Christophe Langlois
A couple of months ago, I started to give more visiblity to the financial institutions which engage on twitter, youtube and blogs. From now on, in addition to my twitter updates I plan to publish a monthly list of anniversaries on Visible-Banking.com.
My goal is to give more visibility to those social media efforts, flag the financial insitutions which are experimenting and trying to engage online, and recognize the contributors who spend hours producing valuable content… whether those initiatives are well executed or not!
On the internet there is no such thing as a definitive list. That is why I invite you to flag any missing initiatives in this post. And please make sure to add your initiatives to the Visible Banking Directory: Social Media and Financewhich I believe is the most comprehensive directory available online.
If lists are valuable, it is the insights which will help you to be successful online. Our aim at Visible Banking is to help financial insitutions to better understand social media in the Finance industry: it is useful to know how Dell, Starbucks, or Toyota successfully leverage social media, but it is critical to understand the potential in our heavily regulated industry, and identify what has worked and what hasn’t.
Beyond our passion for social media, it is our knowledge of the industry which is our key differentiator.
September – 33 blogs, YouTube channels and Twitter accounts launched since 2006
September has one of the lowest number of social media initiatives launches in the Finance industry.
33 social media initiatives: 17 twitter accounts, 6 blogs and 10 YouTube channels.
9 Countries: 1. US (21), 2. Poland (3), 3. Canada (2), Germany (2), Netherlands (2), 6. France (1), Russia (1), and South Africa (1).
3 years: 2006 (2), 2007 (5), and 2008 (26).
Anniversaries in September
Happy 3-year anniversaries!
05-Sep – Blog – Wells Fargo’s the Student LoanDown (US)
07-Sep – Blog – YES CU (Australia)
Happy 2-year anniversaries!
01-Sep – Blog – Severus CU’s Young & Free Alberta (Canada)
07-Sep – Blog – mbank (Poland)
12-Sep – YouTube – Fairfax County FCU’s Gen Y Extreme Checking Video Contest (US)
21-Sep – YouTube – RaboSportTV (Netherlands)
24-Sep – Blog – Weblog der Sparkasse Nuernberg (Germany)
Happy 1-year anniversaries!
02-Sep – YouTube – aliortv (Poland)
03-Sep – Blog – ShoreBank (US)
05-Sep – Twitter – Discover (US)
05-Sep – Twitter – Discover Card (US)
08-Sep – Twitter – pncbank (US)
09-Sep – YouTube – Fitzsimons Community CU (US)
10-Sep – YouTube – AIGBankTV (Poland)
10-Sep – Twitter – Kontoblick (Germany)
11-Sep – Twitter – Finance Center FCU (US)
11-Sep – Twitter – affinitybank (US) – offline
16-Sep – Twitter – reaal (Netherlands)
17-Sep – YouTube – Westminster Savings CU (Canada)
17-Sep – Twitter – UMB Financial Corp (US)
18-Sep – YouTube – Benefices Futur (France)
18-Sep – Twitter – bbvacompass (US)
18-Sep – Twitter – Susquehanna Bank (US) – offline
19-Sep – Twitter – bank_of_america (US)
20-Sep – Twitter – FivePoint CU (US)
23-Sep – YouTube – RBC p2p (Canada)
24-Sep – Twitter – veritycudotcom (US)
25-Sep – YouTube – Saxo Bank в России (Russia)
25-Sep – Twitter – Chesapeake Bank (US)
25-Sep – Twitter – 1st State Bank (US)
29-Sep – YouTube – Members CU’s What Are You Saving For? (US)
29-Sep – Twitter – FNB’s rbjacobs (South Africa)
30-Sep – Twitter – RichmondFed (US)
Social Media Watch Series
To find out more about social media in finance, I invite you to check myVisible Banking Twitter Watch, Visible Banking Blog Watch and my Visible Banking YouTube Watch, and follow me on twitter.
Visible Banking Twitter Watch – 684 accounts / 38 countries
* @Discover has now replaced @Discover_Cards has the main twitter from the credit card firm which is a good move (it helped save 6 characters).
* @bank_of_america is not an official account but it is a good example of potential brand hijacking. Despite no activity nor brand identity this account reached a very decent following base with 1,830+ followers which places it in the top 20 most followed accounts on my list. Register your official account now, even if you are not ready yet to engage actively… it takes time to build an audience.
Make sure to check @BofA_Help, the official BoA voice on twitter.
* @FCFCU is in the top 3 most followed CUs on twitter.
* Check @RBJacobs, the pretty unique initiative from First National Bank in South Africa. They created an avatar for their customer service representatives to engage on sites like twitter, facebook or linkedin. Please note that Wells Fargo adopted a similar approach with Cassie and their virtual world initiative, StageCoach Island launched back in 2005.
Visible Banking Blog Watch – 114 blogs / 15 countries
* Wells Fargo celebrated the third anniversary of one of its 5 blogs, the Student LoanDown. I invite you to read this post from Barbara A day in the life of a Student LoanDown blogger. And I recommend you check the boldest blog from WF, the Wells Fargo Wachovia blog which aims to bring more transparency to the the sensitive merger. This is truly unique in Banking. Kudos to Tim Collins, Ed Terpening and their teams!
* Young & Free Alberta is one of the most innovative and engaging initiatives targetting the youth market, with tangible ROI (Check Tim McAlpine’s slides 63 & 64). This blog was one of the most active blogs in August with 13 posts but no comment.
Visible Banking YouTube Watch – 163 channels / 22 countries
Visible Banking Quick Wins
Most of the time, you can identify a lot of areas for improvement, easy to fix, which would make your social media initiatives more successful:
* simplify and optimize your interface
* identify passionate contributors among your employees
* produce a stronger editorial line and more valuable/interesting content
* identify your influencers (advocates and detractors) and start building relationships with them asap
* promote your initatives on your own assets (public website, online banking…)
* fully leverage all the key social media sites to cross market your initiatives and your content
And above all, find the best way to REWARD people for visiting, contributing, sharing, and promoting your initiatives!
I would be delighted to have a chat with you about your social media strategy, so please do not hesitate to call me on +44 7736 446 357 or send me an email to christophe[dot]langlois[at]visible-banking[dot]com.
