workforce, with so much diversity in ages and generations,” Yost says.

Plan sponsors should match the message with the medium when possible. For Instagram or Facebook, it might be an image or a short video. For email or LinkedIn, it could be a blog post. For platforms on which plan sponsors should be particularly succinct, short messages should include a call to action, directing participants to a trusted place of information, such as the company benefits website, to learn more.

“You have to think about how people are going to see this message and what the context will be, [then] adjust the message to maximize the exposure,” Yost says.

James Scofield, a creative design manager at the Municipal Employees’ Retirement System of Michigan, says in 2015, the state retirement services provider launched an official social media strategy that added Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube to more traditional methods of mail, email, phone or face-to-face. Even today, as the organization continues to evaluate the best ways to communicate, the overarching message has stayed consistent, he says: Participants are best served by adequately saving early in their career, having a long-term investing mindset with a diversified portfolio, and managing their entire financial picture.

Scofield says sometimes participants may interact with a single resource, but many will interact across multiple platforms.

“For example, a participant may see something on Facebook, which inspires them to attend a webinar,” Scofield says. “We’ve actually seen that since introducing social media, engagement with our resources has increased.”

Employers can also use mobile apps to target certain groups. Send says Francis’ free mobile app can send direct messages to certain participants and send out push notifications. It also offers monthly money messages and professionally produced short videos that can include calls to action and places to look for additional information.

Vary the Messages

April Rudin, founder and CEO of the Rudin Group, a global wealth marketing firm, agrees plan sponsors should take an omnichannel approach. To be efficient and impactful with resources, A-B testing can demonstrate which messages on which platform best gather traction.

“We test and learn,” Rudin says. “We’ve never really been able to do that before.”

According to Scofield, MERS staffers learned they needed to vary content to encourage interaction, mixing fun content with important news, such as reminding participants to update their beneficiaries.

“People are drawn to authentic and relevant messages—stories that resonate with their own lives and interests—instead of advertisements for purchasing products,” Scofield says. “Sponsors can use such channels to increase engagement and to show they are on top of events.”

Yost says she is, likewise, seeing more instances of employers sharing stories of employees discussing how they use their company benefits, which promotes the valuable benefits the employer offers. Plan sponsors can incorporate photography or videography during focus groups to record employee feedback, she says. These employee-focused campaigns can have a powerful effect if it gets people excited.

As an example, Yost points to news site The Skimm, which has promoted the “Show Us Your Leave” campaign, highlighting different organizations’ paid leave benefits.

“It is a great way plan sponsors and employers are responding and sharing,” Yost says.

Plan sponsors do not need to create professional videos or increase budgets to create engaging content, however, Send says. Rather, she suggests rejiggering how they communicate, which could be a mix of content created both by professionals and by employers. Send acknowledges it takes a little courage to move away from formal communication and embrace social media’s more informal approach.

“There’s literally nothing stopping an employer from grabbing their phone and hitting the record button on a video [in which] the HR team says, ‘Hey, the due date for stuff is next week,’” Send says.

Potential Risks

Rudin says plan sponsors trying out social media should look for messaging styles and deliveries that will resonate with their employees.

If using an informal, social-media style communication, Yost says, or posting on a social-media channel, plan sponsors need to be conscientious of what they are saying and how it will be received by all participants. Employers should also be mindful of graphics to be used as part of the message.

Scofield concurs, saying “great care must be given to ensure the message you are delivering is accurate and clear,” adding that social media is a tool, not a replacement for all interactions.

While employers must be thoughtful about their messaging, avoiding social media is a bigger risk, Rudin says. “I find it a greater risk for brands not to do something or not to try anything,” she says.