Listening

The true value with social comes when a brand listens. If you aren’t online, how do you know what your customers are saying about you? How do you know the sentiment behind the conversations that your customers and potential customers are having if you aren’t actively engaged with social? A few weeks ago, I noticed a tweet from one of my followers that expressed his frustration with a previous employer of mine. Knowing that my previous employer wasn’t active on Twitter, I witnessed a simple issue/concern go unsolved. I eventually reached out to my follower and gave him some recommendations, but this was a massively missed opportunity.

Furthermore, I had been monitoring conversation around my previous employer and a simple hashtag search pulled up countless tweets – everything from simple questions to negative comments – that were unattended and getting no response. And this was only on one platform. If it’s happening on one, it’s probably happening on others.

In regards to the article I mentioned in the beginning, if you aren’t on social platforms and monitoring conversation around your brand, you might be missing important information about mobile banking, remote deposits, branch concerns. Maybe you create a discussion on Facebook asking your customers their thoughts on your website, maybe you ask about their interest in remote deposit. But again, without being online, you’ll never know.

Building Community

Maybe Facebook or Twitter aren’t for your bank or credit union, but social media is much more than those two platforms. What about blogging or video? Last time I looked, general sentiment around the financial sector wasn’t exactly positive. One of the biggest opportunities within the social space is education. Look at what Wells Fargo is doing with their blogs, and more importantly, look at what how they took to blogging during the Wachovia integration. By blogging, not only is Wells providing valuable information about their brand, but they are also providing human interaction to their customers. They’re focused on building their community.

We’re all aware of the state of the economy. Regardless of your position and thoughts on the recovery, a systematic change must occur for us to fully come out of the recession. Finance is an area that a lot of people don’t understand and aren’t interested in learning. The opportunity is ripe for financial institutions to focus on educating their customers. This education isn’t going to happen inside a branch, it’s going to happen online.

The Issue

The biggest reason social media either isn’t working or isn’t being implemented? An overall lack of understanding within financial institutions. Banks and credit unions are still stuck in the past where they are focused on fee income and selling. Most aren’t interested in getting to know their customers. A bank’s idea of ‘relationship’ is how many products a certain customer has. Until financial institutions get away from the cross-selling mentality and begin to focus on human interaction, social will never work.

As we stand now, executives and product managers are stuck in the old business model where brands would focus on the push and bringing customers into physical branch. This model is no longer viable. The new branch banking model? It’s online and it’s mobile. Yes, last time I checked profits came from selling. Yes, last time I checked, the ultimate goal with social should be to increase sales and profit. But the path and means to consumer’s dollars…that’s a path that hasn’t been mowed and it’s not paved.

The Solution

It’s simple. Take off the tie, put the tri-fold brochures away and spare us the sales pitch. Start focusing on building a platform that integrates social with your entire business strategy. Remember, social isn’t mean to be a replacement tool, it’s complimentary. It doesn’t stand alone, it’s a part of your entire business culture.

If you show interest in me, I’ll listen. If you provide value, I’ll buy. If you’re honest, I’ll be loyal. If you show that you truly care about me, I’ll promote the hell out your brand.

Don’t be afraid of social within the financial space. Quit making excuses of why you aren’t involved. If you are active, take a step back and rethink if you’re efforts truly hit on what social really is. Whatever your situation is, social NEEDS to be an important part of your bank’s or credit union’s overall brand.

Nicolet National Bank, based in Green Bay, Wisconsin and with around $694 million in assets, opened in 2000 and has quickly become a prime example of how transparency and bringing a personal touch to the banking industry can overcome not having large marketing budget. While sitting in a meeting in which the CEO explained a complex financial issue in a matter of minutes, Jeff Gahnz, Vice President of Marketing and Communications, came up with the idea of The Vault.

“The people in the community wanted to know what was going on,” Gahnz said. “All they were hearing was what the mainstream media was saying. But how did this affect them and how did it affect the community? That’s what they wanted to know. If Bob [Robert Altman, Chairman and CEO] was able to explain it to me in 5 minutes, then it made sense to find a tool to relay this information to the public.”

Two of the biggest hurdles when it comes to social media within the banking industry are 1) getting the approval of the C-suite and 2) legal issues. For Gahnz, neither of those posed a problem. In fact, it was quite the opposite.

“When you tie social media into the overall communications plan, it becomes an extremely easy conversation to have,” Gahnz said. “Additionally, I don’t have the legal or corporate ladder to run things up. Our CEO picks up his own phone and answers his own e-mails. He understands what it takes to be community-driven and customer-focused. And it’s helped tremendously.”

A few key features of The Vault

• Audio Podcasts
• Video Podcasts
• CEO & President Blog
• Financial Topics Blog

While transparency and an open-door policy remain strengths for Nicolet, the biggest hurdle according to Gahnz is maintaining the efforts and continuing the social impact it’s create thus far.

“The biggest problem we have is the fact that we have so much content,” Gahnz said. “I need to do a better job really focusing our efforts and ensuring the we have some consistency. Half the battle is simply getting content up in a timely matter and that’s where my focus is right now.”

Looking ahead, Nicolet is looking to turn The Vault into a central place that the community can come. Currently, they’re providing information around the financial industry, but they’d like to evolve into a communal space where you can get information about a variety of topics. One project in place is Voice – a portal that’s exactly what it’s name indicates, a place where people can come to have their Voice heard.

“We’re partnering with local businesses and professionals to turn The Vault into a well-rounded space. We’re partnering with experts in various fields such as healthcare and having CEO’s and local business owners blog about their respective industry,” Gahnz said. “We’re truly interested in the interaction. We want our community to help us create a better bank.”

What the future holds for Nicolet National Bank literally lies in the hands of their community as they’re putting their organization into the hands of their customers. A lot of businesses preach being transparent and customer-focused, but Nicolet is a great example of a financial institution that’s practicing what they preach. They realize that they’re relatively new to the social space, they’re learning as they go. And they’re bringing along anyone and everyone who wants a ride. When you wipe away all the glitz and get to the surface, the one key ingredient to Nicolet National Bank is they have a strategy for their social efforts and they tie it to their overall communications plan.

“We’re realistic, we know we can’t go toe-to-toe with the bigger banks. They can spend in two weeks what we spend all year,” Gahnz said. “Our overall investment in social media is around what the bigger institutions spend on traditional media in a 2-month period. While they continue to fight the battle of whether or not to get involved, social media allows a bank our size to play offense.”