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.

What this indicates is that financial brands need to start investing more time and effort into the social space. No longer can a brand afford to simple monitor conversation. It’s time that brands begin to show tangible results in addressing customer issues, managing brand reputation and spreading its mission statement. This article is a loud shout to executives that think it’s too much work, doesn’t provide results, or any other excuse they’re making for not getting into social.

Thus far, most of the action online has come from smaller banks and credit unions, so it’s a nice change of pace to see a large brand like Bank of America to step up. This move speaks volumes to other financial institutions who are either hesitant or question the value of investing in the social space in areas other than monitoring conversations and brand reputation.