These days, more banks than ever are interacting with customers through social media delivery channels. There are many ways to do this, so we thought you might like some help on this front as you consider who, what, when, where, why & how your bank might do this even more effectively.
Who and What: Using Wikipedia, we find these social media sites have the most registered users: Facebook (908mm); Twitter (500mm); Qzone (480mm, caters to mainland China users); Google+ (400mm); Sina Weibo (300mm, social micro blogging in China); Habbo (268mm, for teens); Renren (160mm, China); LinkedIn (160mm); Vkontakte (124mm, Russia); Bebo (117mm) and Tagged (100mm). Meanwhile, a study from Comscore finds social networking sites now reach 82% of the world’s online population; activity has more than tripled in the last few years; social networking is the most popular content category worldwide; it accounts for about 20% of all time spent online and about 1 in every 5 minutes spent online is now spent on social networking sites.
When and Where: Banks are experimenting with various sites, but here is how some are being used out there. LinkedIn - Banks use LinkedIn most commonly for networking with customers; finding or filling new staff positions; keeping tabs on customers and on the competition. This is a great tool to build and maintain your customer base within the online channel. Google - studies find about 80% or more of businesses first search online for banking services and Google is the #1 way most people search the internet. Boosting search optimization results and leveraging Adwords are great ways to get involved here. Facebook - Pew research finds 66% of online adults use Facebook. It is all about building a customer community, getting real time updates and building traffic to your own web site. So many people use Facebook it can be hard to have your voice heard, but experimentation over time can deliver results. Yelp - is designed to generate local word of mouth about your bank and experiences people have had. It delivers localized customer acquisition opportunities. Twitter â€" provides a channel to customers and potential customers and can operate like wildfire. Real time updates and micro blogging have found a niche among people out there and as such, open up an interesting new opportunity for community banks. Foursquare - is a location site for mobile devices, allowing people to connect with their environment. People can share where they are, earn points, link up with friends or businesses and get location-based marketing offers. Banks can use it to capture customers with localized coupons or special offers to build or maintain branch traffic. Pintrest - zooming up the list and is very popular right now. It allows a short note to be attached to a picture, pulling together groups of people in a sharing mode and offering the bank marketing and community-building opportunities galore. Google+ - offers a way for banks to build customer community, offer real time updates and build traffic in and around your brand. Wordpress - blog offers an interesting way for banks to capture new customers, build thought leadership, has a search engine and build cross traffic. It is full content management that allows banks to connect with users, forums and find mailing lists.
Why and How: A recent study by Accenture points out that 90% of financial services firms expect to be dedicating funds for social media initiatives in 2012, yet 60% still consider themselves to be novices in this area. Meanwhile, Forrester research finds 42% of online adults on social networking sites are interested in engaging with their financial providers in a variety of ways. Some of those mentioned include: being alerted about promotions and specials; customer service; reviews from other customers; offering financial advice; providing financial offers just for them; rewarding them for recommending the bank; posting educational information about finance; letting them post reviews, complaints, and questions and accessing applications to improve their own financial situation, to name a few.
No matter what you are doing in social media, we hope this discussion helps give you an idea how to build even more customer stickiness and opportunity in the months and years to come. Explore each one to see what really works for your community and don't be afraid to experiment as you have fun.