a real consulting services (rcs) paper, part of the rcs ... · social media – the statistics 9...
TRANSCRIPT
Real Consulting Services Limited 36 St Paul Street London, N1 7AB
+44 (0)207 688 0421
www.realconsultingservices.com
Is Now the Time to Catch Up?
A paper on Social Media in UK Retail Banking
Issue 1 – April 2011
Dave Cottingham, Founder & Banking Consultant, RCS
& Sally Fraser, Consultant, RCS
A Real Consulting Services (RCS) paper, part of the RCS Real Contributor library of information.
Page 2 of 34
Contents
Disclaimer 3
Objective 3
Target Audience 3
Scope 4
Distribution 4
Introduction 5
The Social Media Platforms & Tools 6
Social Media – The Statistics 9
What UK Retail Banks are Doing Today 12
How Could the UK Retail Banks use Social Media 17
What Next? – Social Media Platforms to Watch 24
Conclusions 26
Resources 28
Glossary 30
About Real Consulting Services Limited (RCS) 33
About the Authors 34
Page 3 of 34
Disclaimer Real Consulting Services Limited (RCS) and the authors do not specifically endorse any of the companies, products or services mentioned in this paper.
Objective RCS provides skilled people and business & IT consulting services directly to retail banks and to retail banking IT and service providers. To ensure RCS services match clients’ requirements RCS believes it is essential to stay abreast of emerging trends and, if appropriate, develop complimentary services. Clearly Social Media is a “hot topic” within the retail banking industry and as part of the RCS Real Contributor research services & the RCS Competency Centre for Social Media; RCS is producing a series of reports reviewing and tracking Social Media within the UK retail banks. This paper, the 1st in the series, provides an introduction to Social Media and provides an overview of what the UK retail banks are currently doing. Additionally, examples are given that outline what other retail banks, globally, are doing. Going forward RCS will not only update the data on a quarterly basis but will also look to expand the content to include the technologies and services being used, successfully, both in the UK and globally. In Social Media a quarter is a long time and it will be extremely interesting to see if the UK retail banks do catch up, and maybe overtake their global peers, in the months to come.
Target Audience This paper is an introduction to, and an overview of, the “hot topic” of Social Media and how it is currently being used by the UK retail banks. The paper goes on to show how other retail banks, from around the globe, are executing Social Media initiatives across various areas of the business, and not just from a marketing & communications perspective. This paper should therefore be of interest to UK retail bankers and to banking IT & service providers focused on the UK retail banking space. Additionally reviewers of the draft version found it a very effective introduction and guide to social media.
Page 4 of 34
Scope This paper covers UK retail banks only and focuses on banks providing services in the B2C (business to consumer) space and not the B2B (business to business space). Social Media in the banking industry involves a broad range of online platforms, tools & methods using Web 2.0 technologies, however this paper primarily focuses on Facebook, LinkedIN and Twitter as current research shows they are currently the most widely used by UK consumers.
Distribution This paper is free to members of the RCS network and to members of the RCS Real Contributor Group on LinkedIN. If you have received this paper and are outside of the RCS network or RCS LinkedIN Group RCS kindly ask that you acknowledge receipt by emailing [email protected] you will then be added to the RCS network and invited to join the Group. Additionally RCS ask you not to distribute this paper further without the permission of RCS. To seek permission please email [email protected] we will be happy, if appropriate, to forward on your behalf.
Page 5 of 34
Introduction When social networking sites were first launched, nearly a decade ago, they were seen as a fad or something that teenagers use. However, today 57% of people talk to more people online than they do in “real-life” and the users come from all generations. Additionally the number, and types, of platforms and tools continues to grow. In the UK we spend more time on social media platforms that on any other online activity, 12.4% of all UK internet visits are to social media platforms and 6 hours, 9 minutes and 32 seconds is the average time, per month, that UK consumers spend on the social media platforms. The use of social media platforms and tools has become a part of many of the retail banks’ customers’ “everyday” lives; meaning Social Media cannot be ignored. Also from a business perspective if you consider that 34% of bloggers post their opinions on products, services, brands, rather than “talking” about themselves, and that 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations versus only 14% trusting advertisements, then it’s clear that consumers are using Social Media not just for personal networking but also, at the very least, to learn, research and probably make a decision on the products and services of the UK retail banks. That said, there are down sides to Social Media; not only is it hard to keep abreast of developments in this space but everyone has an opinion of Social Media, and on what Social Media should and shouldn’t be used for. Is it just another marketing channel, can it be used across the business as a whole or somewhere in between? Additionally, we are bombarded with stories and examples of social media activity that either don’t resonate with the retail banking business, for example, celebrities “tweeting” about being in labour. Or we hear scary stories about activity that has publicly back-fired. Add in the fact that the rise of Social Media is led, not by the business, but by the consumer, and you can understand why some retail banks are hesitant to join in. If we look outside of the UK though, to the US in particular, the banks have clearly embraced Social Media. Many of the major American retail banks, for example AMEX, Bank of America and Citi, are including Social Media activities in their business plans, not only in relation to marketing and communications but in the areas of customer services, product development, recruitment, community focused activity as well as for internal/employee initiatives. This paper provides an introduction to the Social Media platform and tools before looking at what the UK retail banks are doing today. The paper then moves on to show examples of how retail banks, from around the globe, are executing, both externally and internally, Social Media initiatives.
Page 6 of 34
The Social Media Platforms & Tools People are defining social media in a wide variety of ways; the important thing to remember is that the common thread running through most definitions is “a blending of technology and social interaction for the co-creation of value”. Social media technologies today cover a broad range of online platforms and tools using Web 2.0 technologies as follows:
• Apps & Widgets
o e.g. iPhone for Mobile Banking apps • Blogging Host Sites
o e.g. WordPress & Blogger • Children’s Networking sites
o e.g. Club Penguin • Corporate Consumer Networking Sites with/without Review & Rating
Capabilities o e.g. Enthuse from first direct
• Daily Diaries – publish your diary online to your network
o e.g. Livejournal
• Financial Advice Networks - also known as Social Finance websites & Finance Social Networks
o e.g. MoneySavingExpert.com • Geosocial Networks - where you network with users/events based on your
geographic locations, for example at a restaurant, and also earn loyalty points, for example, from said restaurant
o e.g. Foursquare & Gowalla, • Innovation/Test Labs
o e.g. Fidelity Labs from Fidelity Investments • Microblogging Tools – only a limited number of characters can be used
o e.g. Twitter – up to 140 characters • Music Networks – lets you share your music taste with others
o e.g. last.fm
Page 7 of 34
• Online Address Books with Social Networking aspects o e.g. Plaxo
• Online Chat Tools
o e.g. Skype Chat
• Online information sources created by the input of many (aka Wikis) o e.g. Wikipedia
• Online Messaging Tools
o e.g. Google Buzz
• Message Boards/Internet Forums - online discussion sites where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are at least temporarily archived. Each new conversation is generally referred to as a thread and depending on how the boards/forums are set up and administered a posting might be approved by a moderator before it goes public
o e.g. The Money Saving Forums within the MoneySavingExpert.com website
• Personal Financial Management (PFM) tools - online tools/services to assist
consumers manage, track and budget their finances. There are both independent sites as well as ones linked to specific retail banks
o e.g. Yodlee MoneyCentre which is independent and Money Manager from Lloyds TSB
• Personal Networking/Online Communities sites
o e.g. Facebook, MySpace, bebo
• Photo and/or Video Sharing Sites o e.g. YouTube, Flickr, Dailymotion
• Platforms/Tools linking up to co-deliver a service (aka Mashups)
o e.g. Wikipediavision • Podcasts - a recorded programme of audio/video made available over the
internet as a file that can be downloaded to a PC or portable device so that it can be listened to/watched at leisure
o e.g. A Little Word in your Ear campaign from first direct. • Professional Networking sites
o e.g. LinkedIN, Spoke
Page 8 of 34
• RSS & ATOM Feeds (see Glossary for detailed explanation) • Social bookmarking web services - for storing, sharing and discovering web
bookmarks o e.g. StumbleUpon, Delicious
• Socialcasting platforms – you can broadcast, watch, share and discuss live events
o e.g. Ustream, Paltalk, Joost • Social Entertainment & Gaming Networks
o e.g. Hi5
• Social Media Dashboards - provide various levels of products & services but generally these Dashboards let you publish, update, monitor, manage and therefore maintain your various social media platforms in one place and at the same time. Particularly helpful to organisations that use social media to launch marketing campaigns as they help distribute the campaigns across a wide range of social media channels
o e.g. HootSuite which appears to currently offer the broadest range of products & services
• Social Media Directories – directory of public social media accounts
o e.g. Twellow.com relates to Twitter accounts
• Virtual World sites o e.g. Second Life.
Page 9 of 34
Social Media – The Statistics The statistics relating to the sheer number of people around the world, and in the UK, using Social Media on a regular basis speak for themselves. The following section provides statistical evidence as to why organisations cannot ignore the Social Media platforms and tools that their customers are using for communication purposes. Social Media is not just a fad that can be ignored; it is a major shift in the way people communicate. In the UK first direct has long been ahead of its rivals, in both the use of new technology and in maximising the social skills of its customer facing employees. The positive reaction from both the first direct customers and the industry as a whole indicates first direct is doing something right. In September 2010 first direct CEO Matt Colebrook warned “that the social web is something that cannot be ignored by banks and should be embraced as a means of connecting with customers”.
Social Media – Facts
• The UK spends more time on social media platforms that any other online
activity, 12.4% of all UK internet visits (as at 11/2011) • 57% of people talk to more people online than they do in “real” life • If Facebook was a country it would be the 3rd largest after China and India • 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations versus only 14% trusting
advertisements • YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine after Google • 34% of bloggers post their opinions on products/services/brands rather than
postings about themselves • LinkedIN has 1 of the highest average household income per member ratios of
any website.
Worldwide Statistics
• 400m No. of Facebook users worldwide (03/2010) • 560m No. of Facebook users worldwide in (11/2010) • 127m No of active Facebook users in Europe (10/2010) • 21m Average no. of new Facebook users per month • 630m Estimated no. of Facebook users worldwide by end of 2011 • 50% Of Facebook pages are owned by the under 30s • 85m No. of LinkedIN members worldwide (12/2010) • 39% Of LinkedIN members earn over $100k per annum • 69% Of LinkedIN members earn over $60k per annum • 66% Of LinkedIN members are aged between 25-54 • 50m No. of tweets worldwide per day (expected by Twitter).
Page 10 of 34
UK Statistics
• 82.5% % of UK population who use the Internet (06/2010) • 12.4% Social Media’s share of UK Internet visits • 6hrs 10mins* Average time per month UK consumers are on Social Media sites • 27m No. of Facebook users in the UK, 50% of the population (10/2010) • 75% Of active Facebook users in the UK are between 13-39 (10/10) • 7m Users over the age of 40 on Facebook (01/2010) • 55mins Average time per week spent on Facebook • 50/50 Gender split of UK Facebook users, a very slight bias to females • 50% Of mobile internet traffic in the UK is used for Facebook • 2.6m No. of Wordpress users in the UK • 3.7m No. of Twitter users in the UK (06/2010) • 2.9m No. of Flickr users in the UK (06/2010) • 2.7m No. of MySpace users in the UK (06/2010) • 5m+ No. of LinkedIN users in the UK (12/2010)
*6hrs 9mins 32 seconds to be precise as of 08/2010.
Social Media – The Target Market
The prospects and customers of the UK retail banks will be across multiple generations segmented as follows:
• Pre-Baby Boomers – Currently over the age of 65 (born prior to 1946). • Baby Boomers – Currently between the ages of 46-64 (born 1946-1964) • Gen X – Currently between the ages of 31 – 45 (born 1966-1980) • Gen Y/Millennial – Currently between the ages of 21 - 30 (born 1981-1990) • Gen Z/Net Generation – Younger than 21.
Some interesting statistics relating to target markets:
• 94% of US Gen Y engage in Social Media • 90% of US Gen X engage in Social Media • 78% of US Baby Boomers engage in Social Media • 65% of US Pre-Baby Boomers engage in Social Media • Woman over the age of 55 (Baby-boomers) is the fastest growing Facebook
segment • By the end of 2011 Gen Y will have outnumbered the Baby Boomers.
Page 11 of 34
UK Facebook Users – By Age Group
Chart courtesy of Clickymedia http://www.clickymedia.co.uk/2010/10/uk
UK Facebook Users – By Age
Chart courtesy of Clickymedia http://www.clickymedia.co.uk/2010/10/uk
Age Group (as at 10/10)
Chart courtesy of Clickymedia http://www.clickymedia.co.uk/2010/10/uk-facebook-statistic-for-october-2010/
By Age Group & Gender (as at 10/10)
Chart courtesy of Clickymedia http://www.clickymedia.co.uk/2010/10/uk-facebook-statistic-for-october-2010/
2010/
2010/.
Page 12 of 34
What UK Retail Banks are Doing Today This section looks at what the UK retail banks are doing today and where possible/if appropriate states the number of followers/fans. In each section the criteria for inclusion is outlined.
Blogs
To be included here the retail bank needed to have an active blog during January 2011; active means that recent posts to the blog have been made.
Name of Blog Institution Good with Money http://blog.goodwithmoney.co.uk/
The Co-operative Building Society
Home Matters Blog http://insurance.halifax.co.uk/home-matters-blog
Halifax
Chief Executive at Saffron http://www.saffronbs.co.uk/blog/
Saffron Building Society
To be included here the retail bank needed to have a “page” on Facebook and it must be an official page. An official page is a page relating to a specific institution or individual, that has been established, populated and is then managed by the specific institution/individual. Unfortunately it is relatively easy to set up an unofficial “page” on Facebook, many of which have been set up for negative reasons and then populated with negative content. It is interesting to note that many/most UK retail banks do not have an official Facebook “page”. Of those that do, the majority of the objectives of the page/content are not related to the banks products and services but to sponsorship/charitable activity or for recruitment purposes. Another interesting fact is that HSBC has 10,790 followers on what at first seems to be an official page but doesn’t look at all official as it only contains a company description sourced from Wikipedia…..is it or isn’t it?
Page 13 of 34
Link to Facebook Institution No of “Likes” as of 03/2011*
http://www.facebook.com/Barclaycard
Barclaycard UK 35,774
http://www.facebook.com/BarclaysFootball
Barclays UK 554,162
http://www.facebook.com/barclaysvolunteers
Barclays UK 721
http://www.facebook.com/natwestcricket
NatWest UK 16,523
http://www.facebook.com/rbs6nations
RBS UK 499,968
http://www.facebook.com/Staffordshire-Credit-Union/45784114842
Staffordshire Credit Union
102
*The number of “Likes” is the number of people who have indicated on the Facebook page that they “like” this company and therefore receive notification of activity on the page.
To be included here the retail banks needed to have a Company page on LinkedIN and it must be an official page with at least “basic entry*” data. Unlike Facebook it is highly unlikely someone would set up an unofficial page due to the way LinkedIN have set up the company page administration which is linked to a company email address. Additionally the bank needed to be “found” on LinkedIN via the search facility. *When we say that a company has a “basic entry” we mean that very brief details are provided and the company therefore probably only has a basic/free account with LinkedIN. By having an enhanced account, which has a charge associated with it, then companies can provide more detail on the company plus include details about their products and services and include recommendations. For further additional charges jobs can be posted within the “jobs” section of the company profile.
Name on LinkedIN Notes No of “Followers” as of 03/2011*
Abbey (Santander) Basic entry 1,164 AIB Basic entry 1,741 Alliance & Leicester Basic entry 624 Bank of Ireland Basic entry 2,221 Bank of Scotland Basic entry 1,305
Page 14 of 34
Barclays Bank Primarily used for job posts 17,895 Britannia Building Society Basic entry 300 Chelsea Building Society Basic entry 147 Cheshire Building Society Basic entry 96 Clydesdale Bank (NAG) Basic entry 794 Co-operative Financial Services Basic entry 1,531 Derbyshire Building Society Basic entry 114 first direct (HSBC) Basic entry 282 Furness Building Society Basic entry 16 GE Money Home Lending Basic entry 264 HFC Bank Basic entry 202 HSBC Primarily used for job posts 64,568 Ipswich Building Society Basic entry 18 Leeds Building Society Basic entry 116 Lloyds Banking Group Basic entry 9,297 Melton Mowbray Building Society Basic entry 14 Mortgageforce (Westbrom BS) Basic entry 56 Newcastle Building Society Basic entry 153 NAG UK Basic entry 1,214 Nationwide Building Society Basic entry 2,330 NatWest Basic entry 897 Nottingham Building Society Basic entry 81 Portman Building Society (Nationwide)
Basic entry 73
Post Office Financial & Travel Services (JV Bank of Ireland)
Basic entry 116
Principality Building Society Basic entry 153 Royal Bank of Scotland Basic entry 27,050 Royal Bank of Scotland Group Basic entry 4,272 Saffron Building Society Basic entry 38 Sainsbury Finance Basic entry 94 Scarborough Building Society Basic entry 24 Skipton Building Society Basic entry 276 Stroud & Swindon Building Society Basic entry 66 Teachers Building Society Basic entry 6 Welcome Financial Services Basic entry 120 West Bromwich Building Society Basic entry 192 Yorkshire Bank (NAG) Basic entry 519 Yorkshire Building Society Basic entry 502
Page 15 of 34
*The number of “Followers” is the number of people who have indicated on the LinkedIN Company profile that they “follow” this company and therefore receive notification of activity on the page. In addition to Company pages UK retail banks also have the opportunity to set up and administer Groups within LinkedIN. These Groups can be established for various target audiences, the most popular appear to be as Corporate Groups for Employees and Alumni Groups for ex-Employees hence these Groups are not listed in this report
To be included here the retail banks needed to have an active Twitter account and have at least 1 follower. When including an individual linked to the bank, the content of the tweets must relate to the banking space and/or the banks’ activities, so not to be content of a personal nature. It’s interesting to note that some of the major UK retail banks have set up Twitter accounts, including Barclays, but they are not currently active. Additionally the bank needed to be “found” on Twitter via the Google search facility.
Twitter Name Institution No of Tweets as of
03/2011
No of “Followers”
as of 03/2011 http://twitter.com/@Andy_Golding Saffron Building
Society CEO 1096 681
http://twitter.com/CapitalOneCard Capital One 0 155 http://twitter.com/egg_card Was part of
Citibank Group, as of March 2011 part of Barclays Bank
619 442
http://twitter.com/first_direct first direct 778 1,889 http://twitter.com/hsbc_com HSBC 8 1,024 http://twitter.com/HSBC_UK_Careers HSBC 73 1,318 http://twitter.com/LloydsTSBOnline Lloyds TSB 1,331 1,750 http://twitter.com/MetroBankUK Metro Bank 1 9 http://twitter.com/PrincipalityBS Principality
Building Society 21 250
http://twitter.com/@SaffronBS Saffron Building Society
1,820 961
http://twitter.com/ShayganK Barclays COO 115 330 http://twitter.com/TeachingMoney Capital One 414 524
Page 16 of 34
*The number of “Followers” is the number of people who have indicated on the Twitter account that they “follow” this company and therefore receive notification of activity on the microblog and can correspond with the tweeter.
Other
The following section lists other Social Media initiatives, not covered in the Blogs, Facebook, LinkedIN and Twitter sections above, set up by UK retail banks and that are currently active.
Institution Initiatives Co-operative Bank - Money Matters Personal Financial Management tools first direct – Little Black Book & Enthuse Corporate Consumer Networking Site first direct Podcasts – Various HSBC Podcasts – Various Lloyds TSB Personal Financial Management tools Nationwide Building Society – Money Manager Podcasts – Various
Page 17 of 34
How Could the UK Retail Banks use Social Media This section looks at how retail banks around the globe (outside of the UK) are embracing social media. The examples given show how the UK retail banks can start to consider their own activities in the social media space. Links to the pages are included as the best way to understand what these retail banks are doing is to view the content of the page/account. Whilst researching this space the same company names came up time and time again as being ahead of the game with regards to social media use. The examples given below are all positive, but the authors do acknowledge there are just as many negative examples; this is to be expected in what are still the relatively early stages of this major shift in the way people communicate. The example activities given in this section have been categorised as follows:
1. Customer Service 2. Internal 3. Marketing – includes advertising, awareness, brand, promotions, lead generation 4. Research – includes product and services, customer satisfaction, polls 5. Crisis Management – primarily in relation to Business Operations 6. Recruitment 7. Socially Responsible – includes charity, sponsorship & community/networking
activities 8. Transparency 9. Virtual branch 10. Guidelines.
Please note: in several examples the activities could fall under more than 1 category, in the paper we include what we see are the primary purposes. American Express (AMEX) - USA
Marketing & Research
Billed as the official AMEX fan page it has 433,072 followers (as of 03/11). In addition to information sharing, promotions are announced and customer polls held on future products and services.
http://www.facebook.com/americanexpress
Page 18 of 34
Research & Marketing
In their own words the mission of AMEX labs is “to highlight the important ways that innovative new products and services from American Express continue to improve the Cardmember experience. By showcasing innovative pilot programs and highlighting opportunities for Cardmembers to receive access to emerging technologies and innovative applications before they are made available to the public, we are providing a framework for understanding the trends and developments impacting the future of innovation”.
Whilst researching this site there did not appear to be any current pilots as the latest comments were dated 2010, it seems AMEX labs will move to be incorporated into the AMEX website rather than continue as a stand-alone site.
https://www213.americanexpress.com/PowerLabsWeb/un/landingpage.htm
Marketing
This AMEX Twitter account has 119,186 followers (as of 03/2011). Followers can follow the tweets of Amex’s Shari Forman (Director of Online Communications & Social Media at AMEX) and Mona Hamouly (Public Affairs & Communications Manager at AMEX) and gain inside access to news and exclusive Cardmember offers & experiences.
http://twitter.com/americanexpress
Customer Services & Marketing
This AMEX Twitter account is the official AMEX Customer Care account and has 7,806 followers (as of 03/2011). Manned by named, official Twitter reps, that are on hand to listen and interact with customers and prospects.
http://twitter.com/askamex
ASB Bank – New Zealand Customer Service & Marketing The ASB Facebook page has 15,702 followers on Facebook (as of 03/2011). http://www.facebook.com/ASBBank
Page 19 of 34
Virtual Branch & Customer Service In 09/2010 ASB launched the first Facebook virtual branch designed to cater to the growing number of New Zealanders using social media. Customers and non-customers chat securely and privately in real-time to ASB staff, opening hours are Monday to Friday, 10am to 6pm. This initiative won ASB the Social Media award by socialmedianz.com.
http://www.facebook.com/ASBBank Customer Service & Marketing This ASB Twitter account has 2,552 followers (as of 03/2011) and has named official Twitter reps that are on hand to listen and interact with their customers and prospects.
http://twitter.com/ASBBank
Bank of America (BoA) – USA
Crisis Management for Business Operations
In 01/2011 BoA suffered a partial outage of its online banking service. Followers of their twitter account received the following tweet " “Online Banking Outage: Bank of America is working to restore capability as quickly as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience.” These BoA customers were therefore fully aware of the problem before they tried to access their accounts. In March BoA suffered a further outage and again took to twitter to keep customers up to date. No records are available but it is hoped that once service was reinstated then followers also received a tweet informing them of such.
Customer Service & Marketing
Bank of America has named official Twitter reps that are there to provide timely customer service to BoA customers. BoA currently has 13,506 (as of 03/2011) followers. http://twitter.com/BofA_help
Page 20 of 34
Recruitment BoA also has named official Twitter reps linked to careers opportunities at BoA. This twitter account has 7,008 followers (as of 03/2011). http://twitter.com/bofa_careers
Citibank - USA Marketing & Research Citibank USA launched this Facebook page only 4 months ago (11/ 2010) and to date has over 11k followers. http://www.facebook.com/citibank Guidelines For Citibank Facebook Pages Users https://online.citibank.com/US/JRS/portal/template.do?ID=FacebookUserGuidelines Marketing This is the Citi Communications twitter account, tweeting straight from the Citi global HQ. Tweets cover news, announcements and thought leadership content from around the Citi world. This twitter account has 5,325 followers (as of 03/2011). http://twitter.com/citi Customer Service The askciti twitter account is the official twitter account for Citi customer service. This account has 4,091 followers (as of 03/2011). http://twitter.com/askciti
Page 21 of 34
Marketing & Transparency This online media channel has videos covering a diverse range of topics including advertisements, executive team presentations, product and promotion announcements as well as thought leadership content. http://www.youtube.com/citi
Educators Credit Union – USA
Marketing & Transparency
This small CU serving Southeastern Wisconsin appears in this list of banks, which are ahead of the game with regards to social media use, as they are a prolific users (currently 73 videos as of 03/2011) of Vimeo, the new, more visually spectacular social media platform for video sharing.
Educators Credit Union have a broad range of videos posted by the CU owners and members, lots of videos covering ideas for saving money and how the crisis has affected members lives.
http://vimeo.com/educators
JP Morgan Chase – USA
Socially Responsible & Marketing
This Facebook page is linked to the Chase Community Giving Programme which has given over $100m to not-for-profit organisations every year for the last 5 years. This page has 2,443,630 followers (as of 03/2011).
http://www.facebook.com/ChaseCommunityGiving Missouri Bank (Mobank) – USA Socially Responsible & Transparency The philosophy of this bank is based around community spirit and they have been proactively engaged in social media for several years now, as the nature of social media is also the nature of Mobank. They say “that being a Mobank customer is very much like being part of a group”. Customers are encouraged to network, both on and offline.
Page 22 of 34
The corporate website itself encourages networking: http://www.mobank.com/ Additionally the Mobank Facebook page is clearly linked to their philosophy; customers can not only interact with the bank but with other customers, and has 557 followers (as of 03/2011). The twitter account is also clearly linked to the company philosophy. http://www.facebook.com/MissouriBank http://twitter.com/missouribank Unicredit – Europe Internal
UniCredit, one of Europe’s leading banking groups, is the result of the integration of several Italian banks. The Group has now more than 160,000 employees and 9,500 branches serving 40 million customers in 22 countries from Italy to Kazakhstan.
Creating a common culture has been high on the agenda of UniCredit’s communication team. The bank had been looking for a tool to turn its tag line “One Group, One Voice, No Boundaries” into reality. For this reason in 2009, OneNet, a social media site, was created, for “facilitating networking, knowledge sharing and online collaboration” among its employees.
As this is an internal initiative a link to view the content cannot be included but for further details go to: http://www.simply-communicate.com/news/detecting-value-unicredit%E2%80%99s-internal-social-networking-experience Wells Fargo & Wachovia - USA Marketing This twitter account is primarily used as a means of tweeting corporate communication content and has 6,431 followers (as of 03/2011). http://twitter.com/wellsfargo
Page 23 of 34
Customer Service The ask_wellsfargo twitter account is the official twitter account, with official twitter reps, for Wells Fargo customer service. This account has 6,816 followers (as of 03/2011). http://twitter.com/ask_wellsfargo Customer Service The @wachovia twitter account is the official twitter account, with official twitter reps, for Wachovia customer service. This account has 8,298 followers (as of 03/2011) http://twitter.com/@wachovia Marketing & Recruitment This Wellsfargo Facebook page has sections relating to careers/jobs at Wells Fargo. The page is obviously monitored by official reps but the primary objective seems to be providing general information. This page has 4,811 followers (as of 03/2011). http://www.facebook.com/wellsfargo
Page 24 of 34
What Next? – Social Media Platforms to Watch The following are platforms that RCS believe are the ones to watch in 2011. RCS will continue to monitor the growth, or otherwise, of the use of these platforms. It will be extremely interesting to see if these predications are right or wrong. Hi5 – www.hi5networks.com Hi5 positions itself as social entertainment for the youth market worldwide with a focus on delivering a fun, interactive and immersive social experience online. A Top 20 website globally, a Top 10 youth website site and the 3rd largest social media site (this information is provided by hi5 so we are not aware of the context of these stats) but are currently very US focused, though they talk about having over 50m monthly visitors globally and hi5 is available in over 50 languages. Latest figures suggest hi5 has 150k users in the UK. LinkedIN – www.linkedin.com Though not a new platform RCS believes that the banks maybe missing a trick by not including LinkedIN within their Social Media strategies. It currently has over 85m users worldwide, including over 5m in the UK, and the majority of LinkedIN users are technology savvy, professional and high net worth individuals. Additionally many employees of the banks are already LinkedIN members and active users. To date UK retail banks primarily use LinkedIN for recruitment purposes. NING – www.ning.com
Ning is included here as it positions itself as better for businesses than Facebook and is a platform used to create powerful, custom social websites. A CNN interview with Ning CEO, Jason Rosenthal, clearly positions Ning against Facebook with some interesting differentiators as to why Ning could be of interest to businesses.
http://money.cnn.com/video/fortune/2010/09/24/f_ctd_ning_ceo_facebook.fortune/
According to NING – “top organizers, marketers, influencers, and activists use Ning to create a social destination where content intersects with conversations to inspire action. Every social website comes with out-of-the-box social integration, community features, point-and-click design tools, and turnkey monetization solutions that are easy to use”.
Ning spans categories including politics, entertainment, consumer brands, small business, non-profits, education and more, connecting over 74 million people around the globe with the topics they are passionate about.
Page 25 of 34
In October 2010, Ning announced the launch of Ning Everywhere. It offers flexibility for Ning Creators and 3rd party developers to create mobile apps, monetise and integrate with popular cloud services in a matter of clicks, and develop custom apps using Ning’s API.
Tumblr – www.tumblr.com Tumblr is a microblogging platform that allows users to post text, images, videos, links, quotes and audio to their “tumblelog”, a short-form blog. Users can follow other users, or choose to make their “tumblelog” private. The service emphasises ease of use by the tools provided and a variety of free themes. 2010 was Tumblr’s breakout year and is predicted to be huge in 2011. It sits somewhere between the short, sharp bursts of Twitter and long-form blogging. Ustream – www.ustream.tv Ustream is a live interactive broadcast platform. Anyone with an internet connection and a camera can start engaging with their family, friends or fans anytime, anywhere. Millions of Ustream users view and broadcast a wide variety of content, from high school sporting events to red carpet movie premieres. Notable Ustream broadcasts include major political events, concerts, conferences, movie premieres, talk shows, sporting events, interactive games, and personal milestones. Ustream and its competitors, Paltalk & Joost, are currently rather US focused but definitely one to watch as you can announce when your live broadcasts are happening, people can then sign up to watch the live broadcast and receive reminders. Vimeo – www.vimeo.com Vimeo is a YOUTUBE for artistic and creative types as the videos are more visually spectacular than other video sharing platforms. It is rather US focused and currently the banking content is limited (there is a rather interesting video re: Banking on our Future which is worth a look and look at the content from Educators Credit Union too) but definitely one to watch.
Page 26 of 34
Conclusions We are convinced that social media is here to stay, it is not just a passing phase but a shift in the way people can communicate. The platforms and tools may change but social media as a way to communicate and connect will remain. UK retail banks’ customers, and prospects, are choosing to communicate via social media platforms and tools and therefore the UK retail banks themselves cannot ignore them. The banks which are not proactively executing a social media strategy, the banks that are hesitating and watching, are allowing their competitors, who have realised the part that social media can play in their business, to win at the very least mindshare and positive perception. UK retail banks can learn from their peers, around the globe, that are already successfully using social media platforms and tools in various ways including:
• To extend and improve customer service • Internally within the company to empower, communicate & connect with
employees • To extend and improve marketing activities including advertising, awareness,
brand, promotions, lead generation • To carry out research in a broad range of areas, including product & services
development, customer satisfaction surveys & polls • As a Crisis Management instant communications tool, primarily in relation to
Business Operations such as network breakdowns • A more direct and wider reaching recruitment channel • For socially responsible activity including charity, sponsorship &
community/networking activities • Adding transparency to retail banking which is what customers are demanding
after the recent banking turmoil • Establishing a virtual branch.
Another consideration is to date social media has been seen as an activity handled by the Marketing department and the Marketing department alone. The activities listed above show social media could and should be a companywide initiative. Also every employee represents the brand and every employee has the opportunity to represent the brand within the social media arena. This is a brilliant opportunity to not only empower employees but to reposition a brand as one of listening to, and engaging with, customers and prospects. Additionally, as stated at the beginning of this paper, Social Media is being led by the consumer, not the bank, and by listening to and engaging with customers in a manner of their choosing, at an individual level, in a more “transparent” and open manner, should
Page 27 of 34
help improve the public’s perception of the bank and of the banking industry as a whole. Who knows maybe executing an appropriate social media strategy could be a step towards being perceived as a more socially responsible bank? Finally unless the UK retail banks respond swiftly and thoughtfully to the social media challenge then they leave the way wide open for further disintermediation of their customer base by more agile banking players or even by the social media platforms themselves such as Facebook and Google. RCS final thought – if from a traditional retail banking operations perspective all the following activities can today be carried out via a customer’s online & mobile banking facilities, why, retail banking customers ask, can’t they be carried out via their social media platforms?
• View balances and recent transactions across multiple accounts • View transaction histories for multiple accounts • Pay bills & transfer funds both within the same bank or outside it • Apply for new products within the same bank or with bank partners • Upgrade products with the same bank or with bank partners • Apply/Upgrade overdraft/credit facilities • Buy, Sell & Monitor stock, shares & currency • Contact the bank via various channels • Receive & respond to marketing campaigns • Receive & respond to account update/change information • Manage and take advantage of additional services offered within “premier”
type account packages • Transfer account information to personal financial management software.
Any comments on this final thought or on any of the content within this paper are welcome. Please send your comments to [email protected].
Page 28 of 34
Resources
Real Consulting Services Ltd and the authors do not specifically endorse any of the companies, products or services mentioned in this paper.
The following lists the online resources that provided valuable information but by no means all the information. To list every article, blog, website, paper read would be longer than this entire paper but the aim here is to help you stay abreast of Social Media in the retail banking space by providing a useful list of resources for your future use. http://www.Visible-Banking.com Visible Banking, from Christophe Langlois, is focused on benchmarking and tracking social media and social commerce in banking, financial services and insurance globally. Packed full of ratings, news, reports, links to blogs etc. Christophe is also a well-regarded speaker and blogger on social media in financial services. http://thefinancialbrand.com/ Financial Brand is an online publication focusing on issues and advice that affect bank and credit union brands so it is rather US focused but it covers the latest ideas and information about how financial institutions build and shape their brands so includes examples of how the US financial institutions are using social media. http://thefinanser.co.uk/fsclub/ (blog) This is the Financial Services Club blog written by Chris Skinner, Chairman of the Financial Services Club (http://www.fsclub.co.uk). Chris blogs about all areas of financial services, content is current, topical and sometimes controversial.
http://blogs.gartner.com/kristin_moyer
Kristin Moyer is a research director at Gartner; she is focused on Banking and Investment Services. Blog entries are rather US focused but contain some good case studies/lessons learnt type of entries.
http://mashable.com/social-media/
Mashable, with more than 40 million monthly page views, is a prolific news site reporting breaking web news, providing analysis of trends, reviews of new websites and services, and offering social media resources and guides.
Page 29 of 34
http://www.netbanker.com/ NetBanker is an online finance & banking blog. It covers everything from online banking to person-to-person lending to mortgage lead generation in order to give their 6,000+ subscribers the financial industry news and analysis daily. Jim Bruene, the author and publisher of Netbanker, has been providing analysis and research of the online banking and finance industry for over 10 years. http://socialmediabanking.blogspot.com/ Jesse Torres spent nearly 20 years in leadership and executive management positions in risk within the financial services industry holding roles in management, internal audit, regulatory compliance, operations, information technology and marketing. His blog entries are rather US focused but as a banker himself he is way ahead of the game when it comes to senior bank executives using Social Media. http://www.webpronews.com/ WebProNews is a resource for news, information, and tips related to online business. http://www.clickymedia.co.uk/ Clickymedia – a digital marketing agency – have some great stats and information on their website/blog re: Social Media in the UK http://media.eloqua.com/documents/Eloqua_Social_Media_Playbook_Public.pdf Eloqua – a Marketing Automation Provider – have developed a very handy Social Media Playbook
Many members of LinkedIN very kindly helped create this paper by responding to questions posted within the various LinkedIN Groups facility. The authors greatly appreciate all who took the time to respond. Linkedin Groups (you need to be a LinkedIN member to apply to join these groups)
• Social Media and Web 2.0 in Banking and Financial Services • Social Media and Banking.
Page 30 of 34
Glossary The following are words and phrases that repeatedly came up as part of the RCS research into social media in retail banking. Some entries are totally new, whereas others have been given new meaning in the social media world. ATOM Feed - The name Atom applies to a pair of related standards. The Atom Syndication Format is an XML language used for web feeds, while the Atom Publishing Protocol is a simple HTTP-based protocol for creating and updating web resources. Web feeds allow software programs to check for updates published on a website. To provide a web feed, a site owner may use specialized software, such as a content management system, that publishes a list (or "feed") of recent articles or content in a standardized, machine-readable format. The feed can then be downloaded by programs that use it, like websites that syndicate content from the feed, or by feed reader programs that allow internet users to subscribe to feeds and view their content. A feed contains entries, which may be headlines, full-text articles, excerpts, summaries, and/or links to content on a website, along with various metadata. The Atom format was developed as an alternative to RSS.
Crowdsourcing - the term, in relation to Social Media, has become popular with businesses, authors, and journalists as shorthand for the trend of leveraging the mass collaboration enabled by Web 2.0 technologies to achieve business goals.
H.E.R.O (HERO) - is a Highly Empowered and Resourceful Operative, an employee of the company who takes the initiative to reach out to customers in interactive channels, including social media, to create relevant and meaningful relationships with the company stakeholders. For further information on how the make the most of a HERO have a look at: http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2010/09/21/242948/How-IT-departments-can-manage-DIY-technology.htm
Influencer Marketing (IM) - also called Influence Marketing is a form of marketing that has emerged from a variety of recent practices and studies, in which focus is placed on specific key individuals (or types of individual) rather than the target market as a whole. It identifies the individuals that have influence over potential buyers, and orients marketing activities around these influencers. Influencers may be potential buyers themselves, or they may be 3rd parties.
IM comprises 4 main activities:
1. Identifying influencers, and ranking them in order of importance. Types of influencers could be segmented as follows:
a. Activists - get involved, with their communities, political movements, charities etc.
Page 31 of 34
b. Connected - influencers have large social networks c. Impact - influencers are looked up to and are trusted by others d. Active minds - influencers have multiple and diverse interests e. Trendsetters - influencers tend to be early adopters (or leavers) in
markets 2. Marketing to influencers, to increase awareness of the firm within the
influencer community 3. Marketing through influencers, using influencers to increase market awareness
of the firm amongst target markets 4. Marketing with influencers, turning influencers into advocates of the firm.
IM is enhanced by a continual evaluation activity that sits alongside the four main activities. IM is not synonymous with word of mouth marketing (WOM), but influence may be transmitted in this manner. Thus WOM is a core part of the mechanics of IM.
Lifestreaming – also referred to as Social Activity Streams or Social Streams, is said to be the next step for social online technologies, going beyond even socialcasting. The term lifestream apparently refers to “a time-ordered stream of documents that functions as a diary of your electronic life”. Lifestreaming sites allow socialcasting through the delivery of interactive content on multiple media including video, audio and text. Sites include Posterous. Mashups – in web development, a mashup is a web page or application that uses and combines data, presentation or functionality from two or more sources to create new services. For example Wikipediavision is Wikipedia and GoogleMaps data combined. RSS Feed - most commonly expanded as Really Simple Syndication, a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format. An RSS document, which is called a "feed", "web feed", or "channel", includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. A very common RSS feed is within MS Outlook, you will therefore be receiving feeds re: Microsoft products/services. Socialcasting – is a growing movement in online video that combines traditional media content, social networking and interactive communities to create unique experiences for viewers on the web. Some are calling social casting “where Web 2.0 meets TV 2.0”, offering new ways for video content to be experienced and shared by viewers in an online community. There are many different platforms for socialcasting that offer a wide variety of professionally generated content including live programming, TV and movies plus user/consumer generated content. Commercial applications that offer real-
Page 32 of 34
time conferencing capabilities are leading the development of socialcasting technologies e.g. Gotomeeting. Twitterview – is a real-time interview conducted by both journalist/analysts etc. and interviewee/s via Twitter. Word of Mouth Marketing (WOM) - also called word of mouth advertising, is an unpaid form of promotion, oral or written, in which satisfied customers tell other people how much they like a business, product, service, or event. Word-of-mouth is one of the most credible forms of advertising because people who don't stand to gain personally by promoting something put their reputations on the line every time they make a recommendation.
Page 33 of 34
About Real Consulting Services Limited (RCS) http://www.linkedin.com/company/real-consulting-services-rcs-
RCS – Connecting, Contributing, Delivering to the Retail Banking IT space RCS, established in 2003, provides skilled people and business & IT consulting services directly to retail banks and to retail banking IT and services providers. RCS is happy to provide just 1 member of the team or is capable of sourcing the entire project team, whatever the client requires. Initially established to provide skilled IT contractors/consultants to financial organisations in the UK, RCS have gone from strength to strength by operating under a straight forward business model and by maximizing its key strength; an ever growing global network of experts. The RCS team currently stands at over 500 individuals, who have the skills, experience and ability to analyse, plan, implement, support and successfully deliver IT projects in the retail banking space. Today, in addition to providing people, RCS offer’s a broad range of retail banking related IT services covering:
• Compliance, Regulation & Risk • Core Banking • Customer Relationship Management (CRM) • Internet & Mobile Banking • Multi-Channel • Project Healthchecks & Reviews • Social Media • Socially Responsible Banking • Supplier Sourcing & Governance.
RCS additionally offer:
• Offshore & Nearshore development capabilities • Business services – under the Real Contributor brand
o Research & information services o Marketing & Communications
• Business Development Programmes - under the Get to Market brand.
RCS has significant experience of working successfully in the UK, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and US markets with extensive knowledge of, and strong connections in, emerging markets.
RCS connect with and proactively contribute to deliver results to their clients.
Page 34 of 34
About the Authors Dave Cottingham, Founder & Banking Consultant, Real Consulting Services http://uk.linkedin.com/in/davecottingham Dave has over 25 years’ experience in consulting, sales, marketing and delivering projects principally within the retail financial services technology sector. Dave has worked for major financial institutions including Barclays and Westpac and major technology vendors including FIS Global (Fidelity Information Services). Sally Fraser, Consultant, Real Consulting Services http://uk.linkedin.com/in/sallyfraseruk Sally has over 15 years’ experience in marketing, partner relations and consulting primarily within the retail financial services technology sector. Sally has worked for global IT firms IBM (Financial Services Solutions division), Chordiant Software (CRM software provider) and SlaterLabs (was a start-up core banking solution provider). Today, in addition to partnering with Real Consulting Services to deliver marketing and business development services to IT software and services company, Sally also runs her own marketing communications company, S&R Fraser Marketing. Sally is currently researching several key areas of retail banking technology, on behalf of RCS, that puts the customer first including Social Media, Socially Responsible Banking and the Customer Experience.
END OF DOCUMENT
IAL COMMERCE IN BANKING, FINANCIAL SERVICES, INSURANCE The information contained in this document represents the current view of Real Consulting Services Limited (RCS) on the issues discussed as of the date of publication. The information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. RCS disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. This Paper is for informational purposes only. Complying with all applicable copyright laws is the responsibility of the user. Without limiting the rights under copyright, no part of this document may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), or for any purpose, without the express written permission of RCS. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners