Discover has a pretty active online presence. Talk about the different strategy Discover has with Twitter & Facebook vs the Discover blog?

One of our goals is to build brand loyalty by engaging members in a dialogue through various social media channels. Facebook and Twitter are used to drive general awareness of Discover’s service, tools and promotions, whereas the Discover blog is intended to champion the customer’s stories about our rewards programs.

Clearly the most active platform is Facebook. Talk a little about how a brand like Discover can utilize this platform?

At Discover, we use social media as a way to listen and engage with our cardmembers. Facebook allows to us bring our brand to life by reacting to our fans and talking with them more conversationally about what they care about most.

Continuing with Facebook, talk about how Discover is utilizing a fun tab like Grafitti to engage customers?

This tab was created to support our Student Card Art Design contest. This contest enabled Discover Fans and visitors to share in the creation of a new student card art design in an easy, fun and interactive way. We received 6,700 entries and 200,000 votes.

Education is an area that a lot of financial brands aren’t utilizing very effectively. How does Discover approach financial education and what role does the Discover blog play in that?

We offer several tools (calculators, educational resources, financial resources like our CARD Act video on our site that we point to and reference through out Twitter feed and Facebook statuses. The Inside Discover.com blog is narrowly focused on site features and enhancements that may be of interest to our Discover.com users.

You seem to be using video and a lot of visuals – something I’ve found a lot of financial companies struggling with. Talk about the importance of these tools when it comes to an industry as important as financial services?

Visuals are important, because they help gain audience attention.  We plan to do more with video and work to ensure compelling visuals are a part of our updates when possible. However, we feel it’s the subject matter and conversation that’s most important in order to be as relevant as possible to our audience. Videos like “Straight Talk” are only the beginning.

How do create content that draws customers in? Financial services is something that affects everyone, but not a lot of people are interested. How do you overcome that?

We work to find the common pain points or points of interest like saving money, getting the best deal or avoiding fees and then introduce how some of our offerings can help provide solutions. We also invite others to share their ideas and opinions to keep the conversation going.

How has social media impacted the Discover brand? How do you use social media to educate the public that Discover is more than the piece of plastic in your wallet?

Social Media helps to enhance our online brand presence. We’re using social platforms like the I love Cashback Bonus blog to help cardmembers interact with our brand in a more personalized way. Knowing that you’re spending smarter is a rewarding experience that goes beyond being a piece of plastic.

How does Discover measure social media? How do you know it’s providing value and how do you relay that within the company?

We measure social metrics such as followship and engagement, as well as traffic and activity on our site. However, we feel the real investment is in understanding how to engage with consumers in social networks and manage user-generated content since it has such a growing impact on our online brand presence, from search results to brand affinity.
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Clearly, Discover has figured out the value of social media. Discover has always been a brand that focuses on engaging with their customers through giveaways and other promos. However, rather than simply holding contests and throwing money away, Discover actively seeks feedback and content from their community, as evident by their blog.

Overall, I think Discover is doing well with their social efforts. I think there’s some room for improvement with education, but from monitoring their activity online, they are on the right path. A great brand and a great example of how financial institutions should use emerging channels to reach their customers.

Not everything is as rosy as MasterCard claims though, as the iPhone application – which has been available for about a year – getting mixed reviews. Some users complain of the application not working properly outside of the U.S. where it appears to be outdated.

One reviewer, identified only as Scott-USA, said the iPhone app “is just OK for use in the U.S. and Canada, but for finding ATMs in other countries this app seems to be outdated and almost useless.”  Scott, who said he is a frequent Bangkok, Thailand, visitor, said he used ATM Hunter to locate machines near JW Marriott, Sheraton Grande and Four Seasons hotels. “The app came back with no ATMs found,” Scott writes.

This begs the question of financial institutions rushing to push out applications and not focusing on the maintenance and upkeep. An idea is only as good as its execution, and this story is a perfect example of a company focusing on convenience, but overlooking critical steps.

In hindsight, the ‘ATM Hunter’ is a great resource for MasterCard’s customers. The lack of continually testing the application after its release is disheartening, as a lack of functionality is a sure recipe for customer frustration. Hopefully MasterCard will continue to provide updates to the application.

Like any business, success and failure depends upon profits and sales. In the financial industry, business literally depends on profits and money. Without “money” (deposits and more importantly loans) a bank would be worthless. So from a pure business perspective, it makes sense that banks focus on making more “money.” As the above article mentions, the way we conduct business and the way a consumer gives banks their “money” has changed. Unfortunately, banks are still staffed with outdated, out-of-touch, stodgy executives who are afraid of change and don’t understand innovation.

It used to be that smaller banks looked toward the “giants” as prime examples on how to increase loans and deposits. Now it’s time that these giants look toward the smaller banks and start-ups and embrace this new, mobile financial mentality.

FiLife – a joint venture between IAC and Dow Jones – is a community that connects people with personal financial questions with experts who have the answer. Recently ranked as the #1 most innovative financial company and #27 overall by Fast Company, FiLife is providing a venue for people across a wide-array of spaces to get answers to all their financial questions – basic or complex.

In an industry that’s heavily regulated and typically conservative, FiLife offers a credible solution to the glaring absence of education and awareness within the financial industry.

“Essentially, we’re where healthcare was a few years ago. It was a taboo subject that you didn’t think about bringing up in a social setting,” Adam Wiener, general manager and executive editor, said. “There’s an obvious need for this resource, so we’re fishing where the fish are.”

Another key to FiLife’s success (they’ve gone from 14,000 monthly visitors in February 2009 to over 3 million) is the fact that they don’t necessarily have to play by the same rules and regulations that bound financial institutions. That’s not to say that FiLife houses fly by the night content. FiLife has managed to form a number of strategic relationships and the depth of their contributors provide credibility. It’s this vast array of resources that has allowed the site to become the number four personal-finance Web site according to com-Score.

“With the amount of content out there, we needed to form strategic relationships in order to give FiLife credibility,” Wiener said. “Large financial institutions have to deal with regulation and jump through hoops in order to get stuff online. We have the ability to respond quicker and to a broader range of topics.”

In a true testament to innovation, FiLife is continually looking to add value to its current community and potential participants. FiLife is committed to using their open API to allow other financial institutions and partners to utilize the incredible amount of content and resources currently on the FiLife site, and integrate into their own Web site. Additionally, FiLife is looking at creating the ability for financial institutions to pull content from FiLife and use those resources on outside destinations.

“Being interactive is why we’ve found the success we have,” Wiener said. “We’re committed to being social and utilizing the various platforms out there to continue to add value and expand our reach.”

As mentioned above, there’s a wealth of knowledge and resources out there when it comes to financial advice. Clearly, large financial institutions haven’t stepped up to the plate of financial education. FiLife is a space where people can gather and develop their own profile of personalize content. Who knows, maybe down the road talking about your finances will be as common and accepted as conversing about the weather!

Currently, the traditional way to receive alerts are via e-mail or text. That’s fine, that works for some. E-mail is how I receive most of my financial alerts. However, as technology continues to evolve; I wonder how financial institutions will respond? While the financial space has seen mixed results within the social sphere (you can see my “winners” here), one use of social media that’s of little risk is….wait for it…ALERTS!

I don’t expect social alerts to overtake text and e-mail due to the simple fact that those methods provide the greatest ease of use and accessibility. Like social media in general, I think social alerts can be a complimentary use; not a replacement. As the trend of checking e-mail via mobile devices continues to increase (and text alerts are obviously received via mobile), it’s clear that our lifeline is our mobile device. It only makes sense that the use of social networking usage continues to trend toward mobile.

Now, before you begin to scream about the security issues, I don’t feel social alerts provide any increased risk that’s not already present. Alerts aren’t meant for financial discussion. They’re meant to provide an “oh, yeah”. Implementing such alerts aren’t any more complex than what’s used to initiate current alerts. Provide a disclosure that the customer needs to read and agree to. Ensure proper communication is utilized informing the customer not to disclose any personal information. Use the tool to drive conversations to proper offline channels, if need be.

Personally, I would  sign up to receive alerts via a Twitter direct message. Yes, this would require financial institutions to become verified users – which I think is needed regardless. If Chris Brogan is verified, why isn’t Bank of America? The beauty of this method is that it would also allow the opportunity for brands to build their community base and form relationships.

So what do you think? Would you take advantage of such a resource, if made available? Please take a moment to conduct a brief, anonymous survey regarding social alerts. Click here for a 3 question survey.

As always, you’re welcome to leave your thoughts in the comments section, even if you do participate in the survey.

iFinance had the opportunity to sit down with Mike Alfred, co-founder and CEO, where we talked about the importance of financial education, the idea and concept behind BrightScope and how it plans to change the financial landscape.

To begin, I think it’s best to get a clear idea of what exactly BrightScope is. From their Web site:

BrightScope^TM, Inc. is an independent provider of 401k ratings and financial intelligence to plan sponsors, advisors, and participants in all 50 states. Our mission is to increase the retirement security of America’s workforce by bringing transparency and efficiency to the 401k plan market. We maintain a comprehensive database of information on the 401k plan market and add additional value and insight by quantitatively rating each 401k plan across critical metrics. BrightScope^TM empowers plan sponsors to quickly and accurately determine the optimal structure for their 401k plan and choose the providers that provide the most value for the fees they charge. BrightScope is the only 401k analytics firm that is truly independent and does not accept compensation in the form of revenue sharing from mutual fund companies or plan providers. BrightScope is aligned with plan sponsors and seeks to avoid conflicts that will jeopardize its ability to give its clients unbiased advice. BrightScope is not a fiduciary under ERISA.

While most people have an understanding of basic economics and finance, as the complexity of the data increase, general interest decreases. Unless one works in finance, generally, most people don’t have much interest in the financial space. The reasons can be debated; but in my opinion, the fact that it doesn’t directly relate on an individual level is probably the reason. Fortunately, BrightScope fixes that problem.

I think it’s safe to say that most people want to eventually be able to retire. No one really wants to work their entire life. However, unless you win the lottery or inherit a large sum, most people will be forced to work a lot longer than previous times. This is exactly why understanding your 401k is critical in today’s tough economic times. This is also where BrightScope steps in.

“Financial education is fundamentally missing from society,” Alfred said. “Education is not there. Products are becoming more complex, but we as a society aren’t there. It’s unfortunate, but pensions and the government aren’t going to be there down the line.”

How Does BrightScope Work?

Unlike the money management resources out there today (think Mint, moneyStands, Quicken), BrightScope isn’t a recommendation platform. Instead, BrightScope is more of a plan management database that provides in-depth quantitative metrics of over 30,000 plans. Again, it’s key to understand that BrightScope is NOT a recommendation platform.

There are three main markets that BrightScope advertises its services for: participants, sponsors and advisors. For the purpose of this blog, we’ll focus on participants and advisors. *Note: this is not to discredit the value it provides sponsors. However, for target market of iFinance, we are choosing to feature participants and advisors. Please contact BrightScope if you are interested in more information about their services if you’re a plan sponsor

1. Participant features

There are two main functions if you’re a 401k participant (meaning you currently employer provides a 401k option). First, you can essential research any company’s 401k plan and receive their BrightScope Rating. This rating provides a variety of information comparing said company’s 401k plan and gives it a numerical rating from 0-100.

For more information on BrightScope Rating, click here.

* Best Buy was randomly selected.

The second feature for participants is the Personal 401k Fee Report, that allows participants to get an in-depth look into their current 401k plan and get a clear understanding of the fees associated with their plan. A lot of 401k participants simply sign up for through their employer, contribute each paycheck and never bother to research the investment options. This fee report allows a participant key information and better understand their investments. Again, focusing on education.

2. Advisor features

For advisors, BrightScope features their Advisor Central platform that allows advisors to integrate benchmarking into their plans, learn how to use benchmarking as both an offensive and defensive strategy and create custom reporting.

“The key value of BrightScope is that we aren’t rating on popularity,” Alfred said. “We’re completely objective and providing a resource for participants to become more educated about what goes into their plan and how it’s working for them. From an advisor standpoint, we’re providing tools that can help them become more efficient.”

What the future holds

Despite this untapped space, Alfred and BrightScope are quick to reittirate that they aren’t the answer to everything. As a result, BrightScope is taking to various social media platforms to create meaningful conversations, as well as blogging about a variety of resources.

“There’s $5 trillion combined in 401k’s,” Alfred said. “So it’s clear that this is a very large space. There are a lot of opportunities that we can focus on.”

Whatever your level of interest and knowledge of the financial space is, one thing is for sure – BrightScope is leading the way in educating the financial future.

]]> http://kaseyskala.com/finance/brightscope-helping-understand-your-401k/feed/ 3 http://kaseyskala.com/finance/for-cme-group-social-media-provides-a-lot-of-options/ http://kaseyskala.com/finance/for-cme-group-social-media-provides-a-lot-of-options/#comments Fri, 15 Jan 2010 10:00:59 +0000 Kasey http://kaseyskala.com/finance/?p=200 iFinance had the opportunity to sit down and talk with Allan Schoenberg, director of corporate communications at CME Group, where he shared how the world’s largest and most diverse derivatives exchange has embraced social media. From strategic partnerships, conversations, monitoring and a large focus on being a hub for traders worldwide, CME Group has emerged as a leader in terms of interactive finance.

From the beginning, social media seemed like a natural fit for CME Group according to Schoenberg.

“It was essentially a crossing of two bridges. I was reading a lot and using Forrester’s research and I noticed a group of traders had created a group about CME Group,” Schoenberg said. “They were already talking about us – posting thoughts and connecting with us – so I felt it was natural for us to be a part of that conversation.”

In September of 2007, Schoenberg reached out to the administrator of the group and offered to help manage the group. Instead, the administrator was willing to give Schoenberg complete control of the group, thus creating CME Group’s  footprint in the social space. From there, the footprint continued to grow as CME Group launched their Twitter account in October of 2008 – the account has over 750,000 followers. Since then, they have developed a strong presence on LinkedIn, StumbleUpon and Delicious, among other social platforms.

A key to CME Group’s success is its diverse use of the various social tools, as evident by their LinkedIn groups. The lone public group serves as a career portal for those interested in careers in futures; while they created three private groups: two focusing on products (currency exchange and interest exchange) and one solely for reporters.

“LinkedIn has really been beneficial for us for a number of reasons,” Schoenberg said. “First, we’re able to connect with professionals and get feedback from all over the world. Second, our “reporters” group allows for transparency and we can have open conversations without worrying about them being picked up and turned into a story.”

Partnerships and Conversations

In a true sign of resourcefulness and strategic thinking – coincidentally, these two traits are what prevents most major brands from succeeding in the social space – CME Group partnered with StockTwits, who had created the concept of putting a $ in front of a ticker symbol in tweets, to form a a relationship that allowed CME Group to join a large conversation that was already taking place. This strategic partnership is a prime example of how, often times, the conversation is already taking place. This concept and thinking is key for brands – instead of trying to create your  own conversation, join the one that’s already taking place.

While this remains just a small snippet of CME Group’s adventure into social media – see previous post comment to get a better understanding of the variety of social resources – it’s clear that the key to success for CME Group and Schoenberg has been a combination of providing useful information, engaging with people and a consistent message across all channels (traditional and new media).

“The nice thing for us is there’s so much information out there. So many things apply to the overall economy,” Schoenberg said. However, at the same time, we have to be sure that we continue to create original content that our community finds valuable.”