Social Media Series: Authentic – true to one’s personality, spirit, character…

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Last Monday, I wrote about how social networks are changing a bank’s customers’ experience. Well, its up to the leadership within an institution to incorporate your online interaction into your way of doing business, and today’s column looks at how one company is doing just that.

If pressed to offer just one word that that sums up social media today, it is the title of today’s post.  That is, successful financial services companies do not automate their responses, yet they do integrate links/videos/pictures and they understand that they simply influence (not control) their bank’s message.  In short, they are true to their culture, which I assume aspires to provide exceptional customer service.

In our “world-is-flat” day and age, the Internet offers around-the-clock service and availability to customers as well as an engaging platform for prospective ones. Being “always on” allows a company, bank or credit union to continuously share brand messages and gain macro-level insights into their customers’ online behavior. Regardless of your asset size, understanding the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors is a critical component for improving your own institution’s business results and profitability.

social-media-ally.jpgWhether you’re a bank with relatively small deposits, an institution of a healthy asset size or one of these banks’ competitors, social media provides smart, progressive types with a tremendous amount of research on user behavior and attitudes.  Take, for example, Ally Bank and USAA.  The former being the old GMAC; the latter, serving the military and their families since 1922.  Both provide insurance, online banking and mortgage operations to its customers.  But notice anything interesting about the twos interaction with their respective followers on a social media site like Twitter?

While I’m not suggestion the number of tweets correlates to the number of followers, a quick survey of the comments and conversation leads me to believe that USAA gets the whole concept of community building.  In fact, I reached out to both Ally and USAA through Twitter where my online inquiry to Ally was met with silence, and the one sent to USAA received a response within two hours.  Community building is something that all banks should be doing, as so much of what we do work-wise and personally requires some form of relationship with a bank.  And it’s not just on Twitter that USAA is making itself available. Take a look at its Facebook page.  As of December 22nd, 127,696 people “Liked This.” Impressive.

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I use these two examples not to castigate Ally or promote USAA; rather, to show how one company has realized that, despite our turbulent financial environment, investing in this medium allows them to really engage with their customers, build trust and act in an open and honest manner.  Living in Washington, the word that bankers and financiers can’t escape is transparency.  So if we opened today’s post with the word authentic, let me close with transparent.  If you can marry the two, you’ll be well ahead of your competition.

Social Media Series: Is your bank using?

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In my last column, I wrote about social networking platforms presenting banks with powerful new ways to connect with consumers of all generations. This week, we look at the benefits of social media and clear up some misconceptions about the practice.

At a time when a number of institutions — both big and small — consider implementing new technology strategies to lower costs for retaining clients, improving operating efficiencies and differentiating brands and customer offerings, surprisingly few banks leverage social media as a communications channel. Considering the U.S. economy struggles to emerge from its bleakest conditions in 80+ years, one would think that most would readily embrace an opportunity to engage with anyone visiting them “digitally.”
 
diving-board.jpgIn today’s massively connected world, tools and technologies continue to present new ways to share/consume day-to-day information. According to a white paper put out by comScore, an Internet marketing research firm, this has significant impact on the industry. While its generally accepted that online banking continues to grow in importance for the average American, did you know that “in any given quarter, nearly 60% of the total U.S. Internet population visits at least one of the top 20 financial institution sites.”

Those are some big numbers that any bank — community, mid-size or large — should take note of.  Now, I’m not suggesting you go out and start using social media to promote your latest credit card offer. A word of caution that banks using social media channels to sell products or hype their services will quickly fall behind those using such tools to boost their customer service quality. Resolving issues quickly; now that’s something people want that you can give them. 

This lines up with another point from last week: the fact that you no longer wholly control your message. This idea caught a few by surprise, so I reached out to Susan Jacobsen, the president of LUV2XLPR, for her thoughts. As her work bridges public relations and new media, we talked about ways her clients are navigating a rapidly changing social media landscape. While a daunting task to some, Susan suggested that executives look at social media as a means for “engaging with customers while balancing the legal, compliance and risk liabilities.” She continued that “once they make the decision to engage online, whether through Twitter, commenting on blogs or via LinkedIn, it has to be a commitment to continue the dialog and not disappear if they don’t like what they’re reading. Social networks will not go away and neither should they.”

Sage advice to anyone thinking about using these tools to expand their customer experience in 2011 and beyond.

Social Media Series: A little bird told me…

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Part one of our Social Media & Financial Services Series

Last week, Fiserv released a white paper on the current and future interests consumers have in connecting with financial institutions through social media. At a time where everyone seems to hype the promise of social media, I admit I read through the report with a degree of analytical scrutiny and yes, intellectual skepticism. While I’m not alone in questioning certain elements of the survey (most notably, that 11% are socially connected to their bank), can we all agree that this “social media fad” just ain’t going away?

twitter-birds-icons.jpgCase-in-point, at our last two conferences, I found myself talking about the various uses of social media today with outside directors of mid-size financial institutions, community bank CEOs and service providers that work with some of the largest banks in the country. Some people get it. Others questioned my lack of concern for privacy and opening myself up to something dastardly.  

Sadly, I think some of the confusion around social media is borne from the rise of the so-called gurus and self-proclaimed experts that have sprouted up in every nook and cranny of the country. While there are quite a few talented professionals supporting our industry, so too are the snake oil salesmen preying on the less informed.

Personally, I turn to sites like Twitter as a business intelligence tool (I want to see what people are saying about us or people we work with) and Facebook to stay connected with friends and family (keeping business totally separate). But these are only two social networking sites available; yet they seem to represent all things good and/or bad when it comes to social media.

I’m here to tell you it ain’t so.

While other articles share technical or tactical advice, I’ve decided to write my next five posts about social media from the perspective of a CEO and the key leadership team at a financial institution. So let’s start with the basics: social networking platforms present a powerful new way to connect with consumers of all generations.  

According to Fiserv, “more Gen Y (ages 21 – 30) and Gen X (ages 31 – 45) consumers utilize these sites; however, a high percentage of the Boomer (ages 46 – 64) and Senior (ages 65 and up) populations also engage in social media. Want some big numbers? Try these on:

  • 94% of Gen Y engage in social media;
  • 90% of Gen X engage in social media;
  • 78% of Boomers engage in social media; and 
  • 65% of Seniors engage in social media.

So according to the technology firm, that shiny new iPad for Grandma might actually be put to good use this winter.

As I said, I don’t blindly accept these numbers. I do, however, think they are relevant to our community. For as technology capabilities continue to expand and evolve — and an ever increasing number of your customers connect to brands and businesses online — I have to ask: are you ready?  

This is not a rhetorical question; to-date, social media is a communication channel that many banks have failed to leverage. So why should today’s financial executives and directors care about social media — and how can they make it work for their institutions? The easy answer? There is gold in them hills: social media blends technology and social interaction; done right, such networking co-creates value for both the bank and it’s customer.  

Social media can take many different forms — not just Facebook and Twitter. The space is ever growing, and incorporates online forums (think the early days of AOL), blogs like this one (or DCSpring21), wikis (hopefully more wikipedia than wikileaks), photo sharing sites like Flicker, video sites like Vimeo and YouTube, and rating or social bookmarking ones like Digg.

social-media-connect.jpgFor financial services companies, social media allows for collaborative projects within an organization (e.g using a twitter-for-the-enterprise tool like Yammer), micro-blogs (e.g. Lincoln Financial’s amazing future self site), and yes, social networking sites (e.g. Facebook).  

But like most things in life, what you and your institution get out of social media coincides with what you put in. Because the big thing you need to come to grips with is the fact that you no longer wholly control your message…at best, you influence it. So as the use of social media tools become even more ingrained in so many consumers’ everyday lives, these are channels you can no longer afford to ignore.

For more on the social media series, please read the following posts:

  • Part 2: Is your bank using social media?
  • Part 3: Authentic – true to one’s personality, spirit, character…
  • Part 4: Getting Up and Running
  • Part 5: A Look Ahead