Recently, I had the opportunity to talk with Discover about their social media efforts and how they are utilizing a variety of platforms to engage their customers and share the Discover brand.

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.