Simmons First National Corp. has launched a new external lifestyle blog, called Beyond the Bank, offering feature stories for readers in the areas where it has a presence.
“We’re branding Simmons as a part of life in the areas we serve,” said Rex Nelson, director of corporate communications at Simmons. “The lifestyle blog will feature good writing and feature stories from around the region. It could be about food one day and sports the next to shed a light on the people in this region who are looking for interesting content. We want to be a part of that conversation.”
Simmons currently has a presence in Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee and Kansas. Nelson said the bank is seeing “tremendous growth,” and has doubled in size over the past five years. Now, it has $7.6 billion in assets and future acquisitions are likely.
With growth in mind, Nelson said he was hired in June 2015 to develop a strategy for internal and external communications. The department now consists of five employees.
Content for Beyond the Bank will be generated internally with its Little Rock-based staff, and Nelson said the team will look to employees in other states for help with story ideas outside of Arkansas. New content will be published once or twice a week and pushed out on Simmons’ social media platforms.
Simmons is also working on an internal blog for employees, which will launch soon. Nelson said no name has yet been chosen for that blog.