People-Centric Branding: How BisB Mastered LinkedIn and Why It Matters

21-أغسطس-2023

By Ali Hasan Duaij, Head of Corporate Communications & Branding at Bahrain Islamic Bank (BisB)

The social media space is constantly changing and evolving; in the span of just a few weeks, we saw a new social network, ‘Threads’ launched, while one of the most established platforms inexplicably rebranded itself to ‘X’. LinkedIn, however, remained ubiquitous and is used by professionals of all backgrounds and ages. It was for these reasons BisB identified LinkedIn as a network where we can really showcase our brand while engaging with our customer base.

While consumer-focused content is typically found on platforms such as Instagram or TikTok, LinkedIn provides a space for businesses to post more about innovation, workplace culture, job opportunities, as well as corporate identity. Taking all of that into account, we have developed a multifaceted strategy to connect with people and fulfil BisB’s brand promise to simplify money matters.

Throughout the past year, we posted a series of profiles on our page highlighting our team members’ professional remits, achievements, and day-to-day experiences at the Bank. These short-written captions were posted to shed light on the people that make BisB the bank it is and enabled our followers to put a face to a name. For senior members of our team, we implemented a slightly different approach wherein they provided words of corporate wisdom and guidance based on their extensive professional experience.

Engaging members of our team and helping them fulfil their professional goals and aspirations is an integral part of the Bank’s proactive developmental culture, and we do this by encouraging mentor-protégée relationships at the Bank. We constantly work to ensure that our staff are bold and innovative, and our culture of mentorship has helped to develop synergy throughout the Bank. By demonstrating how our senior employees mentor their junior team members and sharing lessons learned from these interactions, we have been able to present ourselves as an inclusive organization with a strong family dynamic.

In addition to our range of posts featuring the Bank’s staff, we are also keen to provide helpful workplace advice to our followers, and our highly-experienced HR team produces regular ‘tips of the day’ on topics such as work-life balance and effective time management. Concerns over mental health had risen in the post-Covid landscape, incentivizing us to post advice and articles on how to manage stress in a workplace environment. This is also a reflection of our brand DNA, wherein our care for others guides our approach to our customers, partners, personnel, and broader society. Finally, it is worth noting that senior figures at the Bank are doing their bit to contribute, drafting insightful and intuitive opinion pieces concerning current affairs that relate to the Bank and the industry.

I am proud to say that we are already reaping the benefits of our people-centric LinkedIn strategy, our posts enjoy some of the highest engagement rates of any Bahraini company posting on LinkedIn, and BisB has significantly increased its followers over the past 12 months as we recently celebrated reaching 50,000 followers on LinkedIn, maintaining our status as the most followed Islamic bank in the Kingdom of Bahrain.